Grace Presbyterian Church welcomes all to our free monthly Community Concert Series. Please join us at Grace Church for our Fall 2025 season with a free concert on Sunday, November 16 at 3:00 p.m. at 2100 Tice Valley Blvd., Walnut Creek. We have abundant free parking and a comfortable, welcoming space with plenty of seating. We hope to see you.
Don’t miss the return of the fantastic Celeste Stella Trio. The three members of this professional trio – cellist August Lee, violinist Jiwon Evelyn Kwark, and pianist Hyunji Park – will present a program featuring The Four Seasons.
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)
The Seasons, Op. 37a
- March: Song of the Lark
- August: Harvest
- October: Autumn Song
- December: Christmas
Astor Piazzolla (1921-1992)
The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires
- Buenos Aires Summer
- Buenos Aires Autumn
- Buenos Aires Winter
- Buesnos Aires Spring
August Lee holds a Bachelor of Music from Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory and a Master of Music from San Francisco Conservatory of Music. While in Moscow, he was invited to perform at various music festivals such as “Spring in Moscow” and the “International Taneyev Chamber Music Festival”. He appeared as a soloist with Smolensk Philharmonic Orchestra. After moving to Los Angeles, he served as an assistant principal cellist in the Glendale Philharmonic Orchestra and was also invited to give solo performances at various concerts including “The Classical Underground” and “Hermitage Concert Series”. In 2010, he moved to the Bay Area and started his own cello studio. He was invited to perform at the International Chopin Festival as a soloist and also served as a jury in various music competitions. He served in Academy of Music and Arts for Special Education (AMASE) for several years and also directed the short-term concert project “Thursday Noon Concert Series”. He has coached and performed as a soloist at De Anza College Orchestra and currently he is conducting at Tri Valley Youth Orchestra and Choir.
Violinist Jiwon Kwark is a dynamic soloist, chamber musician, orchestra musician, and a teacher. She obtained a bachelor’s degree from the Julliard School, a master’s degree from Yale School of Music, and studied with the Manhattan School of Music in the Orchestral Performance program. Since making her solo debut with the Amabile Orchestra in Korea at the age of nine, Ms. Kwark has performed with numerous orchestras in the U.S. and Korea as the winner of competitions, such as Young Musicians Foundation Orchestra, South Coast Symphony, Palisade Symphony Orchestra. and Chungnam State Philharmonic Orchestra. Besides being invited to tour Canada and performing in France at the Ecoles d’Art Américaines de Fontainebleau, she toured the cities of Germany with the Penderecki Musik Academic Orchestra as the concertmistress and soloist of the orchestra under the baton of renowned composer, Maestro Penderecki. As an orchestra musician, Ms. Kwark has performed with the San Francisco Symphony, New Century Chamber Orchestra, New World Symphony, Symphony Silicon Valley, and American Youth Symphony. She has served as the concertmistress of Manhattan School of Music Symphony and the Assistant Concertmaster of the New York Concert Artist Symphony Orchestra. She performs regularly as the Associate Principal Second Violinist of the Marin Symphony. As an active chamber musician, she has performed with Chamber Music ensembles in the Young Musicians Foundation, Sarasota Music Festival, and Bowdoin Music Festival. Her trios and quartet have won chamber competitions at the international Young Artist Peninsula Music Festival. Ms. Kwark performs frequently as a violinist in her chamber group, Ensemble Ari.
Hyunji Park, a native of Seoul, Korea, holds a Graduate Performance Diploma in piano performance from Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. She has over 20 years of professional musical experience as a soloist, collaborative performer, music educator, choir conductor, arranger and a director of music organizations. As an active pianist, Ms. Park has appeared as a soloist and a collaborative pianist in Seoul, Rome, the Opera House in Sydney, Baltimore-Washington D.C., the Herbst Theater and Grace Cathedral in San Francisco. She also has served communities by performing in numerous benefit concerts and coordinating music classes for special education at Younhee Paik’s Studio for Art & Music in Oakland, CA. Ms. Park projects missions through the music to get closer to the people who love music and seek to heal communities. As an educator, she worked as a music director of 2015-2018 Sonata Contest of CCMTAC. Hyunji has thriving studio and her students are on the top lists of the major piano competitions in the Bay Area. Currently, she is a music director of Canaan KUMC and Younhee Paik’s Studio for Art & Music (CHIM).
Grace Church welcomes all to this concert and to future monthly free concerts. Concerts are always free and free-will offerings are accepted with gratitude and help fund our community concert series. Join us for refreshments after the concert. The concert duration will be approximately one hour and 15 minutes. For more information about the concert contact Grace Presbyterian Church, 925-935-2100 or go to www.gracewc.org/news-events/concerts