Our Music Professors

David Black

David Black has been a bassist with Pacific Symphony for over 25 years.  He studied with Bertram Turetzky, as well as Dennis Trembly, principal bassist of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.  From 1984-89, Black was the solo bassist for the Roger Wagner Chorale, touring and recording three albums. Black has spent many summers performing with music festivals including the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music and the Ojai Music Festival.  Black has played with many other orchestras in Southern California, including the Long Beach Opera, and the San Diego, Pasadena, Redlands and Riverside symphonies.  

Lyubov Solovyova

Originally from Ukraine, Lyubov Solovyova is the assistant principal and substitute principal cellist in the La Mirada Symphony. She has been teaching cello for more than 15 years. 

After moving to the USA in 2008 Ms. Solovyova joined the faculty of the Moscow Music Center as a cello and music theory teacher. Starting from 2018, Lyubov Solovyova is an Artist in Residence at Whittier College.

As a soloist and ensemble player, Lyubov has participated in numerous competitions and festivals such as the Baroque Music Festival in Lviv, the Contemporary Music Festival in Odessa, the Mykola Lysenko International Music Competition in Kyev, and The Art of XXI competition in Vorzel. Ms. Solovyova has also participated in several orchestras including the Chamber Orchestra of Odessa's Philharmonic and Odessa's National Symphony.

Victor Barrientos

Victor Barrientos has performed with Celia Cruz, Aretha Franklin, Vikki Carr, Charro, Trini Lopez, Nell Carter, Lillias White, Michael Sembello, Russ Freeman (Rippingtons), HB Barnum, Ernie Fields, Jr., Clare Fischer, Bob Florence, Red Callendar, Danilo Lozano, Cuba L.A., Quí West, Jeff Clayton, Frank Emilio Flynn, Jesus “Chucho” Valdes, Justo Almario, Jose Rizo’s Jazz On The Latin Side All Stars & Mongorama, Luther Hughes, Jeff Kashiwa, Susie Hansen, the Estrada Brothers, Tierra, Gualberto Castro, Lalo Guerrero, Vicentico Valdéz, Mario “Papaito” Muñoz, “Fame” television series, Cold Duck, Hip Street (Tower of Power tribute band), Jimmy Imperial, Jess Acuña and David Piper. Vic studied drums/percussion privately with Murray Spivack, Wally Snow, Walter Goodwin, Dale Anderson, David Garibaldi, Danilo Lozano, José Luis Quintana, and Ralph Humphrey. He has a Bachelor of Science Degree from Cal State University Los Angeles in Business Education. Currently, Vic is the drum instructor (Artist-in-Residency) at Whittier College, has been active in several educational performances throughout the greater Southern, CA area and has also been mentioned in various articles in Latin Beat Magazine.

Jose Arellano

Jose Arellano is a talented multi-instrumentalist who has been performing for more than 40 years.  He has performed and shared the stage with artists such as Gerald Wilson, Justo Almario, Arturo Velasco, Luis Bonilla, Bobby Rodriguez, Wayne Brady, and many others.  He has performed with the Latin R&B group “Tierra”, Jose Rizo’s Jazz on the Latin Side All Stars, and various other local groups such as Son Mayor, Opa Opa, Phil Robinson, Chico, Suave, Rudy Macias Orchestra, Cold Duck, and the Tom Nolan Band.  Jose is quite capable on several instruments, including the piano, trombone, bass, accordion, and guitar.              

In addition to performing, Jose Arellano is also a respected arranger, having arranged for Cal State LA Afro-Cuban band, Memphis State University, Riverside City College, Luis Bonilla, Susie Hansen, Cui Cui Rangel, Dr. Bobby Rodriguez, and many others.  Every holiday season, Jose directs the St. Lucy’s Christmas Big Band, which plays his Latin Jazz arrangements.  

Mr. Arellano is also a prominent educator.  He has been teaching since 1989, mainly at Roosevelt High School in Boyle Heights, but also has taught at LA Mission College, Cal State University Los Angeles, and Whittier College.

Brian Barany

Brian Barany is a classical guitarist who divided his time between performing, arranging, and teaching.  Dr. Barany holds a Doctorate in Classical Guitar Performance from the University of Southern California, a Master of Music from Azusa Pacific, and a Bachelor of Music from Cal State Northridge.  He has studied guitar, music theory, and arranging with William Kanengiser, Scott Tennant, Pepe Romero, Michael Kozubek, Steven Thachuk, Brian Head, Richard Smith, Pat Kelly, Adam Hawley, and Tom Hynes. Dr. Barany is a certified  Suzuki Guitar Instructor.

In addition to playing solo classical guitar, Dr. Barany has many years of chamber music experience.  Presently, he is a member of the Westside Duo, in which he explores classical, jazz, and popular music.

Stephanie Thomas

Stephanie Thomas grew up in the Seattle area and while there studied with Anna Cloud and Christopher Leuba.  She moved to Los Angeles and received her Bachelor’s Degree in Horn Performance from the University of Southern California.  While there she had the privilege of studying with Jim Decker and Vincent DeRosa.  She has been a free-lance musician in Los Angeles ever since.  Stephanie regularly performs with the Pacific Symphony, LA Philharmonic, LA Opera Orchestra, San Diego Symphony, Santa Barbara Symphony, Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestra, Long Beach Symphony and the Long Beach Municipal Band.  She has performed in numerous Broadway shows at the Schubert, Ahmanson and Pantages Theatres such as: Wicked, Lion King, The Producers, and Phantom of the Opera.  She also has extensive studio recording experience in TV, radio, audio recordings and motion picture soundtracks.  Some most recently: Terminator, Charlie’s Angels, Lion King, Deadpool 2, Alita, and Greatest Showman.

Cesar Mejia

Cesar Mejia is an L.A. based engineer and producer.  He has worked with Grammy Award winning artists such as Herbie Hancock, Los Lobos, Brian Eno, Will.I.Am of the Black Eyed Peas, and Zach de la Rocha of Rage Against the Machine.

When Mejia attended Cal State L.A. in 1991, he ended up in a computer music course. That inspired his first little computer studio in his parents’ home and the purchase of a 4-track recorder. After recording his own band on the 4-track, Mejia became known as the go-to guy to produce and engineer all the local punk and rock bands. Right before graduation, an engineer named Dave Hampton spoke during one of his classes. Afterwards, Mejia approached him with an offer: “If you need somebody to roll cables for you, I’ll do it.” This offer lead to his contact with Herbie Hancock.

This conversation would be the beginning of an ongoing 15-year relationship with Hampton.  Upon Hampton’s departure to Prince’s Peasley Park, Herbie Hancock’s studio enlisted Mejia with more advanced technical responsibilities.  In fact, Mejia had no idea that Hancock had even noticed him throughout the years, but he had, and around five years ago, Mejia came to engineer some projects. His association with Hancock has resulted in wonderful projects. In 2007 for a Herbie Hancock’s Tribute concert, Mejia had the opportunity to record Sting, Joni Mitchell, Wayne Shorter, Al Jarreau, George Duke and George Benson. Mejia was mixer and sound effects supervisor on “Cuba: The Forgotten Revolution” which won an Emmy Award in the category of Best Documentary in 2016.  

Cesar Mejia holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Digital Media Arts and a Master of Arts in Technology based Education for California State University, Dominguez Hills. He has taught courses on music production, mixing and mastering, audio engineering (both beginning and advanced), music synthesis and recording studio maintenance.

Joseph Stone

Joseph Stone is a full-time free-lance musician in the Los Angeles area. He is Principal Oboe of the Chamber Orchestra of the South Bay, Burbank Philharmonic Orchestra, Long Beach Municipal Band, and the Desert Symphony, and Second Oboe of the Long Beach Symphony. Recent solo appearances include performing the Mozart Oboe Concerto with the Burbank Philharmonic Orchestra (2016) and Bach Double Concerto with L.A. Phil Concertmaster Martin Chalifour and the Chamber Orchestra of the South Bay (2017). 

Mr. Stone has performed with The L.A. Philharmonic, Pacific Symphony, L.A. Chamber Orchestra, L.A. Opera, Santa Barbara Symphony, Santa Barbara Opera, Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestra, Pasadena Symphony, and was past principal oboe for Long Beach Opera and the Pageant of the Masters. 

In the studios he regularly performs on oboe, English horn, flutes, clarinets, saxophones and recorders. He is heard as English horn soloist on the scores for Star Wars: Rogue One, Jurassic World and Zootopia. He has played on the latest albums for Johnny Mathis, and Barry Manilow, for TV series Coach, Dawson Creek, Star Trek:Voyager, and Once Upon a Time and movie scores The Incredibles, Ratatouille, Up, Super 8, Inside/Out, Frozen, Bridge of Spies, Finding Dory, Star Trek:Beyond, Moana, and Coco to name but a few of the more than 60 film scores he has performed on. 

Mr. Stone holds both Bachelor and Master’s degrees from University of Southern California in Oboe Performance, is an adjunct Professor of Oboe at the Cole Conservatory of Music at CSULB, and teaches oboe, clarinet, and saxophone at Whittier College.

Theresa Dimond

Theresa Dimond is currently the principal percussionist of the Los Angeles Opera Orchestra. She has been a member of the orchestra since its inception in 1985. 

As a free-lance musician in Los Angeles, Dimond has worked with every orchestral ensemble in the city, including the LA Philharmonic and Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. As well as her duties at LA Opera, she is currently Principal Percussion of the Pasadena Symphony and Pops and Principal Timpanist of Muse/ique, the Los Angeles Master Chorale and the California Philharmonic. She has worked with many preeminent conductors including Leonard Bernstein, Michael Tilson Thomas, Jeffrey Kahane, Placido Domingo, Herbert Blomstedt, Kent Nagano, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Gustavo Dudamel and James Conlon. A highlight of her career has been performing with soprano Dawn Upshaw, and members of the Boston Symphony, on a contemporary music tour. Dr. Dimond has also appeared as soloist at the Aspen, Sun Valley and Tanglewood Summer Music Festivals.

Dimond serves on the faculties of  Whittier College , UCLA, UC, Irvine, Pomona College, and Cerritos College. In 1998, she founded TouchDown Publications, a music publishing company which edits and publishes opera percussion parts.

One of a handful of experts on the cimbalom, a Hungarian hammered dulcimer, she has performed with Pierre Boulez, Lalo Schifrin, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Kurt Masur, Dawn Upshaw, and Grant Gershon on that specialty instrument. Her recording credits include The Curious Case of Benjamin Buttons, Far from Heaven, The Dewey Cox Story, Rush Hour 3, Rocky 5, and Edward Scissorhands, to name but a few.

Hee-Seung Lee

Praised for her exceptional musicality and understanding of style, pianist Hee-Seung Lee has appeared internationally as a soloist and a collaborative artist. Dr. Lee has won First Prize in numerous competitions including Eum Hyup Competition of Korea, Redlands Bowl Young Artist Competition, MTAC State Concerto Competition, SYMF Young Recitalist, Glendale Piano Competition and Palisades Symphony Young Artist Competition among many others and prize winner of Los Angeles Liszt International Competition and Rotary Club International Competition. Dr. Lee has presented piano solo and duo recitals as a guest artist at colleges and prestigious venues such as National Arts Center in the Philippines while her chamber performances were exclusively heard at Seoul Arts Center in Korea, LACMA Bing Theater, Soka Performing Arts Center and Steinway Piano Galleries. Her chamber performances at the Bing Theatre were broadcasted live over the FM radio through Sundays Live Concerts while her solo in Redlands Bowl aired on the cable TV. Dr. Lee has world premiered works by Roman Ryterband, Donald Wilson, Joel Balzun, west-coast premiered works by Don Freund, Elliott Bark and Shinuh Lee. 

Her passion for early music was demonstrated through performances with Camerata Barocca Claudio Monteverdi from Italy, American Bach Soloists Festival, San Francisco Early Music Society Baroque Workshop, Los Angeles Chamber Choir, USC Baroque Sinfonia and Whittier College’s Bach Festival performing small to large works such as J.S. Bach’s St. John Passion and Cantatas, Handel’s Messiah and Dixit Dominus.

Received BM from Oberlin Conservatory of Music under full scholarship, received a piano faculty prize upon graduation, MM and Performer Diploma from Indiana University under fellowship, and DMA from USC Thornton School of Music under merit scholarship, Dr. Lee is a pupil of Daniel Pollack, Angela Cheng, Arnaldo Cohen, Jean-Louis Haguenauer, Elisabeth Wright and Lucinda Carver, and received a significant influence from Mack McCray, John Perry, Yoheved Kaplinsky, Corey Jamason and Peter Sykes. 

Has served Associate Instructor of Piano at Indiana University, Assistant to the director of the Early Music Program at USC, Pianist of Ensemble Christo, piano faculty at Concordia University Irvine for Summer Chamber Music Camp in 2021, Dr. Lee is an adjunct professor of piano at Biola University Conservatory of Music and adjunct professor of piano and harpsichord at Whittier College. She is an active board member of MTAC, MTNA, CAPMT and SYMF. Dr. Lee is a sought-after adjudicator of many competitions and auditions. Her students have won top prizes in American Protege International Competition, American Fine Arts Festival International Competition, International Music Competition "Vienna" Grand Prize Virtuoso, Young Muse International Competition, Satori Young Pianist Contest and SYMF Competition among many others and were heard at prestigious venues such as Weill Recital Hall of Carnegie Hall, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Moscow State Art Gallery and St. Petersburg Concert Hall in Russia.

James Ford III

James Ford, III is a native of Georgia. Since moving to Los Angeles in 2003, he has established an impressive reputation as an accomplished all-around trumpet player. He performs in diverse musical settings including big band, small groups, orchestral, chamber, pop, and early music ensembles. Ford continues to experiment and broaden his musical palette. He is a member of the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra, John Beasely's MONKestra, and the Benjamin Wright Orchestra. Ford has played in venues in Europe, Asia, South America, South Africa, Canada, and throughout the U.S.  

Dr. Ford holds the Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of North Texas.  He also holds the Master of Music and Master of Music Education from University of North Texas and the Bachelor of Music from Valdosta State University.

Samvel Chilingarian

Samvel Chilingarian is a violinist and conductor. Mr. Chilingarian enjoys a varied career as a performer, educator, and conductor. An avid chamber musician, Mr. Chilingarian has toured extensively throughout Europe, Japan, the United States, and Central America with The Melos Ensemble, Vienna Sinfonietta, Orchestra Internazionale d´Italia, and Ensemble Nine.

A native of Armenia, Mr. Chilingarian began his musical studies at age five. After receiving a Bachelor of Music from the California State University, Northridge, and a Master of Music from the University of Missouri in Kansas City, Mr. Chilingarian moved to Vienna in 1990 to continue his studies in authentic performance and conducting. While in Vienna, Mr. Chilingarian joined the Pons Artis Chamber Orchestra, the Kammer Oper Orchestra, and the Niederosterrichische Tonkunstler Orchestra. While in Austria, Mr. Chilingarian was invited to conduct the Linz Summer Festival Youth Orchestra in 1994.

Since his return to Los Angeles in 1995, Mr. Chilingarian´s focus has been to bring spirited music to young musicians. Mr. Chilingarian conducts the East Los Angeles Symphony Orchestra and is the Artistic Director of the Verdugo Young Musicians Association (VYMA). 

Mr. Chilingarian has been featured on the Sundays Live radio broadcast Classical 105.1 K-Mozart as well as on 91.5 KUSC "Spotlight on The Arts". Mr. Chilingarian serves on the faculty of East Los Angeles College and continues to perform with the Elixir Piano Trio.

Lacey Jo Benter

American opera singer, multi-instrumentalist and educator Lacey Jo Benter has been lauded by the New York Times as having a "rich, warm tone" while bringing a "broad emotional palette" to the stage. Native to Cedar Rapids, Iowa she completed a two year residency at LA Opera with the Domingo-Colburn Stein Young Artist Program in 2016 where she debuted in the Grammy award winning production of John Corigliano's The Ghosts of Versailles. Also at LA Opera she sang “Clotilde” in Norma, “Kate Pinkerton” in Madame Butterfly, “Persephone” in Morganelli's Hercules vs Vampires and provided the Alto solo in Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle. She received her Bachelor's of Music in Vocal Performance from Lawrence University in Appleton, WI before attending The Juilliard School where she received a Master's of Music in 2011 followed by an Artist Diploma of Opera Studies in 2014. While pursuing her degrees she performed such operatic roles as "Madame de Croissy" from Poulenc's Les Dialogues des Carmélites, "Ma Moss" from Copland's The Tender Land, "Zita" from Puccini's Gianni Schicchi and "Le Prince Charmant" from Massenet's Cendrillon as well as musical theater pieces including "Fraülein Schneider" in Cabaret, "Princess Puffer" in The Mystery of Edwin Drood, and multiple roles in Working the Musical. She has completed Young Artist apprenticeships with both Central City Opera and the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. She has appeared with Gustavo Dudamel and the LA Philharmonic in Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy, returning for several roles in Unsuk Chin’s Alice in Wonderland, which she reprised for her Barbican Hall debut with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. She has been conducted by musical master John Adams with the LA Phil in the multimedia performance of his Nixon in China and returned to the LA Phil in 2020 appearing in their exciting Weimar Nightfall production, conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen. She has performed regionally with Opera Omaha and Opera Columbus and in 2019 self-produced and performed The Wagner Project, a reworking of 5 short pieces by Wagner known as the “Wesendonck Lieder”, fused together with icons of modern day music including Beyoncé and David Bowie. Most recently she has appeared as the District Attorney in Long Beach Opera’s most recent production of “The Central Park Five'', and will appear on the corresponding commercial recording of the opera, scheduled to be released later this year. Lacey relishes the opportunity to teach others the joy of singing - specifically the ability to sing multiple genres of music.