Benjamin Hoffman will be part of Kaleidoscope’s program from 1:00pm-1:50pm in the Waiting Hall.
American-Italian violinist Benjamin Hoffman has been heard across Asia, Europe, and the US, where he has given countless performances as a soloist, chamber musician and orchestral leader. He has performed alongside artists such as Ani Kavafian, David Shifrin, Peter Frankl, Wolfram Christ, Jorja Fleezanis, and Gary Hoffman among others, in various chamber music formations at festivals such as Yellow Barn, Chamber Music Northwest, Aspen, and Music Academy of the West. In his Carnegie Hall debut, he performed Aaron Jay Kernis’s “Mozart en Route” and Hindemith’s “Kammermusik Nr. 1.” Recently, he had the honor of performing before UN Secretary Ban Ki Moon as a member of Sejong Soloists at the United Nations in New York.
Mr. Hoffman has served as a concertmaster from an early age, performing symphonic repertoire as well as chamber orchestra repertoire without conductor. Last year he led the Yale Philharmonia under the baton of John Adams at Avery Fisher Hall in New York to critical acclaim, and he has also served professionally as guest concertmaster with the New Haven Symphony, the Eastern Connecticut Symphony, and Symphony Song in Seoul, Korea. Since 2011, Benjamin has served as the concertmaster of the Columbus Indiana Philharmonic, and in a recent performance of the Beethoven Violin Concerto with that orchestra, he was praised for his “virtuosity and deep feeling…impeccable intonation… [and] a stirring, inspired performance.” Other appearances as a soloist have seen Hoffman featured performing works by Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Chausson, Dvorak, Korngold, Lalo, Mendelssohn, Mozart, Saint-Saëns, and Vivaldi, as well as contemporary premieres with orchestra by J. Hoffman and R. Cadeu in venues such as the National Centre for Performing Arts in Beijing, China. Selected as a fellow for the New York Philharmonic’s Global Academy program, he performed with the Philharmonic and in chamber ensembles with its members.
Mr. Hoffman began studying the violin at age four in Florence, Italy under the tutelage of his mother; his further studies were mentored by Kurt Sassmannshaus, Gabriel Pegis, Latica Honda- Rosenberg at the Hochschule für Musik in Freiburg, Germany, Alexander Kerr at Indiana University Bloomington, and Ani Kavafian at Yale University, where he is currently pursuing the Doctor of Musical Arts degree.

Michelle Feng will be part of Kaleidoscope’s program from 1:00pm-1:50pm in the Waiting Hall.
An “authoritative, soulful” performer (Your Observer News), Canadian oboist Michelle Feng has been a soloist with the Colburn Orchestra, Sarasota Music Festival, and Vancouver Youth Symphony Orchestra. Honors include the 2016 Young Musicians Foundation David Weiss Memorial Scholarship and 1st place in the 2012 Vancouver Academy of Music Concerto Competition. She is principal oboe of the Debut Orchestra, and has also played with the National Repertory Orchestra, American Youth Symphony, and National Youth Orchestra of Canada. As a chamber musician, Michelle has performed with artists including Whitney Crockett, Burt Hara, Patricia Mabee, Charles Neidich, William Purvis, and William Winstead. She currently studies with Allan Vogel at the Colburn Conservatory.

Baroque Flutist Asuncion Ojeda joining us as featured flute soloist for Bach’s beautiful Fifth Brandenburg Concerto, along with Violinist Phillip Levy and Harpsichordist Arthur Omura in the 10 Hour Marathon’s Finale.
Flutist Asunción Ojeda is an elementary music teacher with the Los Angeles Unified School District. As a performer, her interests lie in contemporary chamber music as well as music from the baroque era, and she has been active with various southern California ensembles, including the Musica Angelica Baroque Orchestra, Nimbus Ensemble, Los Angeles Master Chorale, the Filipino American Symphony Orchestra, and ensemble Green. This past summer, she was a performer faculty member at the Nirmita Composers Workshop in Siem Reap, Cambodia, where she had the opportunity to perform new works by composers from southeast Asia, Japan, and the United States. She holds degrees from California State University Northridge, California Institute of the Arts, and University of Southern California. Asunción is also a student/performer with the World Kulintang Institute Ensemble, an organization devoted to the preservation and continued oral transmission of ancient gong and drum traditions from the southern Philippines.

A quick quiz about J. S. Bach – “Do you know Bach? ” and concert with Bach in the Subway Warsaw Orchestra and Tomasz Strahl- one of the greatest polish cellist, Antonina Styczeń (flute) and Aleksandra Klimczak (soprano).