Violinists | Player Bios

Violinist Mitchell Newman

Violinist Mitchell Newman is a native of Los Angeles and joined the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 1987. After studies with Philharmonic violist David Stockhammer, he attended the Curtis Institute of Music, studying with David Cerone, Yumi Ninomya and Aaron Rosand.

Newman is a regular participant in the LA Phil’s Chamber Music Society and Green Umbrella series and has had the opportunity to play the Mendelssohn Octet with Joshua Bell, and Thomas Ades’ Piano Quintet with the composer playing piano. Newman can be heard on Grammy-winning Southwest Chamber Music’s recording of the First and Third String Quartets of Carlos Chávez. He has also recorded the music of Eric Zeisl for Harmonia Mundi, and Stories from My Favorite Planet by Los Angeles composer Russell Steinberg. Newman also gives performances at the Gold Coast Chamber Music Festival in the San Francisco area.

Currently, Newman teaches privately and coaches orchestra repertoire at the Colburn School. Each year he produces, performs, and narrates a concert in English and Spanish for the Los Angeles Philharmonic at St. Thomas Church. Also yearly, he produces and plays a fundraising chamber music concert for Mental Health America Long Beach and was recognized as a Mental Health Hero by the California State Senate. In the summer of 2010, Newman opened Hilltop Boot Camp: Orchestra Audition Preparation for Strings (playdonjuan.com). He also travels to Ensenada, Mexico to work with the students of the Benning Academy, a program that provides instruments and lessons to children of all economic backgrounds. Newman is President of the Board of the Los Angeles Youth Orchestra.

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Violinist Vijay Gupta

Viijay Gupta 02 Violinist Vijay Gupta joined the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 2007 at the age of 19, after completing a Master’s degree in Music from Yale University, and a Bachelor’s in biology from Marist College. His principal teachers have included Glenn Dicterow and Ani Kavafian. Gupta frequently appears on the Philharmonic’s Chamber Music and Green Umbrella series, and is actively engaged in various LA Phil educational outreach initiatives. Vijay made his solo debut at the age of eleven in Tel Aviv with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Zubin Mehta, has performed as a guest concertmaster with the Los Angeles Opera, Orquestra Comunitat de Valencia (Spain), and recently, as guest Leader of the Philharmonia Orchestra of London at the prestigious Three Choirs Festival in Worcester, U.K.

Gupta is a passionate and dedicated advocate for the presence of music in ostracized communities. He founded and serves as Artistic Director for Street Symphony, a non-profit organization dedicated to bringing free, live music to men, women, and youth living in homelessness and incarceration. A gifted spokesperson for human and mental health advocacy through a musical medium, Gupta is a TED Speaker, and a 2011 TED Senior Fellow. He is represented as a speaker by the Lavin Agency.

Vijay currently plays on a 1731 Domenico Montagnana violin, on generous loan through the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association. He also ownes and plays on a violin crafted by Los Angeles violinmaker Eric Benning. He lives in Angeleno Heights with his wife Samantha Lynne, and their Siamese cat, Louie.

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Violinist Tamamo Gibbs

Violinist Tamamo Someya Gibbs began taking violin lessons at the age of three. At age six she entered the Tokyo College of Music Prep School, where she received training in violin performance, aural skills, and music theory. Her secondary and post-secondary education took place at Toho High School, and Toho College of Music, respectively, under the guidance of Kenji Kobayashi.

Upon graduation, she was offered a position with the Shinsei Japan Symphony Orchestra, with which she played for several months, before she was invited to join the New World Symphony in Miami Beach as a Co-Principal Violinist. In 1995, she joined the Sacramento Symphony as a core first violinist, and at the end of 1996 she joined the first violin section of the Kansas City Symphony. In 1999, Tamamo was appointed Principal Second Violinist of the Kansas City Symphony, the position she currently holds, along with the Co-Concertmaster chair of the Kansas City Chamber Orchestra.

She has performed in Japan, the United States, France, Monaco, Israel, Brazil, and Argentina, and has participated in numerous music festivals including the Evian Music Festival in France, the National Repertoire Orchestra in Colorado, the Kent/Blossom Music Festival in Ohio, and the Grand Teton Music Festival in Wyoming. Past solo engagements include appearances with the National Repertory Orchestra, the Penn's Woods Music Festival Orchestra, the Kansas City Chamber Orchestra, the Overland Park Orchestra, and the Kansas City Symphony.

Tamamo currently resides in Olathe with her husband Mark Gibbs (Principal Cellist, Kansas City Symphony), and their daughters Mika and Maho.

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Violinist Christine Frank

Violinist Christine Frank is fortunate to perform a great variety of music, from the symphonic masterpieces of the 18th century to the brilliant TV animation scores of today. As a member of the Pacific Symphony and the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, she has performed with classical icons such as Plácido Domingo, Yo-Yo Ma, and Itzhak Perlman, as well as popular superstars like Willy Nelson, Bernadette Peters, and the Blue Man Group.

Chamber music performances have taken Christine to the music festivals of Aspen, Santa Fe, Norfolk, and Costa Rica. She performed across the United States with the Anacapa String Quartet, and premiered and recorded many new works as a member of Southwest Chamber Music. The Southwest recording of Carlos Chávez's chamber music won a Grammy Award in 2004.

Christine enjoys teaching violin to young beginners as well as advanced students. In addition to a small private studio, she teaches at Long Beach City College and Pacific Symphony's Santa Ana Strings. She has coached and performed at the San Diego Chamber Music Workshop and Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music.

Christine grew up in Vienna, Virginia and studied at the Cleveland Institute of Music (Bachelor of Music) and Yale School of Music (Master of Music). Her teachers have included Syoko Aki, Linda Cerone, and David Updegraff. She studied chamber music with the members of the Cavani, Colorado, and Tokyo String Quartets.

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Violinist Stacy Wetzel

Violinist Stacy Wetzel attended the Juilliard School and the San Francisco Conservatory. She studied at the Banff Centre and received her Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Washington and her Master of Music degree from the University of Michigan.

She was first-place winner in the Washington International Competition and the Buffalo Young Artists competition, and she won the Swiss Radio Prize in the Tibor Varga Competition in Switzerland.

Wetzel has been a soloist with the Los Angeles Chamber Symphony and the Buffalo Philharmonic. For two years she was the concertmaster of the Ann Arbor Chamber Orchestra, and she has performed with ensembles including the Soviet Émigré Chamber Orchestra, Chamber Music West, and the Michigan Chamber Players.

She was on the faculty of the University of Michigan and served on the faculty of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

She joined the San Francisco Symphony in 1987. In the fall of 1995, she followed her husband (who joined the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 1994) to Southern California and won the audition for a position in the second violin section of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

In 2001 she moved up to join the orchestra's first violin section. She made her concerto debut with the Philharmonic playing "Autumn" from Vivaldi's Four Seasons at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.

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