Violist Callus Leads Westmont Master Class

Helen Callus, acclaimed British violist, will perform a master class Sunday, Oct. 6, from 7-9 p.m. in Westmont’s Deane Chapel. The event is free and open to the public. For more information, please contact the Westmont Music Department at (805) 5656040.

Callus, professor of viola at UC Santa Barbara since 2003, will coach students on William Walton’s Viola Concerto, Robert Schumann’s “Fairy Tale Pictures” and Felix Mendelssohn’s String Quartet No. 3 in D major, Op. 44.

Westmont viola majors Samantha Wilson and Katrina Whitman and the Siloam String Quartet, which includes Westmont students Isaac Kay, violin, Lalia Mangione, violin, and Wilson, will join Callus. Zachary McGee, a guest cellist from UCSB, is filling in for Rebecca Shasberger, who is studying in Heidelberg, Germany, this fall.

Callus has performed with such world-class ensembles as the Tokyo and Juilliard String Quartets and the BBC Concert Orchestra. She is an award-winning recording artist, having released “J.S. Bach: Six Cello Suites on Viola,” a two-CD recording in 2011, “Romeo and Juliet” in 2007, “Helen Callus performs Walton, Vaughan Williams, Howells and Bowen” in 2006 and “A Portrait of the Viola” in 2002.

Callus has performed around the world at venues in Russia, Europe, New Zealand, Australia, Canada and throughout the U.S. As a visiting professor, she has taught more than 40 master classes and given residencies at some of the nation’s leading schools of music, including the Manhattan School of Music, New England Conservatory, Rice School of Music, Oberlin College and Conservatory of Music, as well as for the American String Teachers Association National Conference and the Suzuki Association.