Westmont to Feature Top Violist Helen Callus

Acclaimed British violist Helen Callus, professor of viola at UC Santa Barbara since 2003, will perform works by Bach, Beethoven, Jean-Marie LeClair and Dmitri Shostakovitch at a free, public concert, “The Viola Alone Plus Friends,” Monday, Dec. 10, at 8 p.m. in Westmont’s Deane Chapel. For more information, please contact the Westmont Music Department at (805) 565-6040.

Callus, who has performed with such world-class ensembles as the Tokyo and Juilliard String Quartets and the BBC Concert Orchestra, will be joined with Michael Lieberman (viola), viola faculty at Westmont, Jacob Braun (cello), a lecturer in cello at UCSB, and Pascal Salomon (piano), a Doctoral of Musical Arts degree candidate at UCSB.

Callus is also 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.