Join us for a lunch hour recital featuring two stellar performers from the Oregon Symphony, live in the Memorial Union lounge on the Oregon State University campus.

OSU students, faculty and staff may join the live audience in the MU Lounge. Those off campus are invited to watch the livestream at: https://youtu.be/75kZ7zUkc-I

Sarah Kwak was appointed concertmaster of the Oregon Symphony in 2012. Since then, she has performed to critical acclaim throughout Oregon. Hailed as a “world-class soloist,” Kwak is renowned for her “lyrical depth, thoughtful phrasing, myriad shadings of tone and easy technical prowess.” After her concerto debut with the Oregon Symphony, the Oregonian said she “tore it up in a performance as dazzling as any recent star guest soloist.”

Kwak joined the Oregon Symphony after serving as first Associate Concertmaster of the Minnesota Orchestra from 1988 to 2012 and Acting Concertmaster from January 2010 to September 2011. A 2008 McKnight Artist Fellowship winner, has appeared as soloist with numerous orchestras including the Philadelphia Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Houston Symphony, and Curtis Chamber Orchestra. She has served on the faculty of Princeton University and the University of Nevada at Reno.

An avid chamber musician, she was a founding member of the Rosalyra String Quartet, which made its New York debut in 1996 and was awarded a McKnight Artist Fellowship in 2000. Kwak has toured with “Musicians from Marlboro” and participated in the festivals of Marlboro, Chamber Music Northwest, Portland Piano International, Pittsburgh Summerfest, Bargemusic of New York, Festival Mozart in France, Siletz Bay and Astoria. In addition, in 2014, Kwak was appointed Concertmaster of the Oregon Bach Festival and has also served as guest Concertmaster with the Utah Symphony.

Born in Boston and raised in Lawrence, Kansas, Kwak studied briefly at the Vienna Hochschule für Musik before entering the Curtis Institute of Music at the age of 12. Among her teachers were Joseph Sivo, Ivan Galamian, and Szymon Goldberg. Kwak is a founding member and executive director of Classical Up Close, a non-profit organization whose mission is to make classical music accessible to all by presenting free chamber music concerts in neighborhoods around the Portland metro area where people work, live and play.

Vali Phillips joined the Oregon Symphony in 2012. Before moving to Portland, Vali was a longtime member of the Minnesota Orchestra, with whom he served as principal second violin for 11 seasons before joining the first violin section in 2008. Vali made his solo debut with Minnesota, performing Bruch’s First Violin Concerto in 2001; during his tenure, Vali also soloed with Dvořák’s Romance, the “Summer” concerto from Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons, and in 2007, Bach’s Double Violin Concerto with then-first associate concertmaster Sarah Kwak. During the Minnesota Orchestra’s Sommerfest 2004, Vali played Shostakovich’s Trio in E minor with pianist André Watts.

Before moving to Minnesota, Phillips served as concertmaster of the Savannah Symphony Orchestra, and associate concertmaster for both the Erie Philharmonic, and the Charleston Symphony. As a soloist, he has appeared with the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra and the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as in recital at Carnegie Hall. Vali spent two summers at the Tanglewood Festival and has performed at the Grand Teton Music Festival.

Phillips graduated from the Eastman School of Music, where he studied under Charles Castleman. He began his musical training at Project STEP (String Training and Education Program), a non-profit program for minority children in his native Boston. At Project STEP, Vali studied with artistic director Farhoud Moshfegh. As a way of giving back to the program that nurtured his early music studies, Vali performed a benefit recital for Project STEP at the New England Conservatory. With three colleagues from the Minnesota Orchestra, Vali co-founded the Minneapolis Quartet, which won a McKnight Artist Fellowship in 2006.