The California String Quartet performs a free concert today, Sunday, April 19, at 2 p.m. at Shumei Hall, 2430 E. Colorado Blvd. in Pasadena, with a program spanning five musical traditions over more than a century of composition.
The concert is the 27th annual Invitational Concert presented by the Shumei Arts Council, a Pasadena-based nonprofit that has organized free cultural events in the city since 1998, according to the organization.
The quartet — first violinist Luanne Homzy, second violinist Misha Vayman, violist Jonah Sirota and cellist Evgeny Tonkha — has been recognized with the LA Weekly’s award for Most Outstanding Chamber Ensemble.
The program opens with Antonin Dvorak’s String Quartet No. 12 in F Major, Op. 96, known as the “American” quartet, which the Czech composer wrote in 1893 while visiting a Bohemian immigrant community in Spillville, Iowa.
The ensemble will also perform String Quartet No. 5 by the American minimalist composer Philip Glass, originally commissioned for the Kronos Quartet and premiered in 1992.
Music by Ryuichi Sakamoto, the Japanese composer and Oscar winner who died in 2023, is also on the program, according to the event announcement, though specific works were not listed.
The concert rounds out with arranged music from Jerry Bock’s Fiddler on the Roof alongside original Gypsy-Roma songs composed and arranged by Homzy, the quartet’s first violinist.
The four musicians bring a range of credentials that extend well beyond the concert stage.
Homzy, an American-French-Canadian violinist based in Los Angeles, serves as music co-director of the American Contemporary Ballet and has performed as a substitute with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, according to her biography provided by the organization.
She won first prize at the International Chamber Music Competition Hamburg in 2009 and has performed at venues including Carnegie Hall and Walt Disney Concert Hall, according to the same biography.
Vayman, the newest member of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, has recorded on film soundtracks including “Avatar 3: Fire and Ash” and on recordings with Paul McCartney and Barbra Streisand, according to the event announcement.
Sirota, a composer and producer as well as a violist, has recorded music for the films “Avatar: The Way of Water,” “Oppenheimer” and the series “The Mandalorian,” according to the announcement.
Tonkha, a cellist who has performed with the Berlin Philharmonic and other major orchestras, won the first prize and gold medal at the 12th International Cello Competition in the Czech Republic and received a special jury prize at the 13th Tchaikovsky Competition, according to his biography provided by the organization.
The quartet was originally formed in 2002 by members of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, according to the organization, and has performed at area venues including the CalTech Music Society and the Norton Simon Museum.
The Shumei Arts Council, which describes its mission as fostering “a better world by promoting beauty, harmony, and creativity in the arts,” has presented children’s concerts, artist exhibitions, Makoto Taiko performances and chamber music at its East Colorado Boulevard location over its 27-year history, according to the organization’s statement.
The council also participates in ArtNight Pasadena, the city’s biannual open-house arts event, most recently hosting a Japanese tea ceremony and Makoto Taiko drumming at the spring 2026 edition in March.
Admission is free. For information, contact Shumei America at (626) 584-8841 or visit shumei.us.
