Monday, September 28
12 PM
Karen Follingstad, piano
Alan Busteed, violin
Daniel Grab, cello
Dr. Karen Follingstad has been professor of piano at SDSU since 1984 and served as head of the piano department from 2013 to 2021. She taught at Kent State University at the University of Akron. As artist faculty at the Kent-Blossom Music Festival, she has joined principal players of the Cleveland Orchestra for summer concerts in chamber music.
A graduate of the Curtis Institute, Frankfurt Hochschule für Musik, Indiana University and the University of Texas in Austin, pianist Karen Follingstad has performed extensively throughout Europe and North America. She recorded for Der Hessische Rundfunk and NRK Radio. Appearances as soloist with the Minnesota Orchestra, the Blossom Festival Orchestra, and the San Diego Chamber Orchestra were career highlights.
Follingstad has given recitals with cellists Yo Yo Ma and Carter Brey, New York Philharmonic principal violist Cynthia Phelps, violinists Cho-Laing Lin, Kathleen Winkler, and Eugene Fodor.
She was artist faculty at the Semper International Music Festival in Dolomites, Italy, and faculty of the Bravo International Festival in San Diego. At the Athenaeum in La Jolla, she played a series of concerts with violinist Andrés Cárdenes, former concertmaster of the Pittsburgh Symphony.
Alan Busteed trained at the Manhattan School of Music with legendary Russian professor Raphael Bronstein—having played violin masterclasses of Yehudi Menuhin, Henryk Szeryng, Franco Gullli, and Ruggiero Ricci—Busteed brings an old-world sensibility to his music making. He has performed as a concerto soloist with orchestras on three continents. In 2009, he presented masterclasses and conducted a televised orchestra concert in Recife, Brazil. As professor of chamber music, he served as violin and viola faculty at the Academia Superior de Orquestra in Lisbon, Portugal from 1994 until 2001. Alan has played with the San Diego and Fort Worth Symphonies.
In chamber music, he was a violinist with the Sepia Ensemble and a founding member of the Orion Piano Trio in New York City. While in Europe, he was a violinist for the Quartetto Metropolis. He has appeared on two dozen chamber music series throughout Southern California.
He was assistant concertmaster for the Orquesta Sinfonica de Castillo y Leon in Spain, with frequent concerts in Salamanca and Burgos, and played principal viola in concert with the San Diego Chamber Orchestra. Busteed is a recording artist—a 2021 Latin Grammy winner with Tinto Tango Quintet, a film musician with Oscar credits, and a voting member of The Recording Academy in Los Angeles.
Cellist Daniel Grab performs regularly in North County San Diego. He served as principal cellist of the Poway Symphony Orchestra and lead cellist for the acclaimed Cabrillo Chamber Orchestra. Trained at USC with the distinguished pedagogue Eleanor Schoenfeld—he was a repeat soloist with the San Fernando Valley Symphony in Los Angeles, playing concertos close to home in an orchestra where both his parents played cello. With repeat appearances with the San Fernando Valley Symphony, he has performed cello concertos by Haydn, Saint-Saens, Boccerini and Tchaikovsky.
Grab has played with the San Diego Symphony. He enjoys his frequent concerts in chamber music throughout Southern California. He is a founding member of Duo Chaparral with his wife, flutist Katie Grab, and with Trio Aquarelle with instrumentation of flute, cello and piano. Grab is a dedicated teacher who boasts a stream of award-winning students in his North County cello studio. He takes off to Spain to teach and coach chamber music in the summer as artist faculty at the Burgos International Music Festival.
For more information, contact us at 858-454-5872 or visit ljathenaeum.org/mini-concerts
The concerts will be in person at the Athenaeum Music & Arts Library. There are no physical tickets for these events. Doors open at 11:40 a.m. Last entry is at 12:10 p.m. or once capacity is reached. Seating is first-come; first-served. Reservations are not necessary, but seating is limited.