Russ deLuna, soloist

Russ deLuna, who performs the English horn solo in composer Stefan Cwik’s “The Sword in the Stone,” has been playing music since childhood, but his appearance with Symphony Parnassus marks several “firsts”: It is his first time working directly with a composer; his first time premiering a brand new work as soloist; and it is his first time as a soloist with conductor Stephen Paulson, his friend and fellow double-reed colleague at the San Francisco Symphony. 

“It’s fun to see (Steve) use his talents in a different way other than the bassoon,” Russ says. “It’s kind of a blast to watch him conduct. He’s a great musician.”

Russ calls Steve, principal bassoon with the Symphony, one of his “favorite players” in the orchestra, with whom he chats a lot about, well, music, but what else? Making reeds, a time-intensive side job and hobby for the double-reed players. The English horn, which is “not English, and not a horn,” Russ jokes, is the alto instrument of the oboe family.

English horn soloist Russ deLuna during rehearsal

He says he is excited to work with Cwik—also a colleague at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music—and is enjoying the process of being the first soloist to interpret the adventurous new piece in which, according to the composer, the English horn takes on the voice of Merlyn, the famed wizard of Arthurian legend.

“It’s so fun to know that I am the first to ever play it,” Russ said.      

Russ, a member of the San Francisco Symphony since 2007, occupies the Joseph and Pauline Scafidi Chair. He has appeared as soloist in such pieces as “Quiet City,” by Aaron Copland, and “The Swan of Tuonela” by Jean Sibelius. He played recently with the New York Philharmonic, and this summer, performs as a member of the Saito Kinen Orchestra in Matsumoto, Japan.

Elena Ariza, soloist

Cupertino teen to perform Dvořák concerto on March 20

The cello—beautiful but unwieldy—seems like an unusual instrument for a child to start playing when she is barely out of diapers.

But when you grow up in a musical family and they need a cellist for the piano trio, why wait?

Elena Ariza

Elena Ariza, now 17, began cello lessons when she was just 4 years old.

It turns out her mom, Nagisa, a professional pianist and piano teacher, wanted Elena to join her and Elena’s older brother Yujin, a violinist, in a trio, so Elena began lessons. She seemed to have found her instrument right away.  

“I think it really fits me,” she says. “I like the register of the instrument…I guess the cello is more like human voice. It speaks to me more.”

Elena is due to graduate in June from Menlo School in Atherton, Calif., and has been very busy this winter, flying across the country from one music school to the next for a half-dozen auditions to determine where she will advance her already impressive music career.   

On March 20 (3 p.m. at Herbst Theatre in San Francisco), she will share the stage with Symphony Parnassus to perform what she calls the “king of all cello concertos,”—the Dvořák Cello Concerto.

“I really love how it expresses everything from noble character to depression and mourning,” she said, “and how it has a lot of variation inside the concerto.”

She is thrilled to be performing with Symphony Parnassus. “It’s a really great honor to be given this opportunity,” she said. “It’s not often as a high-schooler that you get to perform solos with an orchestra.”

This is her fourth performance of the Dvořák piece.

Elena—winner of the 2015 Parnassus-San Francisco Conservatory of Music Competition—has won many other prizes, including the Music Teachers National Association’s California State Competition, Menuhin-Dowling Competition, and the Diablo Valley Orchestra and South Valley Symphony Concerto Competition. She studies cello with Eric Sung in the SFCM Pre-College Program, and plays with the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra.  

As a chamber musician, Elena plays in the Cambiata String Quartet, which was featured on the NPR radio program “From the Top,” and won first place in the Sacramento State Chamber Music Competition in 2015.

Elena lives in Cupertino with her parents, who emigrated from Japan in 1993 to the South Bay and have been there ever since. Her dad, Michiharu, is a software engineer, and, like his musical wife, seems to have passed down his gifts to his children: son Yujin, 21, has a computer science degree (from Columbia University) and is now studying for a master’s degree in violin performance at Julliard School of Music; Elena, in addition to her musical interests, lists computer science as her favorite subject at school. “I really enjoy coding,” she says. “It feels like a type of puzzle-solving. I get addicted when trying to figure out a glitch in a program.”

She shows equal excitement for cello playing, especially when it involves performing with an orchestra. “It’s very exhilarating,” she said. “Sitting in front of orchestra, I feel like there is this great powerhouse behind me. It’s always a great experience to collaborate with orchestra and conductor.”

Alex Zhou, violin

Teen soloist to play Mendelssohn concerto at Jan. 17 concert

Violinist Alex Zhou can’t wait to be “in the zone” while playing the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in E Minor with Symphony Parnassus at the January 17 concert. 

He likes the Mendelssohn concerto for its “simplicity and beauty,” and is thrilled to perform it again—his third outing with one of the world’s most popular showpieces for violin and orchestra. He has been soloing with orchestras for the past five years, and loves the feeling of being swept away by the music, or “in the zone,” as he says, even if it is occasionally nerve-wracking.

“Every time I play with an orchestra, I get really nervous,” he said, “but after it’s over, I always like what just happened and think ‘when can I do this again?’”

Alex, 14, is from San Jose and has won many first-place prizes, including the Mondavi Center Young Artists Competition, and the Andrea Postacchini International Violin Competition in Italy, both in 2012. His performance with Symphony Parnassus is a result of his winning the 2015 Parnassus-San Francisco Conservatory of Music Competition. 

Alex started piano lessons at age 5, and began playing the violin a year later after seeing a home video of his older sister Kathy, now 25, performing in her elementary school orchestra. Intrigued, he found her old violin and tried to play it. “I just really wanted to learn how to play,” he said.

He was instantly hooked and began taking violin lessons, too.

Neither of his parents are musicians; his father, James Zhou (rhymes with vow), is a chemist, and his mom, June Hu, is an accountant. They didn’t, at first, realize their son was a prodigy. “They thought I was just ‘sawing away,’ on the violin,” Alex said, until his teacher told them of his special gift.

Alex is still surprised and humbled by the attention his playing has brought him. “I guess I’m a normal person,” he says, “but I forget that I have this talent. It’s really weird.” When not practicing his violin—three hours a day when his school schedule allows—he likes to read, play badminton and take photographs.

He is involved in the Pre-College program at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (where he studies with violin teacher Zhao Wei), and has also studied with acclaimed violinist Itzhak Perlman for two summers at the Perlman Music Program in New York. Alex said that working with Perlman was a life-changing experience.

“He’s really down to earth and doesn’t look down on you if you’re not as good as him. He tries to encourage you,” Alex said. “When you get treated so well, it changes you, and you want to be that kind of person…to work hard to be a better musician and also a better person.” 

Hope Brigss, Soprano

Soprano Hope Briggs, a Bay Area favorite, joins Symphony Parnassus at Sunday’s (Nov. 22) concert to sing Samuel Barber’s heartfelt piece, Knoxville: Summer 1915. We wanted to learn a bit more about Hope, and chatted with her in this Q&A.

Hometown: Jersey City, N.J.

Home: My family relocated to San Francisco when I was 5. So I guess you can say that I really am a San Franciscan. 

When did you realize you wanted to be an opera singer? 

I was studying voice as a music major at CSU Fullerton. I was actually interested in musical theater, contemporary Christian music or jazz, but the emphasis of the program was classical. To my amazement, after my first semester, I was told by the voice faculty that I “had the goods for a professional career in opera," and the rest is history!

Favorite opera role and why? 

I feel a special connection with the character Aida, and my voice just seems to know where to go naturally when I am singing the role. 

What makes Knoxville a special piece for you?

Like Aida, I feel a special connection with Knoxville. I love the text, and how atmospheric it is. The orchestration, paired with the vocal line, helps to transport not only the singer, but it is my hope that the audience is also transported back a time when life was more simple. There is such humanity in the piece. It truly is one of the most beautiful works I have ever heard, let alone performed.