02/26/08

Avanti Quartet

In 2004, the Avanti Quartet was formed with four dedicated professional women of diverse backgrounds.  The quartet members are Tamsen Beseke and Carrie Kennedy,  violins, Kaila Potts, viola, and Fang Fang Xu, cello. From the East, the Far East, and the West, they have joined together in Southern California, sharing a fun-loving passion and technical aplomb for music.  They have each performed in concert venues from Carnegie Hall to Disney Hall, and from Beijing to Canada.  Their talent can be heard in the Los Angeles Opera Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Pasadena Symphony, and New West Symphony, as well as on soundtracks for major motion pictures and TV programs.  In addition to their active concert careers, they have adjudicated and taught hundreds of students from the age of three to university level.  

Holding degrees in music performance ranging from Bachelor of Arts to Doctorates, the quartet has performed for the Pasadena Symphony Musical Circus, Tsunami and Hurricane Katrina benefit concerts for the Red Cross, and additional concerts in the Los Angeles area.  Late in 2005, the ensemble received original manuscripts of four unpublished String Quartets by George W. Chadwick which they are preparing for future performances.  In the spring of 2006, the Avanti Quartet conducted Master Classes and performed as artists in residence at Clemson University in South Carolina.  The Quartet was selected to perform in The Tempo Educational Concert Series in 2007, giving concerts to children in the San Gabriel Valley.  They are also proud to have been selected by the Coleman Chamber Music Association to perform their academic concert series for Pasadena schools in 2009

Beginning her studies at the age of 14,  Tamsen Beseke worked very hard to prepare auditions for San Gabriel Youth Symphony and the Southern California Honor Orchestra.  She later received a Bachelor of Arts with honors in Performance and Teaching from the California State University at Los Angeles.  Tamsen is an active soloist, chamber, studio and orchestral musician, performing over 125 concerts a year. Being a promoter of new works, Tamsen has given several world and area premieres of concertos, chamber music, operatic and orchestral works.  Her career over the last 25 years has had her performing with such notable artists as: Placido Domingo, Luciano Pavarotti, Jose Carreras, Zubin Mehta, Henryk Szeryng, Joshua Bell, Gil Shaham, The Beaux Arts Trio, and The Sequoia Quartet.  In addition to these classical musicians, Tamsen has performed and recorded with the following popular artists:  Lalo Schifrin, Frank Capp, Ray Charles, Diane Schuur, George Benson, Barry White, Doc Severenson, Jay Leno, Michael Jackson, James Galway, Roger Williams, David Foster, and Bobby Vinton. 

Ms. Kennedy has won numerous awards including 1^st place in the National Federation of Music Clubs Young Artists Competition with two years of concert engagements and 1^st place in the American String Teachers Association Competition. 

Ms. Kennedy’s passion for chamber music has afforded her many opportunites. She performed concerts in France at the French-American Chamber Music Festival with the Kalos Quartet. She was invited to attend the Amelia Island Chamber Music Festival, as a member of the featured young artist quartet where her quartet was coached by the American Quartet, Guarneri Quartet, Takacs Quartet, Lynn Harrell, Hilary Hahn, Kim Kashkashian, Andre Watts, and Misha Dichter. While at Stony Brook University , Ms. Kennedy’s quartet studied with the Emerson Quartet, and she performed the Schubert C Major Cello Quintet with David Finckel.

During the summers of 2004 and 2005, Ms. Kennedy was a fellow at the Tanglewood Music Festival where she served as concertmaster under Rafael Fruhbeck de Burgos and was broadcast live on New York ’s WQXR in Strauss’s Ein Heldenleben.

Ms. Kennedy, holds a Master of Music Degree in violin performance from the State University of New York at Stony Brook where she studied with Pamela Frank and Ani Kavafian.  She also holds a Bachelor of Music Degree from the University of Southern California where she studied with Robert Lipsett.

She currently resides in Los Angeles , where she performs with the Musica Angelica Baroque Orchestra, Pasadena Symphony, New West Symphony, Riverside Symphony, Santa Barbara Symphony, Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestra, and the LA Master Chorale. She has appeared with popular artists such as Andrea Bocelli, Wayne Brady, Earth Wind and Fire, Richard Marx, Tommy Sims, Dennis DeYoung, and Dr. John.

Violist Kaila Potts is the First Place Senior Division Laureate of the 7th national Sphinx Competition 2004. In addition to winning the Sphinx Competition, Ms. Potts is the first prize winner of numerous competitions, including the 2003 Geraldine B. Gee International Viola Competition, and the Ennio Bolonini Scholarship Competition, as well as third prize in the Clara Baur Instrumental Competition. 

Her solo performances have taken her to appear with orchestras throughout the United States including solo engagements with the Cleveland Orchestra and the Cincinnati , Pittsburgh , New Jersey , Puerto Rico , Hartford , Atlanta , Memphis , Colorado , and Grand Rapids Symphonies, in addition to performances in Asia , Europe , and Israel . Ms. Potts is a recipient of a Fellowship Award from the Music Academy of the West, as well as an Orchestral Fellowship recipient with the Aspen Music Festival for four summers and recently made appearances in festivals in Brazil , France , and Alaska . She began her career as an orchestral musician with the Kentucky Symphony Orchestra where she served as assistant principal violist until 2003.  She performs regularly with the Avanti String Quartet and as an avid chamber musician has colloborated with many highly esteemed artists including Midori Goto, Ronald Leonard, Peter Salaff.

Ms. Potts was born in Los Angeles , CA and raised in Las Vegas , NV . Her viola studies began at the viola at age 11 with John Sullivan. She began studying violin at age 14 with Rebecca Ramsey in addition to her viola studies. Her musical pursuits brought her to the College Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati to study violin and viola under the instruction of Piotr Milewski, Masao Kawasaki, and Catharine Carroll, where she earned her Bachelor of Music in Violin and Viola Performance. Currently Ms. Potts is pursuing a Masters degree in Viola with Donald McInnes at the University of Southern California where she also earned a Graduate Certificate in Performance.

Fang Fang Xu began her musical career in Beijing, China. She attended the Central Conservatory of Music at age nine and performed thru out China and Singapore. Since her move to the United States she has won numerous solo awards, some of which include Peninsula International Young Artist Competition, Redlands Bowl Young Artist Competition, Sigma Alpha Iota International Music Fraternity Competition and Beverly Hills Young Artist Concert Series. She has performed as soloist with the Pacific Symphony, Pasadena Community Symphony, USC Thornton Symphony and Thornton Chamber Orchestra. She has been invited to prestigious international music festivals such as Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival in Germany, and Guadalajara Music Festival in Mexico, working with eminent conductors such as Christoph Eschenbach, Mstislav Rostropovitch, Kurt Sanderling and Helmut Rilling.