SOUTHERN
CALIFORNIA
VIOLA
SOCIETY
OUR MISSION
The Southern California Viola Society is dedicated to promoting, studying, and furthering the research of the viola and its repertoire. Our mission is to foster a vibrant community of violists, support emerging talents, and provide educational resources for all ages and skill levels. We bring viola enthusiasts together, and explore its diverse musical possibilities. For any inquiries, please feel free to reach out to us at info@socalviolasociety.org.
SCVS BOARD OF DIRECTORS
​President, Cecille Asuncion
Cecille Asuncion has served on the SCVS Board of Directors in various roles since 2016. Her main job is in government, but plays the viola on the side. She loves playing at church and events with the Clover String Quartet. Cecille’s viola background is unique. She was mainly self-taught on YouTube, before starting private lessons in 2013. Cecille is an example that you don’t have to start music as a kid. Anyone thinking its too late, its not. Music can be definitely learned and enjoyed at ANY age with a little bit of elbow grease, grit, vulnerability, desire and routine.
​​Vice President, Alma Lisa Fernandez
ALMA LISA FERNANDEZ, violist, attended the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and UCLA, where she received a Master’s Degree in Viola Performance. She performs regularly with such ensembles as the LA Opera Orchestra and LA Master Chorale. As a chamber musician, she has been described as “…a soulful violist” by the LA Times. Alma is a member of the Eclipse Quartet, an ensemble dedicated to performing contemporary music, which has released recordings under Bridge Records, New World, and Microfest. She has been featured as a soloist with the Pepperdine University Orchestra, the Jacaranda Chamber Music series, People Inside Electronics, and Electronics Live! at UC Riverside, where she premiered new works for Viola & Electronics. Alma is also active in the Los Angeles recording industry, having played for numerous motion picture soundtracks, television shows, and record albums.
Secretary / Website, Linda Piatt
Linda Piatt, violinist and violist, earned her Bachelor of Music from University of Texas at Austin and Master of Music from the University of Minnesota where she studied with luminary pedagogue Sally O’Reilly, and violists Korey Konkol of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, and Thomas Turner - Principal Violist of the Minnesota Orchestra. Her 25 year orchestra career includes performing with the Pacific Symphony, Opera Pacific, American Ballet Theater, San Francisco Ballet, and Joffrey Ballet. She performs with the California Chamber Orchestra, Classics Philharmonic, Hutchins Consort and the San Diego Symphony, where she has shared the stage with renowned artists such as Joshua Bell, Hilary Hahn, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, Gil Shaham, Itzhak Perlman and Yo-Yo Ma. Mrs. Piatt is also a passionate Suzuki violin and viola instructor and sought after pedagogue and clinician. She teaches at her home studio in San Diego where she lives with her husband, son and daughter.
Treasurer, Nancy Roth
Nancy Roth, violinist and violist, is currently concertmaster of the Chamber Orchestra of the South Bay, Culver City Symphony and Marina del Rey Summer Symphony. She is also a member of the Pasadena Symphony. Nancy is a former member of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and she was co-principal violist of the Graz Philharmonic (Austria). Nancy has toured with the London Early Music Group, and she has performed as a soloist and chamber musician in Europe, USA and Mexico. Dr. Roth holds degrees from CSUN, Juilliard and USC.
Director of ViolaFest, Mary Kelly
Mary Kelly, violinist and violist, joined Bentonville West as Director of Orchestras in 2019. Formerly she was Chair of Strings at the Pasadena Conservatory of Music in Pasadena, CA and Director of the Bethel College Academy of Performing Arts (BCAPA) Suzuki Strings program in Newton, KS. She is an active performer, having played with singers such as Rod Stewart and Josh Groban as well as symphonies throughout the United States. She served as assistant principal viola of the Wichita Symphony and principal viola of the Wichita Grand Opera and currently plays for the Fort Smith Symphony, Symphony of Northwest Arkansas, and Arkansas Philharmonic Orchestra. Ms. Kelly received her Bachelor of Music in viola performance from University of Texas at Austin and her Masters in viola from Wichita State University and has worked with many teachers including Donald McInnes, Christine Rutledge, and Roger Myers. While studying in Austin, she received Suzuki pedagogy instruction from Phyllis Young and Lori Scott as part of the Strings Project Program. She has completed training through book 10 in Suzuki violin with teachers Ed Kreitman, Susan Kempter, Alice Joy-Lewis, Carol Dallinger, Anne Montzka Smelser, Joanne Melvin, and Ed Sprunger. She has served as President of the Suzuki Music Association of California, Los Angeles Board and is currently on the Southern California Viola Society board serving as the director of ViolaFest Los Angeles. A founding member of CHROMA Kids and CHROMA Salon, she is dedicated to spreading the joy and wonder of classical music to the public. In the summers, she teaches and plays at various music festivals around the country as well as in the Los Angeles area.
Kira Blumberg
Kira Blumberg, violist, is originally from Hyde Park, New York, where she began studying the violin at the age of four and switched to the viola six years later. She holds a Bachelor of Music degree from Boston University, where she studied with Michael Zaretsky and Steven Ansell, and a Master of Music degree from the Juilliard School, where she studied with Toby Appel.
Currently Blumberg is Principal Viola of the Redlands Symphony Orchestra and a member of the Long Beach Symphony Orchestra. She played with the Los Angeles Music Center Opera Orchestra for seven years and freelances extensively throughout the greater Los Angeles area. She was a member of ensembleGREEN, a new music group that specialized in music written after 1980 by Los Angeles area composers for ten years. She is Artist Teacher of viola at the University of Redlands, is on faculty at Pomona College and Cal Poly Pomona, and maintains a large private teaching studio at her home. She is active in the recording industry, working on many movies including A Beautiful Mind, Bourne Identity and Panic Room. She can be seen in the movie Get Smart and in the most recent Geico commercial featuring the Triangle Soloist. She is on the board of the Southern California Viola Society and has been the treasurer and secretary for the Los Angeles chapter of the American String Teacher’s Association. She is married to Eric Lindholm, the Harry S. and Madge Rice Thatcher Professor of Music at Pomona College.
Kelly Christ
Kelly has been teaching violin and viola for over 15 years to students ages 3 to 83. A Suzuki student herself since age five, she studied violin and viola with Margaret Shimizu, Samuel Goh, and Elisa Boynton. She holds a B.A. in Psychology from Lewis & Clark College, which deeply informs her teaching. Before returning to her hometown of Sierra Madre, she performed professionally with numerous ensembles in Portland.
Along with her private studio, Ms. Kelly coaches viola for the Pasadena Youth Symphony Orchestras and serves as Director of the Los Angeles Suzuki Institute. She is a member of the Suzuki Association of the Americas and the Suzuki Music Association of California.
In her free time, she enjoys cooking, walking with her puggle, watching shows with her husband, and making music and playing games with her two sons.