Thursday, April 10, 2025, Noon
Ann E. Pitzer Center Recital Hall, UC Davis
featuring violinist Igor Veligan, violinist, Roger Xia, violist Joseph Donald Peterson, cellist Susan Lamb Cook and pianist Natsuki Fukasawa
Piano Trio in f# minor by Arno Babajanian (1921 – 1983)
1. Largo – Allegro espressivo
Spiegel im Spiegel by Arvo Pärt (b. 1935)
Piano Quintet, Op. 57 by Dmitri Shostakovich (1906 – 1975)
Lento
Fugue – Adagio
Scherzo – Allegretto
Intermezzo – Lento
Finale – Allegretto
Susan Lamb Cook is currently Lecturer in Cello and Chamber Music at the University of California, Davis. She is a member of the Sacramento Philharmonic & Opera and the Sacramento Choral Society and Orchestra and is Artistic Director of the VITA Academy’s Great Composers Chamber Music Series. She is an active performer and educator both nationally and internationally and is sought after as soloist and chamber musician with performances throughout Europe, the Far East, and the United States. She has served on faculty for the Saarburg Festival, Germany, the Vianden Festival, Luxembourg, and on the artistic staff for the Classical Music Festival in Eisenstadt, Austria. Susan has performed as soloist with numerous orchestras and has performed and given master classes at San Francisco State University, Scripps College, Harvey Mudd College, Marshall University, West Virginia, James Madison University, Virginia, and Austin College, Texas. Ms. Lamb Cook studied with Angelica May at the Academy of Music in Vienna, Austria, and Charles Wendt at the University of Iowa.
Steinway Artist Natsuki Fukasawa has performed globally including in Australia, Brazil, China, Israel, throughout Scandinavia and many U.S. cities including New York’s Carnegie Hall and Alice Tully Hall. She is a recipient of the Best Chamber Music Recording of the Year from the Danish Music Awards. She has performed as a concerto soloist touring Italy and the U.S. and has been featured in CapRadio’s Women’s History Month. Fukasawa teaches at both University of the Pacific Conservatory of Music and at UC Davis, and serves on the artist faculty for the Talis Festival and Academy in Sarajevo. She also enjoys nurturing young talents in her own private studio, where her students’ accomplishments include appearances in the NPR show From the Top, winning top prizes in Chopin National Competition, MTAC Young Artist Guild, and the Philadelphia International Competition. Fukasawa’s many teachers include Mark Richman in Los Angeles, Tim Fredericksen in Denmark and Ferenc Rados in Hungary. She has received degrees from The Juilliard School and the University of Maryland and the Prague Academy of Music as a Fulbright Scholar. Fukasawa enjoys the outdoors, tap dancing and playing with her two kitties.
Joseph Donald Peterson is a violist and composer based in Northern California. He received his Bachelor’s degree from The Juilliard School, studying with both Samuel Rhodes of the Juilliard String Quartet and the composer Justin Dello Joio. As a student, Joseph placed second in the Juilliard School viola competition and performed new works under the direction of composers Thomas Adès, Louis Andriessen, and Kaija Saariaho, as well as his fellow students. Joseph has a Master’s degree in music composition & theory from the University of California, Davis, where he is now currently pursuing a PhD. Joseph has performed in the Aspen, Bear Valley, and Mendocino music festivals, as well as with the Mill City Opera, the Sacramento Philharmonic & Opera, the Symphony of the Redwoods, and the Modesto Symphony. He currently performs with the Chamber Music Society of Sacramento. Outside of music, Joseph is a serious woodworker, having completed both a violin making apprenticeship with luthier William Bartruff and the nine-month program in fine furniture at The Krenov School.
Igor Veligan joined the faculty of the Conservatory of Music at the University of the Pacific in the fall of 2006 where he teaches violin, viola and chamber music. He also teaches at American River College. He holds a Master’s Degree in violin performance and chamber music from Odessa State Conservatory, Ukraine and has performed extensively in Ukraine, Russia, Germany and Japan. In 2013 Igor Veligan along with pianist Natsuki Fukasawa released a CD titled “Voices of Eastern Europe” featuring violin and piano sonatas by Enescu, Skoryk and Babadjanian. Igor Veligan is an artist faculty member of the Pacific Music Institute (Hawaii), and the Orfeo International Music Festival (Italy). He is a cofounder and artistic director of Chamber Music Festival at San Domenico Conservatory of Music. Recent solo appearances with symphony orchestra include Prokofiev violin concertos No.1 and No.2, Bartok Viola Concerto, and others. Mr. Veligan is a founder and violin/viola teacher at the Young Talents Music School. Many of his students are winners of numerous local and state competitions.
Roger Xia recently graduated from Stanford University with a B.S. in Biology and Music and a Coterminal M.S. in Biomedical Data Science. He studied piano with Elizabeth Schumann and violin with Owen Dalby, also taking chamber music lessons with Christopher Costanza. Roger has studied music with Natsuki Fukasawa, Richard Cionco, Thomas Schultz, Dong Ho, William Barbini, and Susan Lamb Cook. He was a winner of the Mondavi Young Artists Competition (2015) and National Young Arts Foundation (2018, 2020) and has performed with the National Youth Orchestra (2019-2020). Roger was Concertmaster of both the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra (2017-2020) and Stanford Symphony Orchestra (2020-2024) and performed as a piano soloist with both orchestras. Last year, he played Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G as a soloist with the UC Davis Symphony Orchestra. Outside of music, he enjoys snowboarding, ping pong, and practicing Muay Thai.