Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra Fellowship is a two-year program sponsored by Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra (LACO) that engages members of historically underrepresented groups in western classical music ensembles with work for hire and professional development opportunities.  

The LACO Fellowship began in 2017 as the LA Orchestra Fellowship, a partnership among the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music (USC), the Inner-City Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles (ICYOLA), and LACO. Beginning Fall of 2023, LACO continues the partnership with ICYOLA.

The program is comprised of several mutually agreeable weeks of work with LACO consisting of orchestral services, chamber music coaching and concerts, a recital, mock auditions, and teaching artist opportunities through LACO’s Meet the Music initiatives and with ICYOLA. There is a $5500.00 annual minimum guarantee, and the program does not require the musicians to live in Los Angeles. Should a candidate choose to reside outside of LA County, LACO will provide travel and housing for the weeks in which the fellow is a resident artist.  The LA Orchestra Fellowship also provides financial support for participating musicians to take auditions and accept work with other orchestras. Fellows are compensated under the LACO CBA and are required to join the AFM as part of the program with any associated costs covered by LACO.

ALEJANDRO LOMBO

In the summer of 2023, Lombo performed with the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra at Lincoln Center and attended the Music Academy of the West where he won the Keston Music Academy Exchange audition and will subsequently work and perform with the London Symphony Orchestra. He is the winner of the 2023 Sphinx Orchestral Partners Audition Competition, the  2019 Yamaha Young Performing Artist Competition, the 2019 Flute Society of Greater Philadelphia Young Artist Competition, and the 2021 Aspen Music Festival Concerto Competition where he performed Martin’s Concerto for 7 Winds. He is the recipient of the Jerome L. Greene Fellowship at The Juilliard School and graduated with his Bachelor’s degree from the Curtis Institute of Music under the tutelage of Jeffrey Khaner.

MATTHEW PERALTA

He has performed in recent orchestral concerts with esteemed ensembles such as the Seattle Symphony, the Kansas City Symphony, and the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra, where he served as a diversity fellow. Mr. Peralta received an Honorable Mention in the 2022 Sphinx SOPA Excerpt Competition, as well as the Most Outstanding Instrumentalist award. Matt received his Master’s degree at the Yale School of Music where he studied with Professor Donald Palma. Matthew has attended festivals such as Roundtop and the International Summer Academy in Vienna, where he studied with prestigious teachers such as James VanDemark, Josef Niederhammer, and Jiri Hudec. Matt currently has the honor of playing on a 2000 Kolstein Carcassi model double bass.

EDER RIVERA

He earned a master's degree from the prestigious Colburn Conservatory in Los Angeles, California. Eder continues to study for an Artistic Diploma with the principal oboist of the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, Mr. Eugene Izotov.      He recently debuted at the Music Academy Symphony Orchestra in Santa Bárbara, the Artosphere Orchestra Festival, the Sphinx Symphony Orchestra and the Los Angeles Opera Orchestra. He has won numerous awards, including Bronze Medal at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, and the SOPA Sphinx Orchestra Excerpts competition, and the Yamaha Young Performing Artists competition in 2018.  

NICOLAS VALENCIA

Valencia completed his Bachelor of Music Degree in Viola Performance at the University of North Texas under the tutelage of Dr. Susan Dubois. Recently, Nicolas was selected as a recipient of the 2023 Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra Fellowship, and received the inaugural viola position in the Thornton Virtuosi Chamber Ensemble. He has also been selected as a finalist for the Keston Max Fellowship at the London Symphony Orchestra, and is currently a substitute violist at the New World Symphony. Nicolas has held principal viola positions with ensembles such as the Music Academy of the West, Thornton Symphony Orchestra, Thornton Opera Orchestra, University of North Texas Symphony Orchestra, UNT Opera Orchestra, the Fantasmi Ensemble, and the New Spain Baroque Orchestra.