KiMani Bridges + Claude Debussy
LACO SUMMERFEST 2021:
Erik Rynearson
principal viola
Native of Los Angeles, Erik Rynearson has been performing music since the age of three. He has been first call substitute with the Detroit and Phoenix symphonies and has valued that relationship with his playmates in the Los Angeles Philharmonic and L.A. Chamber Orchestra (LACO). As a member, Erik can be seen smiling on stage as principal violist of LACO, the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra and Santa Barbara’s Symphony and Chamber Orchestra, and has been a tenured member of the Pacific, New West and Long Beach symphonies. Erik is also in great demand as a freelancer in the Motion Picture industry and feels honored to have recorded and concertized with Aretha Franklin, John Williams and the Blue Man Group among many others. He has also been featured, on occasion, as solo horn player in his car.
Musically, Rynearson devoured Haydn, Prokofiev, Brubeck and Beethoven in childhood and currently hungers for the sounds of Berg, James Brown, Berlioz, Daft Punk, Led Zeppelin and John Cage. He owes his musical preparedness to his teachers including his father Paul, Miwako Watanabe, Henryk Kowalski, Franco Gulli and Alan deVeritch.
Highlights in the ’21-’22 season include performing Telemann’s Viola Concerto with the Santa Barbara Symphony, acting the foil in Strauss’ Bourgeois Gentilhomme with his LACO companions and opening back up the Hollywood Bowl with Kool and the Gang. It’s great to experience live concerts again.
Off-stage, Erik enjoys weeding in the gardens with his partner Ina, tasting wine across California and restoring his 1987 300E. He plays a Danish instrument made by Carl Mettus Weis in 1845 which previously spent several decades as the lead voice of the L.A. Chamber Orchestra viola section.
