Ines Irawati, piano & Sophie Webber, cello

Free concerts at noon every other Monday from fall through spring . . . no wonder the Mini-Concerts are the longest-running and one of the most popular classical music series at the library! This series was founded by Glenna Hazleton in 1970 at the Athenaeum, and has been going strong ever since. The concerts feature both local and touring musicians, prize-winning students, university music faculty members, local chamber ensembles. . . and the repertoire also includes jazz, folk and world music. There are no reservations, no tickets . . . just line up at the side door of the Athenaeum before noon. (Donations are always welcome!) Mini-Concerts take place every other Monday at noon and last about an hour.

About the Musicians:

Ines Irawati

Known for her expressivity, virtuosity, and versatility, Ines Irawati is in demand both as a solo recitalist and a collaborative pianist. Born in Jakarta, Indonesia, she began piano and composition instruction at age six at the Yamaha Music School in Indonesia. At age 12, she made her official debut playing the third Beethoven Piano Concerto and Chopin’s first concerto with the Indonesian Youth Symphony.

Irawati is currently enjoying a richly varied performance career, excelling in solo performance, chamber music, collaborative piano, and operatic vocal coaching. Her recent engagements include performances for TEDxSan Diego at Copley Symphony Hall, the Art of Élan, Musikamar chamber concerts, concerts in Centro Cultural Tijuana, and performances all over Southern California. She is the founding member of the acclaimed Aviara Trio, a piano trio described as the “highest level of instrumental perfection, intensity, passion, and expression.” She has collaborated with many other esteemed chamber musicians such as violinist Cindy Wu, cellist Sophie Webber, double-bassist Jeremy Kurtz-Harris, Strings of the West, the Hyperion String Quartet, and members of the San Diego Symphony Orchestra. Most recently, with singers Josh Arky and Alex Rodrick, Ms. Irawati is involved in La Cena è Pronta, a project which explores the nourishing ways of food and music enrich our lives through intimate vocal performances. Ms. Irawati recently served as the musical and artistic director of San Diego Opera Young Artist Training Program, where she directed the company’s outreach concert series, Opera Exposed!, and its production of Little Red Riding Hood, a children’s opera by Seymour Barab. Since the summer of 2008, Ms. Irawati has been invited by renowned dramatic mezzo-soprano Dolora Zajick to serve as a coach and vocal pianist at the prestigious Institute for Young Dramatic Voices. She was the vocal coach and collaborative piano faculty at Point Loma Nazarene University from 2004-2017.

Ms. Irawati was educated at and awarded full scholarship to the prestigious high school program, Young Artists Program at Cleveland Institute of Music, where she continued her studies throughout her undergraduate years. Her teachers and coaches include Olga Radosavljevich, Vivian Weilerstein, Anne Epperson, and Donald Weilerstein. Ms. Irawati holds a Master of Music degree from Yale University, where she studied with Claude Frank, Peter Frankl, and Kikuei Ikeda of the Tokyo String Quartet.

Her education also includes a summer music festival at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, where she studied vocal accompanying with Warren Jones and Marilyn Horne. She was awarded Best Vocal Pianist by the Marilyn Horne Foundation, and was invited to give a New York debut at the Kosciuszko Foundation. She returned to the Academy as the recipient of the Fellowship Award for the 2005 Summer School and Music Festival. In January of 2006, Ms. Irawati was invited by the Marilyn Horne Foundation to participate in the weeklong musical event presented by The Weill Music Institute at Carnegie Hall.

Ms. Irawati has also won numerous prizes from competitions internationally, including the Suburban Concerto Competition, the Cleveland Institute of Music Concerto Competition, the D’angelo International Young Artists Competition, and the La Jolla Symphony & Chorus Competition. She was also invited to perform Gershwin’s Piano Concerto in F with the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra at Severance Hall.

As a performer and a composer, Irawati has performed her own compositions all over Indonesia, Singapore, and Sri Lanka. She was accepted to the Junior Original Concert, a prestigious music program where young musicians compose original works and perform them around the world. At the age of 15, she was invited to the International UNICEF Benefit in Japan, where she performed her concerto with the NHK Symphony Orchestra. Her composition teachers include Donald Erb and the late renowned Indonesian composer, Slamat Abdul Syukur. Her work for solo flute, “Flirting Belugas”, was published by the Manduca Music Publication.

Ms. Irawati currently lives in San Diego with her husband, their two children, and a yorkie named Larry.

Sophie Webber

British Cellist Dr. Sophie Webber is an internationally accomplished soloist, chamber musician, and educator. She has received many awards and prizes for her playing, including the Sir John Barbirolli memorial prize for Cello, Indianapolis Matinee Musicale Graduate Strings Prize, Zumaia International Chamber Music Festival First and Public Prize, and Finalist for Oxfordshire Young Musician of the Year.

She has released two critically acclaimed albums; “Escape: Six Suites for Solo Cello by J.S.Bach” (January 2018) and “B2C: Bach Cello to Choir” (April 2020), recorded with members of the Chicago’s Choir of the Ascension. Both recordings were audio-engineered by multi grammy-winning audio engineer, Chris Willis.

A Segue to “Escape”: Sophie recorded “B2C: Bach to Choir” in late 2019; her own choral arrangement sung alongside Solo Cello Bach Suites Nos. 1 and 3, in collaboration with choral director Ben Rivera and members of Chicago’s Choir of the Ascension. The goal of this project was to highlight the implied harmonies in Bach’s Suites for Solo Cello, and to open them up to a wider and more diverse audience. The recording was made possible thanks to a successful kickstarter campaign in the spring of 2019.

In the last couple of years, Sophie has been creating many arrangements of music, as well as writing original compositions. In 2018, she performed Paganini’s Theme and Variations on One String for Solo Cello accompanied by her own orchestral arrangement (performed by San Diego’s New City Sinfonia). In addition to a number of ballads for voice, piano/voice, and cello, she composed “Journey Home” in 2016, a work for live solo cello and electronics, which speaks to the colorful life and many struggles endured by substance abuse-survivor and counselor Amanda Longe.

A former DM student of Janos Starker and Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, Sophie previously studied with Richard Markson at Trinity College of Music, London, from where she graduated with a First Class Honors degree.

A passionate and dedicated teacher herself, Sophie has served as cello faculty at Southeast Missouri State University, Jacobs School of Music Summer Clinic, Oxford Cello School, Trinity College of Music Junior Department, Lake Forest College and the Music Institute of Chicago. Also a keen music theorist, Sophie held a position as Music Theory Instructor at Indiana University for four years and has taught a variety of university level courses.

Currently, Sophie runs a small private teaching studio in San Diego, “Dr. Sophie Cello Lab.” Her students have served as section and principal cellists in the Chicago and San Diego Youth Symphony Orchestras, have won or been placed in regional and national competitions (such as State Youth Concerto Competitions, the Society of American Musicians Competition, MidWest Young Artists Discover National Chamber Music Competition, Confucius Chinese Fine Arts Society Competition, and the Walgreen National Concerto Competition) and have gone on to study cello performance at some of the nation’s top music schools.

The concerts will be in person at the Athenaeum Music & Arts Library. There are no physical tickets for these events. Doors open at 11:50 a.m. Seating is first-come; first-served. These events will be presented in compliance with State of California and County of San Diego health regulations as applicable at the time of each concert. Face coverings are required for attendees, regardless of vaccination status. Proof of vaccination or negative test within 48 hours of the event is required. Event capacity is limited to 70% for now.