ARTISTS AND STAFF

Featured musicians, soloists, composers and staff

Thomas Neenan, Music Director and Conductor

Thomas Neenan is Music Director and Conductor of The Chamber Orchestra at St. Matthew's, Music Director at the Parish of St. Matthew, Pacific Palisades, and Lecturer in Music History and Music Theory at California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Pasadena. He has been Music Director of St. Matthew’s Parish since 1981 and Lecturer in Music at Caltech since 1991.

Mr. Neenan holds degrees from California State University, Northridge, and from UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles) where he was honored with an Outstanding Academic Achievement Award and was a prizewinner in the Atwater-Kent Performance Competition. He includes among his teachers David Britton, Thomas Harmon, Delores Stevens, Jean Langlais, and Ernst-Ulrich von Kameke. As a recital organist he has performed in the United States as well as in Germany, France, The Netherlands, Japan and Switzerland.

At Caltech Mr. Neenan teaches a full complement of music courses including a year-long survey of Music History, a year-long Music Theory sequence and a variety of special topics, including History of Opera, Major Figures in Music, Choral-Orchestral Literature, Chamber Music, and others.

He has been honored by the Associated Students of California Institute of Technology with an ASCIT Outstanding Teaching Award. He has been a featured speaker on the Los Angeles Philharmonic's "Upbeat Live" pre-concert presentations and for the Philharmonic’s Organ Recital Series.

With the St. Matthew Parish Choir and the Chamber Orchestra at St. Matthew's, he has premiered more than two dozen works, including those by Maria Newman, Mark Falcone, David Newman, Mary Lou Newmark, Sasha Matson, Thomas Pasatieri, Craig Phillips, Joseph Curiale, Roger Bourland, David Hurd, Gerald Near, Paul Chihara, Dwayne S. Milburn, Tarik O'Regan and John O’Reilly.

Mr. Neenan and the Choir of St. Matthew’s Parish toured Central Europe during the summer of 2003 singing in Budapest, Tabor (CZ), Prague, Leipzig (St. Thomas), Dresden (Frauenkirche) and Naumburg (St. Wenzel’s) and toured England, Wales and Ireland in July 2006. In August 2011 they return to Europe where they will serve as Choir in Residence at Winchester Cathedral for a week.

Pianist Andrew von Oeyen

Pianist Andrew von Oeyen has already established himself as one of the most captivating pianists of his generation. Since his debut at age 16 with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Esa-Pekka Salonen, Mr. von Oeyen has performed to critical acclaim in recital and orchestral appearances around the world.

Commanding an extensive and diverse repertoire, Mr. von Oeyen has performed the major concertos of the keyboard with such ensembles as the Philadelphia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, National Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, Saint Louis Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, Berlin Symphony Orchestra, Singapore Symphony, Grant Park Orchestra, Ravinia Festival Orchestra, Utah Symphony, Rochester Philharmonic, Slovenian Philharmonic and Slovak Philharmonic.

Mr. von Oeyen has appeared in recital at Wigmore Hall and Barbican Hall in London, Lincoln Center in New York, the Kennedy Center in Washington, Zürich's Tonhalle, Tchaikovsky Hall in Moscow, Bolshoi Zal in St. Petersburg, Dublin's National Concert Hall, Jordan Hall in Boston, Royce Hall in Los Angeles, the Herbst Theater in San Francisco, in Toronto, Santa Fe, Bologna, Bucharest, Brasilia, Hanoi, Macau and in every major concert hall of Japan and South Korea. Of his Kennedy Center recital debut, Tim Page of the Washington Post wrote, "The Hayes Piano Series concluded triumphantly Saturday afternoon with a smart, varied and altogether engrossing recital by Andrew von Oeyen...In fact, I would go so far as to say that von Oeyen played the finest all-around performance of Franz Liszt’s Sonata in B Minor that I have heard in many years."

In recent seasons, Mr. von Oeyen has appeared at the festivals of Aspen, Ravinia, Saratoga, Spoleto, Schubertiade, Festival del Sole, Grant Park, Grand Teton, Mainly Mozart, Bellingham and Gilmore. He won the prestigious Gilmore Young Artist Award in 1999 and also took First Prize in the Leni Fe Bland Foundation National Piano Competition in 2001. Born in the U.S. in 1979, Andrew von Oeyen began his piano studies at age 5 and made his solo orchestral debut at age 10. An alumnus of Columbia University and graduate of The Juilliard School, where his principal teachers were Herbert Stessin and Jerome Lowenthal, he has also worked with Alfred Brendel and Leon Fleisher.

Mr. von Oeyen lives in New York and Paris.

FEATURED
SOLOISTS

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Violinist Lindsay Deutsch

Hailed by the L.A. Times as having "the technical equipment and temperament for a big career", American violinist, Lindsay Deutsch, brings a fresh perspective to classical performances. Taking the listening experience to the next level, she plays with a passion and energy that has thrilled audiences throughout the US and Canada.

At 25, critics find that she demonstrates "fine maturity even during the most physical and demanding passages" (San Francisco Classical Voice), and "has a stage presence and style far beyond her years and a charisma that enthralled her audience." (LCF Outlook -- La Canada, CA).

She made her Walt Disney Concert Hall debut performing John Corigliano's Red Violin Chaconne with the California Philharmonic. Ms. Deutsch made her solo orchestral debut at the age of 11 with the Clear Lake Symphony in Texas. As a recitalist, she has appeared on the prestigious Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series in Chicago, the Los Angeles Da Camera Society at the historic Doheny Mansion, at L.A.'s Gindi Auditorium, as guest artist at the PepsiCo Recital Hall at Texas Christian University, and several solo performances for the Leonard Nimoy Concert Series. In addition, she performed a recital at the Colorado Symphony Spring Ball with Jeffrey Kahane. Ms. Deutsch has also appeared at Boston's Jordan Hall, Houston's Wortham Theatre, Theatre Aquarius in Toronto, Canada and the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles where she performed excerpts of Mark O'Connor's "Strings and Threads" with the composer and the Disney Young Musicians Symphony Orchestra.

Ms. Deutsch's performance of Astor Piazzolla's "Four Seasons of Buenos Aires" with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra was selected for NPR's Symphony Cast program. Ms. Deutsch has also appeared as a soloist on the national radio program, From the Top in which her performance of Bartok's Roumanian Folk Dances with Christopher O'Riley was selected for inclusion on the "Best of" CD produced by From the Top. She was featured on Live From WFMT in Chicago and her performance of Vivaldi's "Summer" with the Colburn Conservatory Orchestra was presented on the Sunday's Live Series (K-Mozart radio).

In addition to her music, Lindsay Deutsch was a formidable racquetball player. She won the gold medal in the World Junior Olympic Racquetball Championships in 1997 and was selected to the 2000 U.S. Junior Olympic Team.

Composer Ola Gjeilo

Ola Gjeilo (commissioned composer, March 2012 concert) is a Manhattan-based Norwegian composer and pianist. His has been performed and recorded in more than 30 countries worldwide in venues such as New York’s Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall and Alice Tully Hall, Los Angeles’ Disney Hall, Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center, The Arsht Center in Miami, Washington DC’s Kennedy Center and National Gallery, as well as the Copenhagen and Oslo Opera Houses. His music has been featured on PBS and radio stations across the US.

’09-’10 season Composer-in-Residence for the 2008 and 2009 Grammy winning Phoenix Chorale, Gjeilo (pronounced Yay-lo) has been commissioned by several notable artists and organizations, such as Barbara Bonney, Solveig Kringelborn, Philip Brunelle, the Edvard Grieg Society, St. Olaf College, Luther College, Choral Arts Ensemble, Taipei Male Choir, Oslo Church Music Festival, and the ACDA Women’s Choir Concortium. His choral music has also been performed by elite choirs such as the Kansas City Chorale, Conspirare, World Youth Choir, VocalEssence, BYU Singers, and the Swedish Broadcasting Corporation’s Radiokören.

Ola’s debut piano CD, Stone Rose, featuring his own lyrical pieces in the crossroads between classical, jazz and popular music, was released in 2007 by the multiple Grammy nominated label 2L and is available on amazon.com and iTunes.

After studying for his Bachelor’s Degree at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo, the Royal College of Music in London and the Juilliard School in New York, he completed his Master’s Degree in composition at Juilliard in 2006. Walton became the exclusive publisher of his choral music in 2007.

COMPOSERS FOR 2012

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Composer Christopher Tin

Santa Monica resident Christopher Tin (commissioned composer, June 2012 concert) is a Grammy-winning composer, whose eclectic career spans film, television, video games, advertising, and the record industry. His music is marked by a natural ease of melody, economy of gesture, and a flair for the dramatic. He is a native Californian, born of Chinese descent, and educated in England, and his aesthetic sensibilities are a blend of his diverse cultural background.

His debut album Calling All Dawns was the recipient of two Grammys at the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards: Best Classical Crossover Album, and Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalists (for the song 'Baba Yetu').

He received his undergraduate education at Stanford University and Oxford University, studying Music Composition, Conducting, and English Literature. After winning a Fulbright Scholarship, he continued his studies at the elite Royal College of Music in London--the alma mater of many of the giants of British composition: Benjamin Britten, Ralph Vaughan-Williams, Gustav Holst and others. There, he earned an MMus with Distinction, graduating with the highest marks in his class, and winning the Horovitz Composition Prize. He is also a Sundance Institute fellow.

His music has been performed live by many orchestras around the world, including the National Symphony Orchestra, Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, Philharmonia, Metropole Orchestra, and hundreds of amateur choirs around the world. His sheet music is published by Alfred Publishing.

In addition to his album work, he is also an active composer of music for films, video games, advertising, and many other media. He has won awards for his video game music, for titles such as Civilization IV and Pirates Of The Caribbean Online. He has contributed to scores for such Hollywood blockbusters as X2: X-Men United and Lilo And Stitch 2, and a host of independent features, documentaries and TV specials. And he has developed major ad campaigns for brands like Puma, Verizon, The Gap, and others. (More information on his custom work can be found at his online portfolio, Tin Works.)

His career is also marked by many rare and unusual distinctions; he has both co-created the startup sound for Microsoft's Surface operating system, and a demo song for Apple's Garage Band software, now found on every new Mac computer. His hit song 'Baba Yetu' is both the theme song to the video game Civilization IV, and is also used as a featured segment for the Dubai Fountain, the world's largest choreographed fountain, situated at the base of the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest skyscraper. Its win at the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards made history as the first video game piece ever to receive Grammy recognition.

Board President Fred Doering

Fred Doering was elected President of the Music Guild in 2009.  He received a BA degree from Harvard University in economics and a Master's Degree in Communications from Northwestern University.  Following executive positions in the metals industry, Fred founded Fred Doering Associates, a multimedia training and communication firm.  He innovated new approaches to electronically mediated corporate education, focusing on industries that were generally late adapters of technology, enabling the difficult transition by proving both the economic and learning advantages of adaptive instruction.

His programs have included award winning pioneering interactive initiatives in a variety of industries including Distribution, Financial Services, Manufacturing and Telecommunications.  He has written extensively on communication effectiveness, and his academic interests include creative narrative as a vehicle for increasing effectiveness and the measurement of potential through situational adaptability. 

Fred has been involved with instrumental and choral music since early childhood.  At the Choate School he was president of the Glee Club and the Mayeros, a twelve-man a cappella group, and at Harvard he was a member of the Glee Club and the Dunster Dunces. He has been a member of choirs in Shaker Heights,  Chicago, and Pacific Palisades.  He served on the advisory board of Music of the Baroque in Chicago.

Fred and his wife, Sarah, live in Malibu with their dog Thelma, who has a tremendous sense of entitlement.

LEADERS

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