The Chamber Orchestra of the South Bay (COSB) presented its 3rd Concert of the 2024/25 season, “An Afternoon of Beautiful Music” at the Riviera United Methodist Church on Saturday afternoon, March 15th. The Church has wonderful acoustics for a chamber orchestra ensemble and the diversity of the program brought the audience a varied selection of works along with a world premiere. The success of the program was due to the artistry of the COSB all-professional musicians and the direction of COSB conductor, Maestro Hector Salazar.
The program began with Kevin Kaska’s “String Quintet No. 1” followed by Claude Debussy’s “Sacred Dances for Harp and Strings” which featured COSB’s harpist and Palos Verdes resident Koni Choi. Mozart’s “Divertimento No. 1” rounded out the first half. As the conductor and Executive Director of COSB, Maestro Salazar is a firm believer in supporting young composers and, for this Concert, COSB commissioned the work from Anthony O’Toole, “Floralia.” We concluded this amazing concert with a premiere of sorts as it was a first for COSB, in our 42 years, to perform American composer Aaron Copland’s “Appalachian Spring” in its original configuration for 13 instruments.
Korean harpist, Koni Choi, has been recognized and praised by the media such as The Philadelphia Inquirer as an artist of “naturalistic, theatrical sense of flourish”. Ms Choi has concertized extensively throughout North America, Asia, and Europe and has won numerous awards including the Nippon International Harp Competition, the Concours Internationaux de la ville in Paris, and the Korean Chamber Orchestra Competition. Ms Choi graduated from the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia and has performed as a member of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Vancouver Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, and in New York as the harpist of the long running musical, Fantasticks. Ms Choi now resides in Palos Verdes where she continues her passion for music as a soloist, a chamber musician, an orchestral performer, a recording artist, and a teacher.
