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Resident String Quartet Program

Receive scholarships for playing music!

The University of California, Santa Cruz invites high school seniors to apply for the Student Resident String Ensemble Program. Ensemble members will receive scholarship funds to help with school costs*, participate in a number of department-sponsored performances and public concerts, and have the opportunity to be coached by Roy Malan, concertmaster of the San Francisco Ballet and member of the UCSC String faculty.

The UCSC department of Music offers both undergraduate and graduate degrees. Undergraduate students receive a strong foundation in musicianship, giving them excellent preparation for graduate work and professional careers. The department's Music Center provides state-of-the art instructional and performance facilities for its students, including the Recital Hall that critics have called "the finest college hall of its size in California."

*Students selected for the program will receive a lump sum every year for four years. The student's progress will be reviewed after two years; if satisfactory progress has been made. To receive the award each year students must be registered full-time music majors in good standing.

How to Apply

Applicants should submit the following items:

A CD or DVD of two contrasting works (a total of 15-20 minutes of music)
-- A one-page outline of musical experience: instrument, years studied, orchestra experience, works, performed.  Be sure to include your name, address, telephone number and email address
-- A copy of the Application for Admission to the University of California, Santa Cruz
 
Send all materials by November 30, 2015 to:

Coordinator, Resident String Student Ensemble Program
Music Center
University of California, Santa Cruz
1156 High Street
Santa Cruz, CA 95064

Finalists will be invited to UCSC to meet with the String Faculty and Director of Ensembles for an audition/interview in February of 2016.

All applicants must file a formal application for admission to the University of California, select Santa Cruz as one of their campuses, and be admitted. A copy of the completed UC application must be sent to the Resident String Program electronically or by mail (postmarked by November 30, 2015). For admissions information and deadlines, call the UCSC Admissions Office at (831) 459-4008 or visit them online at http://admissions.ucsc.edu.

Roy Malan

Roy Malan studied in London with Yehudi Menuhin and then at Juilliard and the Curtis Institute with Ivan Galamian and Efrem Zimbalist. He has been concertmaster and solo violinist with the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra since 1974 and a member of the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players. For twenty years Malan was concertmaster of both Sinfonia San Francisco and the San Francisco Chamber Symphony and a featured soloist on the latter's European tours. He is on the faculty at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Mr. Malan is also founder and co-director with pianist Robin Sutherland of the Telluride Chamber Music Festival. He has received critical acclaim for concerto appearances at New York's Lincoln Center, Washington's Kennedy Center, the Paris Opera and the Edinburgh Festival. He has recorded extensively with Robin Sutherland, the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players and as a concerto soloist.

The author of a biography on the late Efrem Zimbalist, Malan was honored in 1982 by Zimbalist's dedication of a specially orchestrated version of his "Coq d'or Fantasy." He was further honored by the bequest of the great Russian violinist's collection of favorite bows.

Concurrent affiliations: concertmaster, San Francisco Ballet; principal violinist, San Francisco Contemporary Chamber Players; founder and director, Telluride Chamber Music Festival; faculty, Rocky Ridge Music Center. Former affiliations: Ithaca College; Stanford University; first violinist: Porter Quartet, Stanford String Quartet, Ives Quartet, Crown Chamber Players, San Francisco Piano Trio. Teachers: Ivan Galamian, Efrem Zimbalist, Yehudi Menuhin. Performances: solo and chamber music in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Europe, Australia, and Africa. Interests: emphasis on 19th-century literature and performance practice and on virtuoso techniques; chamber music. Recordings: Sonatas, by Efrem Zimbalist and Efrem Zimbalist Jr. (Genesis Records); Sonatas, by Robert Russell Bennett and Ottorino Respighi (Orion Master Recordings); Fredrick Kaufman Concerto, Violin Sonata (Orion Master Recordings); Music from Telluride (Transparent Recordings); and numerous contemporary works for CRI and Newport Classics, including a solo violin piece, Gihon, written for him by jazz flutist James Newton. Pedagogical philosophy: acquisition of the technique, tone, and general musical culture essential for performing the Classical, Romantic, contemporary, and virtuosic basics of the repertoire; cultivation of the sensitivity and discipline essential for chamber music playing.
 

Resident String Quartet Members:

Kathryn Nunnally started studying violin at the age of nine with Olga Mandrigina at the San Francisco Community Music Center (CMC). Since 2006, Kathryn has performed with various community orchestras including: City College Philharmonia, San Francisco Sinfonietta, Mill Valley Philharmonic, and Tango Revolution Orchestra. While a member of the CMC’s Comprehensive Musicianship Program, she was able to study composition and play in chamber music ensembles. Also as a student at CMC, Kathryn performed in many of its honor recital series, including the All- School Recitals and the Pursuit of Excellence. She has also performed in the Bay Area Music Association’s Young Artists’ Festival four times. 

In 2012, Kathryn began taking lessons with David Chernyavsky, a member of the San Francisco Symphony, and was invited to join the second violin section of the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra that September. She played with this orchestra for three seasons including on their recent Summer 2015 European Tour. Homeschooled from the third grade, Kathryn started taking classes at City College of San Francisco as a ninth grader. She transferred to the University of California, Santa Cruz in October 2014 to study violin performance with Roy Malan.

In addition to performance, Kathryn has particular interests in philosophy, art history, literature, opera, and musicology, especially that of the late Romantic period and Early 20th-century. In her limited free time, she also enjoys reading, walking, visiting museums, and playing chamber music.