While its population is not much more than 40,000, Altadena is home to a surprising number of prominent Los Angeles area musicians. Mt Lowe Chamber Players was formed as a collective of these musicians with the objective of giving back to the foothill community in which they reside. While making reference to the Mt Lowe Railroad, MLCP will honor Altadena's cultural history and enrich its current artistic climate. Following a fund-raising concert in November 2019, we launched our inaugural season with a series of three free concerts at the Altadena Library. The Library generously underwrites these concerts. We also present free concerts at the Altadena Community Church.
Artist Directors
Phoebe Ray
Phoebe Ray, Manager plays bassoon with the Wilder Trio, Trimotif Ensemble, and Burbank Philharmonic and plays Brazilian choro and jazz in a variety of groups. In the past, she has held positions with the Pasadena Pops, Pacific Symphony, Long Beach Opera, Long Beach Municipal Band, American Ballet and Joffrey Ballet Orchestras, Columbus Symphony, and Rochester Philharmonic. Phoebe was an Administrator and Grant Manager at Caltech for 38 years.
Monica Hubbard
Monica Hubbard, Community Outreach Coordinator was the founding director of the Women's Glee Club at Caltech and held both state and national leadership positions with the American Choral Directors Association. She was a founder of Neighbors Building a Better Altadena, created two hyper-local weekly e-newsletters, and was named “Citizen of the Year” by the Altadena Chamber of Commerce, a Pasadena Weekly “Best Citizen,” and received awards from California state legislators representing Altadena in the Assembly and Senate, to name just a few of her many activities and community service awards.
Delores Bing
Delores Bing directed the student chamber music program at Caltech for nearly 40 years. She also played cello and recorded for ensembles ranging from the LA Master Chorale and LA Chamber Orchestra, to motion picture soundtrack orchestras and Earth, Wind, and Fire.
P. Blake Cooper
P. Blake Cooper Blake is a studio musician in LA for movies, TV and video games. Recent credits include: The Lion King (2019), The Call of the Wild, Coco, Doctor Sleep, Terminator: Dark Fate, IT Chapter Two, Bad Boys for Life, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Batman v Superman, Halo Wars 2. Blake has been the Principal Tubist of the New West Symphony since 2013 and has as performed with the LA Philharmonic, LA Opera, LA Chamber Orchestra, LA Master Chorale, San Diego Symphony, Pasadena Symphony and POPS and Santa Barbara Symphony.
Drew Dembowski
Drew Dembowski A native Angelino, Drew has served as Principal Bass of the Santa Barbara, Ventura and Pacific Symphonies and since 1975 has been a member of the Pasadena Symphony. He has recorded over 1800 motion picture soundtracks with such illustrious composers such as John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith, Henry Mancini, Elmer Bernstein, Danny Elfman and the late James Horner. An avid cyclist, he also skis with passion and paraglides when time permits.
Agnes Gottschewski
Anges Gottschewski is the assistant concertmaster of the Long Beach Symphony and a member of Pacific Symphony's first violin section. Agnes is originally from West Berlin/Germany, where she started playing the violin at age 6. She studied at the Hochschule der Künste Berlin and attended UC San Diego and UC Santa Barbara for graduate studies. An avid chamber music player, Agnes, has been performing with various groups in the Los Angeles area including Camerata Pacifica, and Salastina. She has been spending a week or two every June at the Sitka Chamber Music Festival in Sitka/Alaska well as performing chamber music programs in Anchorage/Alaska, Bend/Oregon, El Paso/Texas and the Methow Valley, Aspen and Santa Fe Music Festivals. For several years she was a member of Southwest Chamber Music, playing many premieres of contemporary chamber music and recording several CDs.
Larry Kaplan
Larry Kaplan has performed extensively as flautist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic for over twenty years, including three domestic tours and nine international tours to 22 countries. Larry has collaborated with conductors Gustavo Dudamel, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Zubin Mehta, Simon Rattle and Leonard Bernstein. He has also played with the Minnesota Orchestra, Bolshoi Ballet, American Ballet Theater, and with many local orchestras including the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Los Angeles Opera, Pacific Symphony and Long Beach Symphony. Additionally, Larry played in the pit orchestras for Wicked and The Lion King at the Pantages Theater, and over 600 performances of The Phantom of the Opera at the Ahmanson Theater.
John Steinmetz
John Steinmetz teaches bassoon at UCLA; his compositions appear on sixteen CDs by various artists. John played bassoon for groups like LA Master Chorale, the Oregon Bach Festival, and LA Chamber Orchestra, and for soundtracks like Jurassic Park, Men in Black, Mouse Hunt, Far from Heaven, The Color Purple, and Family Guy.
Irina Voloshina
Irina Voloshina was born in the Ukraine and studied violin at the Odessa Music School. Since moving to Southern California in 1993, Irina has appeared in various recitals and chamber music groups and orchestras such as Los Angeles and Santa Barbara Chamber orchestra, Los Angeles Opera and Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, and Pasadena Symphony and Pops. Throughout her career Irina has recorded for over 500 film scores and worked with composers such as John Williams, James Newton Howard, Jerry Goldsmith, Alan Silvestri, James Horner, and Hans Zimmer on Star Wars, Rogue One, Pirates of Caribbean, Coco and Kobe Bryant’s “Dear Basketball” just to name a few.
Michele Zukovsky
Michele Zukovsky played clarinet in the Los Angeles Philharmonic for 54 years and is now teaching at Azusa Pacific, Cal State Long Beach, Pasadena Conservatory and Citrus College.