4:00pm

STROBE ENSEMBLE

Laura Griffiths, oboe

Laura Griffiths is Principal Oboe of the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra and was formerly Principal Oboe of The Cleveland Orchestra.  Since her first position as Principal Oboe of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, she has been guest Principal Oboist with many major orchestras across the country, including the San Francisco Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra.   Additionally, she spent several seasons as Acting Principal Oboe of the San Francisco Opera and one season as Acting Associate Principal Oboe with the San Francisco Symphony.  This past spring, she served as Associate Principal Oboe for the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra on a European tour.

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Laura has always been active as a chamber musician.  Her first group, the Pittsford Camerata, specialized in Baroque music and was comprised of former members of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and the Rochester Philharmonic.  Here in the Bay Area, Laura is a member of STROBE, a group dedicated to performing works for strings and oboe.

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Laura’s past summer festivals include Principal Oboe of the Britt Festival in Oregon, the Mainly Mozart Festival in San Diego, and the Midsummer Mozart Festival.  This summer she performed at La Jolla Summerfest.

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Laura is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music, where she studied with Richard Killmer.

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Ani Bukujian, violin

Ani Bukujian was born into a musical family and started playing the violin at the age of two and a half. When her grandmother gifted her with a toy violin, she would stand in front of the television while imitating famous violinists, such as Sarah Chang and Itzhak Perlman. Ani studied with her father exclusively until the age of 15.

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A native of Los Angeles, she is the winner of numerous musical competitions, including three gold medals at the World Championship of Performing Arts, and first place at the Bach Competition, the ASTA Annual National Solo Competition, and the Pasadena String Festival. At the age of 7, she was a solo performer in her debut concert with a chamber orchestra at the Alex Theatre in California. Ani was also part of the Viva-Vivaldi All-Girl Orchestra in Washington DC, being the youngest 1st violin in the orchestra.

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Ani has recently performed as a member of the Charleston Symphony Orchestra and has served as Concertmistress in the Miami Summer Music Festival, where she played the solo of Richard Strauss’ Also Sprach Zarathustra. She has also participated in other festivals such as Bowdoin Music Festival and Fontainebleau Festival in France. She has performed in venues such as David Geffen Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Carnegie’s Stern, Zankel, and Weill Hall as a chamber and orchestral musician as well as solo performer. Ani has collaborated with distinguished artists such as Kim Kashkashian, Ian Swensen, Dimitri Murrath and participated in masterclasses with teachers including Andres Cardenes, Aaron Rosand, Ruggiero Ricci, Abraham Shtern, Gerard Poulet, Dmitry Berlinsky, Ida Haendel and Pamela Frank among others.

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She holds both Bachelor and Master Degrees from The Juilliard School where she studied with Lewis Kaplan from 2011 to 2015 and Laurie Smukler from 2015 to 2017. She attended the San Francisco Conservatory where she studied with the concertmaster of San Francisco Symphony, Alexander Barantschik. Ani recently won the position of Principal Second violinist of the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra and concertmaster of Marin Symphony.

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Elizabeth Prior, viola

An active Bay Area violist, Elizabeth Prior is the principal violist with the Santa Rosa symphony and a member of the New Century Chamber Orchestra. Elizabeth is also the associate principal violist with the Marin Symphony, and season substitute with the San Francisco Ballet and San Francisco Opera. She performs regularly with the San Francisco Symphony and the Pittsburgh (PA) Symphony. Other orchestral credits include Freiburg Philharmonic (Associate principal) and the Cape Town Symphony. She has recently worked with the Las Vegas Philharmonic and the Reno Phil, the Südwestfunk (Southwest Radio, Germany), Stuttgart Radio, Basel Symphony, and the Mannheim Opera Orchestras. A native of South Africa, she was a prizewinner in the International String Competition in Pretoria and gave her debut at Carnegie Hall with the Russian Chamber Orchestra. She toured regularly as a soloist with the Chamber Ensemble of Cologne in France and was recently featured with the Santa Rosa Symphony.

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Other solo and chamber music engagements include:

Founder of the Broderick Ensemble, Amelia Island Chamber Music Festival, Sun Valley Summer Symphony, Midsummer Mozart and "Chamber Music San Francisco."   She is a member of the Farallon Quintet and Strobe Ensemble.

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Krisanthy Desby, cello

Krisanthy Desby has performed in orchestras and chamber ensembles in the U.S., Mexico, Europe, and South Africa. She was Associate Principal Cello of both the Napa Valley Symphony and the Santa Cruz Symphony, and continues to play with several orchestras throughout the Bay Area.  Before coming to San Francisco, she played in the Houston Symphony, as well as the Houston Ballet Orchestra and the Houston Grand Opera, and was a member of the Tucson Symphony. She founded the Laurel Ensemble, a mixed strings, winds, and piano chamber ensemble, which was active from 2005-2010, playing with the San Francisco Symphony’s Adventures in Music program and performing throughout the Bay Area, as well as in Los Angeles and at the Musicarama Festival in Hong Kong. She is a member of the Grand Teton Music Festival and Midsummer Mozart Festival, and has participated in the Mendocino Music Festival, Neuberg Kulturtage in Austria, and The Scotia Festival in Canada.