The Graduate Scholarship String Quartet recital is Monday, November 30 at 7:30 p.m. in the Morrison Center Recital Hall at Boise State University. Admissions is free.
The Hazia String Quartet will perform Ravel’s String Quartet and Bartok’s String Quartet No. 2. In partnership with the Boise Philharmonic, this unique program allows four outstanding musicians from all over the world (Takuya Yamamoto, violin–Japan, Olivia Baker, violin–Oregon, Daemin Kim, viola–Korea and Alec Duggan, cello–Washington) to become members of the Boise Philharmonic for two years while pursuing a Master’s degree in the Department of Music. These students are in the second year of their program.
Recipients are full-time students pursuing master’s degrees in music with an emphasis in performance, pedagogy or music education. The Department of Music entered into a unique partnership in 2012 to create four graduate fellowships within the department and form the quartet.
Quartet Profiles
Japanese violinist Takuya Yamamoto began his violin studies at age 4. He earned a bachelor of music degree at Toho Gakuen School of Music in Tokyo, Japan, where he studied with Kenji Kobayashi. Upon coming to the United States, he was a full scholarship student of Elmar Oliveira and Carol Cole at the Lynn Conservatory of Music in Boca Raton, Florida, where he received a performer’s certificate. He has performed as a soloist, chamber musician and orchestra member in various music festivals throughout the U.S. and Japan, including the Aspen Music Festival, Seiji Ozawa Music Academy, Saito-Kinen Music Festival, Great Mountain Music Festival, Viola Space Music Festival and the Meadowmount School of Music. Prior to coming to Boise, Yamamoto was a member of the first violin section of the Eugene Symphony in Eugene, Oregon.
Olivia Baker began playing the violin at age 9, and what began as a hobby turned into something more. Upon listening to Itzhak Perlman’s “Greatest Hits” albums over and over, she decided she wanted to be a professional violinist. Since then, she has been working to perfect her practicing process. She studied with Fritz Gearhart at the University of Oregon School of Music and graduated cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in violin performance. She also received her Suzuki training at Oregon and has been teaching violin and piano to young beginners. She will begin her master’s studies at Boise State University with Craig Purdy. Baker enjoys practicing technique, playing and raving about Brahms, dancing ballroom and writing science fiction.
A native of South Korea, Daemin Kim started his musical education at the age of 9 on the violin and began playing the viola at the age of 16. In Korea, he studied with violist and conductor Yoonil Jin at Anyang Arts High School, and Sangun Cho and Byung-wan Kim at Dankook University. In 2010, he transferred to Arizona State University, where he graduated in 2014 with a bachelor of music in viola performance under the direction of Nancy Buck. Kim served as principal viola of the ASU Symphony Orchestra and has performed in master classes for, and received coaching from, Steven Tenenbom, Samuel Rhodes, John Graham, Carol Rodland, Lesley Robertson and members of Orion, Brentano, Juilliard, Apple Hill and St. Lawrence string quartets. He also has studied chamber music with Danwen Jian, Thomas Landschoot, Jonathan Swartz and Andrew Campbell.
Alec Duggan was born in Tacoma, Washington, where he began his musical studies on the piano at age 6. After playing in a piano trio and discovering the cello, he quickly shifted his primary focus to that instrument. As an active member of Tacoma Youth Symphony for eight years, he achieved a principal position his senior year of high school and also performed Popper’s Requiem for three cellos and orchestra. Duggan attended the University of Washington in Seattle where he received a degree in mathematics earlier this June. Despite his different degree, he was a very active member in the music department and performed with many Seattle ensembles, including the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber Orchestra, Seattle Rock Orchestra and the Seattle Collaborative Orchestra. During his senior year, he served as a member of UW’s official student piano trio, Trio Andromeda. They group won the Washington Music Teachers National Association state competition and competed at the regional competition in Portland, Oregon. They received coaching from Phil Setzer of the Emerson String Quartet along with many other visiting artists. His teachers include Miriam Shames, the late Toby Saks and Eric Gaenslen.