Melos, according to the ancient Greeks, is the melodic basis of music: the fusion of word, rhythm, and melody. Indeed, melos is synonymous with music as a performing art; any melody or lyric poem intended for singing. Melos Music Chamber Ensemble combines this strong foundation rooted in the classics with modern additions to convey a story in every concert and evoke emotion in a singing cantabile style.
A Los Angeles based ensemble, Melos Music is dedicated to bringing the highest quality of chamber music concerts to the local community/engaging audiences, particularly our youth in classical concerts/providing affordable tickets to underserved communities and access to experience live classical music/creating programs to meet the needs of the diverse communities of Los Angeles.
Melos' philosophy in outreach is proactive and strives to serve the community from within, bringing interactive concerts and education to local schools in underserved areas of the city. Proceeds from our annual benefit concert support the Good Shepherd Shelter L.A, the first domestic violence shelter in LA. Melos also works to bring Family Music to women and children of the shelter as a way of healing. Matinee concerts are intended to serve members of the community who do not have the means or opportunity to attend live evening performances.
Melos Music's concert season presents 3-5 thematically conceived concerts, all of them performed by diverse ensembles and covering music from baroque to contemporary composers, most notably local L.A. composers. /concerts-tickets
Natalia Hudson (piano) has performed as a soloist and chamber musician throughout the U.S., Europe, and Israel in numerous festivals and concerts, including the Piccolo Spoleto Festival, First Night Charleston, the International Piano Series, the Young Artist Concert Series, the Drayton Hall, the LACC, and Moreno Valley College Concert Series. A native of South Carolina, Natalia was awarded the Isabella Mebane Piano Performance Scholarship to pursue a performance degree under Uruguayan pianist Enrique Graf at the College of Charleston. She continued her artist education at the Conservatory in Madrid, Spain under German-born pianist, Uta Weyand. Her other main influences include Vitalij Margulis (Ukraine), Ilana Vered (Israel) and currently Oxana Yablonskaya (Russia/Israel). She received her Master’s degree from the University of Southern California and has participated in the World Piano Pedagogy (WPPC), MTNA, and Focus on Piano Literature conferences. A member of the California and National Music Teacher Associations, Ms. Hudson is a sought-after teacher at her private piano studio, Hudson Conservatory. She is on the faculty at the Colburn School in Los Angeles and also serves on the piano faculty of the Oxana Yablonskaya Piano Institute (OYPI) in various parts of the world, including Bulgaria and Israel. Her first solo piano album, Balancing Darkness and Light, was released this year. Founder of the Mt. Olive Concert Series in Pasadena and Artistic Director of Melos Music Chamber Ensemble, Natalia firmly believes in the power of music to heal, uplift, and unite people by transcending any boundaries of race, gender, religious, economic or cultural backgrounds. www.nataliahudson.com
Dr. Sakura Tsai (violin) violinist and educator, performs nationally and internationally as a soloist and chamber and orchestral musician. She earned degrees (B.M., M.M., and D.M.A.) in violin performance from the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music where she was honored with the prestigious Order of Areté and became a member of Pi Kappa Lambda. Her mentors and teachers included Midori Goto, Kathleen Winkler, Hagai Shaham, and Alice Schoenfeld. Additional fields of study while pursuing the Doctor of Musical Arts degree included music theory and analysis, violin pedagogy with Endre Granat, and kinesiology. Dr. Tsai is on faculty at University of Redlands Conservatory of Music where she also serves as Director of the University of Redlands String Project. Additionally, Dr. Tsai teaches at California School of the Arts - San Gabriel Valley and coaches instrumentalists in the Walnut Valley Unified School District. Dr. Tsai frequently appears as an adjudicator and serves as clinician in schools around Southern California and maintains a robust private studio. She is a member of the Redlands Symphony and the Long Beach Symphony, performs in several regional orchestras, and has spent summers at the Lucerne Festival (Switzerland) and Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival (Germany) academies, and Music Masters Course Japan (Japan). Dr. Tsai’s solo and ensemble performances have been featured live on TV and radio broadcasts, such as classical KUSC, KRTU-FM, Norddeutscher Rundfunk (Germany), and Japan Broadcasting Corporation – NHK (Japan).
Stella Cho (cello) South Korean cellist Stella Cho made her London solo debut at the Royal Albert Hall at fifteen years old. Since then, she has performed both as soloist and chamber musician throughout the USA, UK, South Korea, and Europe in prestigious venues such as Royal Concertgebouw, Slovak Philharmonic Hall and Jordan Hall to name a few. Stella has participated in numerous renowned music festivals around the world including Yellow Barn, Ravinia Steans Institute, Aspen Music Festival, Casals Festival, La Jolla SummerFest, Banff Chamber Music Festival, the Perlman Music Program, IMS Prussia Cove Open Chamber Music and Piatigorsky International Cello Festival. She has also collaborated with eminent musicians such as Ralph Kirshbaum, Jaime Laredo, Sharon Robinson, Joseph Kalichstein, Joseph Silverstein, and Borromeo Quartet.
Stella currently divides her time between teaching and performing. She holds positions as cello faculty at Loyola Marymount University and Colburn Community School of Performing Arts, and she is also the director of Junior Chamber Music’s Los Angeles branch. As an active performer, she regularly performs in the SAKURA Cello Quintet, Webern Quartet, and the self-conducted chamber ensemble Delirium Musicum, with whom she recently recorded their debut album with Warner Classics.
Alina Roitstein-Anderies (soprano) Los Angeles native Alina Roitstein is known for her “beautiful voice and equally beautiful presence” (El Nuevo Herald). Her career spanning opera and art song, jazz and Latin music, chamber music and contemporary works, and choral music has taken her to venues all over the world, including Japan’s Symphony Hall in Osaka, South Korea’s Seoul Arts Centre Concert Hall, London’s Wigmore Hall, Scotland’s Royal Conservatoire, Carnegie Hall’s Neighborhood Concert Series, Chicago’s Poetry Foundation, and Los Angeles’ REDCAT, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, and Hollywood Bowl. One of Alina’s passions is performing new works, and she has premiered pieces by Juhi Bansal, Jordan Nelson, Thomas Kotcheff, Dale Trumbore, Reena Esmail, Diana Syrse, Trevor Anderies, David Roitstein, and others. She also premiered the role of Emily in The Discord Altar, the first of OperaWorks’ Arts for Social Awareness Project, a groundbreaking musically improvised opera created to bring awareness to current social issues. Roitstein is also a member of the Los Angeles Master Chorale, with whom she is often a featured soloist on their home stage at the Walt Disney Concert Hall.
Roitstein is an active studio singer in Los Angeles, most recently singing for the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever soundtrack. She also sang with Los Angeles Master Chorale on the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s recording of Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 8, which earned the Grammy award for Best Choral Performance. Other recording credits include Trevor Anderies Quintet’s Promise of a Tree (Orenda Records), River Song Quintet’s Monarchs, and Toomai String Quintet’s Cuerdas Cubanas.
A committed educator, Roitstein is on the voice faculty at Pomona College and Pasadena City College and has performed workshops and master classes at universities throughout the United States. www.alinaroitstein.com