A Santa Barbara native, Kathryn Mendenhall has given solo and chamber music performances across Eastern Europe, Italy, Korea, and Indonesia. An avid supporter of new music, she was a long-time member of the Illustrious Theatre Orchestra, a composer-performer ensemble dedicated solely to the performance of modern and new works. Over the years, she has performed for both Lynn Harrell and Yo Yo Ma and studied primarily under Ben Hong, Bongshin Ko and Geoffrey Rutkowski. Ms. Mendenhall currently teaches mathematics at Dos Pueblos High School. She holds bachelor’s degrees in both music performance and physics from California State University, Fullerton, and a master’s degree in music performance from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Ervin Klinkon, cellist, received his musical training in Germany and New York. He has performed as soloist and with chamber music ensembles in Europe and the U.S., and with orchestras in Houston and in Washington, D.C. (Kennedy Center Opera House, National Gallery, and National Symphony). Ervin served as Chairman of the Music Department at Montgomery College (MD) and conducted the Montgomery College Symphony Orchestra for twenty years. He now lives in Santa Barbara where he continues to lead an active musical life, playing with various ensembles, teaching cello, and coaching chamber music groups.

Wynston Hamann, cellist, is a freshman at Westmont College, studying with Trevor Handy and performing in the Westmont College Orchestra and chamber music groups. Wynston has been a pupil of Jamie Kellog in Phoenix, AZ, and spent four summers at Interlochen Summer for the Arts, studying with Jeffrey Lestrapes and performing with the World Youth Symphony Orchestra.

Larissa Fedoryka, cellist, began her cello studies at the age of three. As a child she joined her nine siblings who toured as the Classical chamber ensemble, The Fedoryka Family Players. The group performed in venues nationally, their tours culminating in multiple performances at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts as well as a performance at The Wolf Trap International Children’s Festival. More recently Larissa has made the transition to world music, touring with artists such as Marco Antonio Solis, Croatia’s pop artist Tajci, the Celtic/Americana band Scythian, and Mexico’s pop diva Gloria Trevi. In 1910 she was hired to arrange pop songs for orchestra by “The Harmony Project” – the LA Symphony’s program to enrich inner city youth through music. She studied at the Boston Conservatory with Andrew Mark and at Ohio University with Dr. Michael Carrera, and is currently completing her DMA in Performance at UCSB, where she studies with Jennifer Kloetzel.

Virginia Kron, cellist, was hailed in the Los Angeles Times: “Accomplished cellist … has done her best to keep alive the music of our time” and by the Ventura County Reporter: “Virginia evoked a rich, dark tone from her 300 year-old instrument.” From her extensive career, of special note is her premiere of John Biggs’ Cello Concerto with the New West Symphony and subsequent recording with the Czech National Symphony, and most recently, her premiere of Jimmy Calire’s Jazzical Cello Sonata. Her original album, “The Crystal Harp,” evoked this tribute from the American Library Association Booklist Review: “This original humorous fantasy, written and performed by Virginia Kron, features clear, well-paced narration and delightful music.” She has a B.M. Degree from the University of Wisconsin and a M.M. Degree from USC, and has long been a pillar on cello at California’s Cabrillo Festival. A frequent collaborator with UCSB’s Ensemble for Contemporary Music with featured festival performances and recordings, her mastery of the music of our time is matched by recordings and concerts with noted Celtic harpist Kim Robertson.

Nicoletta Christina Browne, cellist, is from Tucson, AZ and has played cello since age 10. She earned her BA Degree in Chemistry from Pomona College, where she studied cello with Roger LeBow, and her MS Degree in Earth Science is from UCSB, where she was awarded an Earth Research Institute Fellowship for her project, “Petrogenesis of Late-State, High-K Magmas Within a Continental Arc: Insights From Petrographic Studies.” Ms. Browne performed in the Pomona College Orchestra, is a longtime member of the Santa Barbara City College Orchestra, and hosts a radio show, Hardly Strictly Americana, on KCSB.

Elizabeth Olson, cellist, began music studies through public school music programs; continuing with private lessons, she currently studies with Geoffrey Rutkowski. She earned her BS Degree in Chemistry from Loma Linda University and her MS Degree in Accountancy from CSU San Bernardino. For the past ten years her passion has been chamber music, with performances including concerts at Loma Linda University and the Santa Barbara Music Club. Elizabeth is currently a CPA at Nasif, Hicks, Harris & Co. in Santa Barbara.

Jeannot Maha’a, cellist, is a specialist in historical performance practice on original instruments and studied at the Oberlin Baroque Performance Institute. In 2010 he founded Editions Violone, a Santa Barbara-based publishing house specializing in scholarly performing editions of rare and little-known music of the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, and currently heads an international team of musicologists in the search for forgotten music. Mr. Maha’a maintains a private cello and bass studio in SB, and performs on an Italian cello made in 1766.

Timothy Beccue, cellist, has won numerous awards for his performances spanning North America and Europe, including First Place in the 2018 SB Performing Arts Scholarship Foundation Competition. He graduated with a physics degree from Westmont College, where he studied cello with Trevor Handy, has been soloist with the Westmont Orchestra and West Coast Symphony, and contracts as substitute cellist with the SB Symphony. In addition to his musical pursuits, he works with robotic telescopes at Las Cumbres Observatory.

Sang Jun Yhee, cello (Tenafly, New Jersey), pursued his studies at the Juilliard School in New York under the tutelage of Joel Krosnick, Harvey Shapiro, and David Soyer. He has also studied with David Geringas in masterclasses at the Chigiana Academy in Siena, Kronberg Academy, Interlaken Classics, and Usedom Music Festival. He will be pursuing his doctorate at Manhattan School of Music in the fall. Sang has won the Juilliard School Shostakovich Cello Concerto Competition and has been a quarter-finalist at the Concours de Genève in Geneva, Switzerland. He also won first place at the Thavieu String Competition, the Society of American Musicians Competition, and is a recipient of the 2013 Frank Huntington Beebe Fund. He has performed as soloist with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, Juilliard Pre-college Orchestra, World Youth Symphony Orchestra, and the Northshore Orchestra. Past Yellow Barn musician (2013-2014)