St. Matthew’s Music Guild to Continue 40th Season in Santa Monica

By SARAH SHMERLING | Editor-in-Chief

St. Matthew’s Music Guild will continue its 40th season of concerts with a program of “romantic and soulful music” for Valentine’s Day on Friday, February 14, beginning at 7:30 p.m. at St. Augustine’s-by-the-Sea in Santa Monica.

“The Music Guild’s regular home, St. Matthew’s Church in Pacific Palisades, was miraculously spared in the Palisades fire,” read a statement from Music Guild, “and the Music Guild will return to present concerts there as soon as possible.”

The Valentine’s Day program will feature pianist David Kaplan, alongside violinist YuEun Gemma Kim, soprano Liv Redpath, violist Che-Yen Chen, cellist Ben Hong and bassist Jory Herman. They will perform “the romantic and intimate vocal and chamber music” of Franz Schubert, Johannes Brahms, Aaron Copland and Caroline Shaw.

“David Kaplan has been called ‘excellent and adventurous’ by the New York Times and praised by the Boston Globe for ‘grace and fire’ at the keyboard,” according to Music Guild. “He has appeared as a soloist with the Britten Sinfonia at London’s Barbican and Das Sinfonie Orchester Berlin at the Philharmonie. As a recitalist, he has performed at the Ravinia Festival, Sarasota Opera House, Washington’s National Gallery, and New York’s Carnegie and Merkin Halls. Kaplan has consistently drawn critical acclaim for creative programs that interweave classical and contemporary repertoire.”

Redpath—described by Berliner Umschau as possessing “such a radiant voice, effortless even in the highest register”—will join Kaplan in Copland’s “Songs of Emily Dickinson,” as well as songs of Schubert, Brahms and Shaw.

“Violinist YuEun Gemma Kim studied with renowned violinist Midori Goto at the USC Thornton School of Music,” according to Music Guild. “She is concertmaster of The Chamber Orchestra at St. Matthew’s, a member of the Yu&I Duo and performs regularly with the chamber ensemble Delirium Musicum based in Los Angeles, of which she is a founding member.”

Chen is a member of LA Philharmonic, and professor of viola performance and chamber music at UCLA. Hong, who joined LA Philharmonic in 1993 at the age of 24, currently serves as associate principal cellist.

“Jory Herman is ‘proof that bassists can be just as nimble and expressive as cellists,’ according to The Strad Magazine,” the Music Guild statement continued. “He joined the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 2017 and is the professor of bass at California State University, Northridge.”

St. Augustine’s-by-the-Sea is located at 1227 Fourth Street. Tickets for the concert are available for $45 or as part of a Music Guild season pass.

For more information or to purchase tickets, visit musicguildonline.org or call 310-573-7422.