By Lyn Pohlmann
The word is out … the Bob Cole Conservatory of Music at CSULB has an amazing group of undergraduate and graduate young pianists who perform each April in Multi-Piano Extravaganza on April 13, that is in its 17th year.
Works for piano on the recent program included piano duos and 8-hand by Rachmaninoff, Shostakovich, Lavignac, and Mendelssohn (complete Concerto No. 1 in g). These same students, under the direction of Shun-Lin Chou, Director of Keyboard Studies, then take their program to the community and support special events and fund-raising efforts of numerous non-profits in the Long Beach area.
The group includes: Yitong Ding, Grace Hong, Robin Huang, Yanjun Liu, John Lonergan,Yinlin Ma, Clara Nguyen, Theodore Thai, and Derik Soltanian,
Numerous times in the last 10 or more years, the Seal Beach home of Lyn and John Pohlmann has become the site of “Prosecco, High Tea and Faziolis,” a lunch donated to various groups in the community for events celebrating a fund-raising occasion or time of installation and the beginning of a new year of service.
On Thursday, April 25, about 20 members of the Seal Beach group of the Philharmonic Society of Orange County were able to enjoy prosecco, savory sandwiches, dainty cookies, miniature muffins, scones, clotted cream, petite fours, giant fresh strawberries and, of course, tea, as a precursor to a full program of two piano pieces played on matching Fazioli pianos.
Their purpose is to raise funds to provide school children in Orange County the opportunity to hear music performed, provide instruments collected from the community to the schools for the use by the children, and volunteer hours of service providing ushers for special concerts at Segerstrom Hall, rehearsals of the Orange County Youth Symphony ,directed by Bob Cole professor Johannes Muller Stosch, Director of Orchestra Activities, and staffing the annual fund raiser, Huntington Harbor Cruise of Lights.
The event was repeated on Saturday, April 27 with a high tea purchased at the International City Theater’s Encore Fund Raiser last fall. Anna Ortiz, the Dean of the College of Education at CSULB, purchased the opportunity to invite 19 friends including staff, faculty and students from the Education Department to enjoy this memorable event.
My husband John and I regularly donate “high tea parties” to local non-profit groups in the greater Seal Beach Area. I have submitted a written article and several pictures of the students from CSULB who also donate their time to the events. I can be reached at lynjohn1964@gmail.com or 562 301 0580.
