2025-26 Season

Timothy Loo, cello

Timothy Loo, moved to Los Angeles in 1992 to study cello performance at California State University at Northridge and the University of Southern California.  Timothy is a member of the Lyris Quartet, founded in 2008.  This quartet is the resident ensemble at both Jacaranda and Hear Now Festivals and has been featured numerous times on the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Green Umbrella and Noon 2 Midnight series at The Walt Disney Concert Hall.

In January 2018, Mr. Loo made his concerto debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at The Walt Disney Concert Hall performing the fiendishly difficult Concerto for Cello and Orchestra by Bernt Zimmermann, under the direction of conductor Susanna Mälkki.  

Timothy has also performed on over 1000 motion pictures, TV shows, albums, commercials, award shows, including yearly at the Academy Awards.

Timothy is also one of the foremost music contractors in Los Angeles.  Most recently he assembled the orchestra for composer John Williams for the scoring of Indiana Jones 5: The Dial of Destiny, ESPN College Football Playoffs, The Fablemans and Obi Wan Kenobi.  Mr. Loo is also the music contractor for James Newton Howard, Mike Post, Jeff Russo, Branford Marsalis, Disney’s Launchpad streaming series, The Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles, just to name a few.

In 2019, Timothy and his husband Tommy Johnson purchased Sabron Payroll Services and act as CFO and CEO respectively.  Sabron is a leading payroll company in the entertainment industry that has built strong relationships with major production companies such as Disney, Netflix, MGM, Paramount, LucasFilm, and Apple.

This performance with the Modesto Symphony marks Timothy’s debut performing the John Williams’ Cello Concerto.



Upcoming Performances

Tony DeSare, guest artist

Tony DeSare performing with Ryan Murray & the MSO, Holiday Pops 2014

Tony DeSare performs with infectious joy, wry playfulness and robust musicality. Named Rising Star Male Vocalist in Downbeat magazine, DeSare has lived up to this distinction by winning critical and popular acclaim for his concert performances throughout North America and abroad. From jazz clubs to Carnegie Hall to Las Vegas and headlining major symphony orchestras, DeSare has brought his fresh take on old school class around the globe. DeSare has four top ten Billboard jazz albums under his belt and has been featured on the CBS Early Show, NPR, A Prairie Home Companion, the Today Show and his music has been posted by social media celebrity juggernaut, George Takei. DeSare has also collaborated with Youtube supergroup Postmodern Jukebox. He has been a featured guest artist with over 100 symphony orchestras with some highlights including the Cleveland Orchestra, The New York Pops, The San Francisco Symphony, The Houston Symphony, the Chicago Symphony.

Notwithstanding his critically acclaimed turns as a singer/pianist, DeSare is also an accomplished award-winning composer. He not only won first place in the USA Songwriting Contest, but has written the theme song for the motion picture, My Date With Drew, several broadcast commercials and has scored five films. His sound is romantic, swinging and sensual, but what sets DeSare apart is his ability to write original material that sounds fresh and contemporary, yet pays homage to the Great American Songbook.

Tony has a strong presence on social media and continues to release his "song diaries", recordings from his home studio that started in 2020 and now number in the 100's. Tony has numerous recordings available on all platforms and playlists.

Tony DeSare is a Yamaha Artist.



Upcoming Performances

Anne Akiko Meyers, violin

Anne Akiko Meyers, one of the world’s most esteemed musicians, is a GRAMMY® Award winning violinist, recognized as a muse and champion of many of today’s most important composers. Since her teens, Anne has performed around the world as soloist with leading orchestras, in recital and recorded more than 40 releases, which have become staples of classical music radio and streaming platforms.

Anne has been called “the Wonder Woman of commissioning” by The Strad and worked closely with some of the most important composers of the last half century, including Arvo Pärt (Estonian Lullaby), Einojuhani Rautavaara (Fantasia, his final complete work), John Corigliano (cadenzas for the Beethoven Violin Concerto; Lullaby for Natalie), Arturo Márquez (Fandango), Philip Glass (New Chaconne), Michael Daugherty (Blue Electra) Mason Bates and Adam Schoenberg (violin concertos), Billy Childs, Jakub Ciupiński, Jennifer Higdon, Morten Lauridsen, Wynton Marsalis,  Somei Satoh, Joseph Schwantner, and Eric Whitacre (The Pacific Has No Memory, Seal Lullaby) performing world premieres with the symphony orchestras of Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Nashville, Pittsburgh, San Diego, Seattle, Washington, D.C., Helsinki, Hyogo, Leipzig, London, Lyon, and New Zealand.

Anne’s recording of Fandango, a live performance with Gustavo Dudamel and the LA Philharmonic, received two Latin GRAMMY® Awards: Best Classical Album and Best Contemporary Composition.  Fandango was premiered in 2021 at The Hollywood Bowl, and has been performed over 40 times with 16 different orchestras around the world since.

Fandango WP Gustavo Dudamel LA Phil, Hollywood Bowl Allen Murabayashi

Fandango World Premiere with Gustavo Dudamel and LA Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl (c) Allen Murabayashi

In the 2024-25 season, Anne will premiere Eric Whitacre’s, The Pacific Has No Memory, with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra at Carnegie Hall and performs with the Cincinnati Symphony, Grant Park Music Festival, Sarasota Symphony, Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería, and Vancouver Symphony. Naxos will release Blue Electra, Michael Daugherty’s Violin Concerto inspired by Amelia Earhart, commissioned by Anne, and recorded with David Alan Miller and the Albany Symphony in April 25′. Platoon releases Beloved, a requiem by Billy Childs, alongside works by Ola Gjeilo and Eric Whitacre, with Grant Gershon and the Los Angeles Master Chorale in May 25′ for Mother’s Day and the Philip Glass Violin Concerto No. 1 with Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, New Chaconne, a new work written by Philip for Anne, and Echorus with Aubree Oliverson and the Colburn Academy Virtuosi, to be released for Father’s Day, June 25′.

The violinist’s first national television appearances were on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, at age 11, followed by performances that include Evening At Pops with John Williams, CBS Sunday Morning, Great PerformancesCountdown with Keith Olbermann (in a segment that was the third most popular story of that year), The Emmy Awards, and The View. John Williams chose Anne to perform the theme from Schindler’s List for a Great Performances PBS telecast, and Arvo Pärt invited her to be his guest soloist at the opening ceremony concerts of his new center and concert hall in Estonia.

Krzysztof Penderecki selected Anne to perform the Beethoven Violin Concerto at the 40th Pablo Casals Festival with the Montreal Symphony, which was broadcast on A&E. Her recording of Somei Satoh’s Birds in Warped Time II was used by architect Michael Arad for his award-winning design submission, which today has become The World Trade Center Memorial in lower Manhattan.

Other career highlights include a performance of the Barber Violin Concerto at the Australian Bicentennial Concert for an audience of 750,000 in Sydney Harbour; performances for the Emperor and Empress Akihito of Japan; for Queen Máxima of the Netherlands, in a Museumplein Concert with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra; and “The Star-Spangled Banner” at T-Mobile Park in Seattle and Dodger Stadium. She was profiled on NPR’s Morning Edition with Linda Wertheimer and All Things Considered with Robert Siegel, and she curated “Living American” on Sirius XM Radio’s Symphony Hall.

Anne has been featured in commercials and advertising campaigns including Anne Klein, shot by legendary photographer Annie Leibovitz; Northwest Airlines; DDI Japan; and TDK; and was the inspiration for the main character’s career path in the novel The Engagements, by the popular author J. Courtney Sullivan. She collaborated with children’s book author and illustrator Kristine Papillon on Crumpet the Trumpet, appearing as the character Violetta the violinist, and featured in a documentary about legendary radio personality Jim Svejda. Anne has collaborated with a diverse array of artists including jazz icons Chris Botti and Wynton Marsalis; avant-garde musician Ryuichi Sakamoto; electronic music pioneer Isao Tomita;pop-era act Il Divo; and singer, Michael Bolton.

Anne was born in San Diego and grew up in Southern California, where she and her mother traveled eight hours, round trip, from the Mojave Desert to Pasadena for lessons with Alice and Eleonore Schoenfeld at the predecessor of the Colburn School of Performing Arts. Anne moved to New York at the age of 14 to study at The Juilliard School with the legendary violin instructor Dorothy DeLay, and with Masao Kawasaki and Felix Galimir; she signed with management at 16; and recorded her debut album of the Barber and Bruch Violin Concertos with the RPO at Abbey Road Studios at 18. She has received the Avery Fisher Career Grant, Distinguished Alumna Award, and an Honorary Doctorate from The Colburn School. She serves on the Board of Trustees of The Juilliard School, the Dudamel Foundation, was recently honored by the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and inducted into the Asian Hall of Fame.

Anne performs on Larsen Strings with the Ex-Vieuxtemps Guarneri del Gesù, dated 1741, considered by many to be the finest-sounding violin in existence.



Upcoming Performances

Amaryn Olmeda, violin

Winner of first prize and the audience choice award at the 24th Annual Sphinx Competition, violinist Amaryn Olmeda is a rising star sought after for her bold and expressive performances as a soloist and collaborator. Violinist.com says of Olmeda, “…her commanding stage presence, infallible technique, and interpretive ability already rival that of international concert stage veterans.”

...her commanding stage presence, infallible technique, and interpretive ability already rival that of international concert stage veterans.
— Violinist.com

Highlights of 2024-2025 include season-opening concerts in debut with the Boulder Philharmonic and the Alabama Symphony, as well as debut performances with the Charlotte Symphony, Albany Symphony, Pacific Symphony, Omaha Symphony, and Sarasota Orchestra. Olmeda will also debut in recital at the Kravis Center’s Young Artists Classical Series in West Palm Beach, FL and the University of Florida Performing Arts in Gainesville, FL.

Olmeda made her Lincoln Center debut during the 2024 Summer for the City Series. She made her Carnegie Hall solo debut on the Sphinx Virtuosi tour at the age of 14, garnering rave reviews. At 13, Olmeda was named the initial member of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and Opus 3 Artist’s Artist Apprentice Program.

Highlights of previous seasons include debuts as soloist with the Cleveland Orchestra, Houston Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, Buffalo Philharmonic, and the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra at their New Year’s Concert Series, earning her a nomination for the San Francisco Classical Voice Audience Choice Awards. Olmeda also performed in recital at the Bouchaine Young Artist Series at Festival Napa Valley as well as at the National Arts Club in New York City.

In 2023, Olmeda made her recording debut as the featured soloist of Carlos Simon’s Between Worlds on the Sphinx Virtuosi’s inaugural recording with Deutsche Grammophon. The Strad Magazine said of Olmeda’s performance, “…it receives an impressive reading here by the young musician [and] she shows why she has garnered the word 'prodigy’.”

Other career highlights include selection as an NPR From the Top Fellow, receiving the National Arts Club’s Herman and Mary Neuman Music Award, being named a Young Artist Soloist by the Seattle Symphony, and being featured in a solo performance with the Sacramento Philharmonic and VITA Academy in the video production, The Extraordinary Life of Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges. In 2022 Olmeda performed for the San Francisco Conservatory Gala with pianist Yuja Wang. She has performed for numerous school and community outreach events including with the Buffalo Philharmonic, Richmond Symphony, Auburn Symphony, and Oakland Symphony.

Born in Melbourne, Australia in 2008, Olmeda currently studies at the New England Conservatory of Music with Miriam Fried. She previously studied with Ian Swensen at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Amaryn Olmeda performs on a violin made by J.B. Vuillaume in 1864.



Upcoming Performances

Brody Dolyniuk, guest artist

Brody Dolyniuk is a multi-faceted, self-taught musician who began his professional music career playing in piano bars. A chance meeting with a pair of star-shaped sunglasses led to forming an Elton John tribute band Brody called Yellow Brick Road. Soon YBR began going outside the EJ catalog to perform other classic rock giants such as Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and more. 

Within a year, YBR was a steady working band in the Las Vegas music scene and had cultivated a large local following. YBR also became an in-demand choice for the corporate entertainment market.

After 14 years of solid work, Brody stepped down as front man for YBR to pursue other avenues, namely his role as a vocalist for Windborne Music’s touring symphony shows, singing the Music of Queen, and later The Who, Rolling Stones, U2 and Journey. Simultaneously Brody had been developing his own production called Symphonic Rockshow. 

Now residing in Southern California, Brody continues to tour, as well as produce shows via his company, Yellow Brick Road Entertainment.



Upcoming Performances