On Oct. 2, the free admission Glendale Noon Concerts will feature violinists Jacqueline Suzuki and Sarkis Gyurgchyan and violist-composer Jonah Sirota performing Antonin Dvorak’s “Terzetto” in C major, op.74 (1887) and the premiere of Jonah Sirota’s “Terzetto” for two violins and viola. The performance will be held at 12:10 p.m. in the sanctuary of Glendale City Church, 610 E. California Ave. in Glendale.

Visit http://glendalenoonconcerts.blogspot.com for more information.

Jacqueline Suzuki, violin, is a longtime member of the Long Beach and Santa Barbara Symphonies. A native of San Francisco, she began her earliest chamber music studies on scholarship at the San Francisco Conservatory. She has performance degrees from the Mannes College of Music (BM), where she studied with William Kroll, and the California Institute of the Arts (MFA). As a Los Angeles freelancer, she has performed with many ensembles and in many genres, from rock, jazz, Latin and Arabic, to playing in the pit for the Bolshoi Ballet and onstage with the Three Tenors. She has recorded with diverse artists: Snoop Dogg, Neil Sedaka, Leonard Cohen, Whitney Houston, Bocelli, Lalo Schifrin, McCoy Tyner, Placido Domingo and many others, and appears on recordings by the Long Beach, Santa Barbara and Pacific Symphonies.

Dr. Sarkis Gyurgchyan performed his first solo violin concert at the age of 8. After college, he continued studying the violin to receive his doctoral degree in violin performance with an emphasis in chamber music at the Komitas State Conservatory. 
Following graduation, he worked as a faculty member of the Conservatory teaching chamber music while playing with the Armenian National Symphony and serving as concertmaster for the State Opera Studio Orchestra.

Since moving to the United States, Dr. Gyurgchyan has stayed active musically and is involved with the LA Opera, the LA Master Chorale, the Long Beach Symphony, the New West Symphony and the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra. He also works in the motion picture industry, performing music for movies like “Pirates of the Caribbean” and “Night and Day.”

Throughout his career, Dr. Gyurghchyan has worked with renowned musicians. He has been teaching violin to students of all ages his entire career, many of who have won national and international competitions.

Composer and violist Jonah Sirota is a new breed of multi-talented musician. Equally at home writing concert music, scoring soundtracks for TV, film and video games, and performing on the concert stage and in recording sessions, Sirota creates and recreates vivid music for a wide variety of audiences. His debut solo recording Strong Sad, a 2018 National Sawdust Tracks release, features premiere recordings of new elegies for the viola by Nico Muhly, Paola Prestini, Arthur Joseph McCaffrey, Valgeir Sigurðsson, Robert Sirota, Kurt Knecht and Sirota. His orchestral work Grounded was recently performed by major youth orchestras in New York and Massachusetts, and his soundtrack to the Public Television documentary “Return of the American Bison” was nominated for a 2019 Heartland Emmy Award.

Sirota was the violist of the recently disbanded Chiara String Quartet for its entire 18 years. As a concert violist, Sirota performs with pianist Molly Morkoski, with organist Kurt Knecht as the improv duo Mondegreen, and as a member of the revived California String Quartet. He is sought after as a Hollywood session player and regularly plays with major orchestras, including the Long Beach Symphony, where he serves as assistant principal viola.

Sirota is also known as a pedagogue. He coaches chamber music at the Colburn School and gives viola and composition masterclasses and residencies across the country. His “practice self-audit” has been used by many viola students to facilitate the self-evolution their own improvement and creativity in the practice room, while his practice tune-up for professional and adult amateur violists has given many the chance to reconnect with their own inner passion on the instrument. Sirota resides in Los Angeles.

Glendale Noon Concerts is celebrating 17 years of presenting free admission concerts every first and third Wednesday for Glendale and the Southland community.

Upcoming concerts will be updated at http://glendalenoonconcerts.blogspot.com.