Violist Richard Yongjae O’Neill

For the final program as part of his residency at The Broad Stage, Violist Richard Yongjae O’Neill pays tribute to two titans of the 20th Century who forever changed the course of music and who both spent their final years in Los Angeles, Arnold Schoenberg and Igor Stravinsky.
As part of the emigration of Europeans to America around the Second World War, Schoenberg and Stravinsky occupied two radically different camps, Viennese and French/Russian, both of which helped to found the thriving musical culture we now enjoy in Southern California. The Great Brahms Piano Quintet ends the program. Special guests include cellist Fred Sherry, violinists Jennifer Frautschi and Jesse Mills, pianist Orion Weiss and a pre-concert discussion with Lawrence Schoenberg, son of Arnold Schoenberg.
Violist Richard Yongjae O’Neill has appeared as soloist with the London, Los Angeles and Seoul Philharmonics, BBC, KBS and Hiroshima Symphony Orchestra, and the Wurttemburg, Vienna and Kremerata Baltica Chamber Orchestras. Highlights of this season include the premiering John Harbison’s Viola Sonata written for him and Molly Morkowski, serving as Artist-In-Residence at The Broad Stage in Santa Monica and celebrating his fifteen-year anniversary of concerts in Korea with a special appearance of the Ehnes Quartet at Seoul Arts Center.
A recording artist with UNIVERSAL/Deutsche Grammophon, he has made nine solo albums that have sold over 200,000 copies. He is a member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Camerata Pacifica and the Ehnes Quartet. Composers Lera Auerbach, Elliott Carter, John Harbison, Huang Ruo and Paul Chihara have written and dedicated works to him. His chamber music project DITTO has introduced tens of thousands to chamber music in South Korea and Japan. The first violist to receive the Artist Diploma from The Juilliard School, he was honored with a Proclamation from the New York City Council. He serves as Goodwill Ambassador for the Korean Red Cross, CARE, UNICEF and runs marathons for charity.