Praised by American Record Guide as, "Energetic and exciting...", American composer Maria Newman has been commended and recognized by the U.S. Congress for her work in the field of original music composition, live performance, and recording. Her compositions have been performed and screened in such elite venues as Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, the U.S. Capitol Building on Capitol Hill, the National Archives in Washington D.C., Hearst Castle Private Theater, the President’s Own Marine Band Barracks, Nokia’s NOVO Theatre, Heidelberg Castle, Brevard Center for the Arts, the Music Scoring Stages of 20th Century Fox, MGM, Paramount, Sony, Universal, and Warner Bros., among many others. Newman has been featured in spotlight one-on-one interviews paired with live concert performances on CBS Sunday Morning, and National Public Radio's From the Top with Christopher O'Riley. Additionally, her silent film scores are featured regularly on Turner Classics. Named a George Wellington Miles Scholar of Yale University, Newman is an elected member of the American Academic Music Honor Society, Pi Kappa Lambda.
Maria Newman's original library of compositions have earned her accolades as an Annenberg Foundation Composition Fellow, a Mary Pickford Library Composition Fellow, and as a Variety Music Legend. Her music is featured frequently on radio and television around the globe, and live-in-concert at numerous music festivals, chamber music series, and film festivals.
Maria Newman is Composer-in-Residence with the Malibu Coast Chamber Orchestra, SPaCE Salon Concerts Los Angeles, and the Malibu Coast Silent Film Orchestra. Fanfare Magazine has lauded Newman’s compositions, hailing, “This is real genius.” She has been celebrated by NPR’s on-air icon of musical opinion, Jim Svejda, (Author and Host of The Record Shelf Guide to the Classical Repertoire) as, “Hugely musical, bewitching, witty, profound and playful, with an instantly recognizable and unusually appealing musical personality, Maria Newman is one of the most charming and distinctive composers of her generation.”
In the international spotlight, Maria Newman is the acclaimed viola soloist in Miklos Rozsa’s Viola Concerto with the Nuremburg Symphony (Germany) on the GRAMMY Award-winning Symphonic Hollywood CD (Varese Sarabande label). She also appeared as the physical animation inspiration and violin soloist for the character of “The Grasshopper” in the 1996 Walt Disney release of Tim Burton’s, James and the Giant Peach.
Maria Newman is the youngest of 9-time Academy Award-winning composer Alfred Newman's seven children. She is also the sister of lauded film composers/conductors Thomas Newman and David Newman, and the cousin of the amazing Randy Newman. Maria Newman’s recording studio is based in Malibu, California, where she resides with her family in a California craftsman home designed by the brilliant architect, Eric Lloyd Wright. Newman is married to American conductor, Scott Hosfeld.
WENDY PROBER, PIANO has performed throughout the U.S. and Israel as a critically acclaimed chamber musician and soloist. The founding pianist of the award-winning Viklarbo Chamber Ensemble and presenter of the popular Los Angeles based, SPaCE Salon, she has taught at Loyola Marymount University, the University of Judaism, and the Omaha Conservatory of Music Institute. A former Executive Director of the Los Angeles Jewish Symphony (LAJS), she is the newly elected Chair of the Board of Directors and recently received a commendation from the City of Los Angeles for her work as an LAJS Teaching Artist. Ms. Prober has been a featured soloist with Robert Kapilow’s wildly celebrated, “What Makes it Great” series and locally has been soloist with many orchestras including Los Angeles Jewish Symphony, Malibu Coast Chamber Orchestra, Palisades Symphony, Chamber Orchestra of St. Matthew's, Occidental-Caltech Chamber Orchestra, LMU Chamber Symphony, the Brentwood Westwood Symphony Orchestra and Riverside County Philharmonic. She has played with Israeli Master Percussionist Chen Zimbalista; L.A. Chamber Orchestra Principal Cellist Andrew Shulman; cellist Michael Fitzpatrick; cellist Emilio Colón at Indiana University, Los Angeles Philharmonic members violinist Mark Kashper and cellist Barry Gold; on Andrea Clearfield's Philadephia Szalon; and has performed at the Consulate General of the Czech Republic in Los Angeles; and regularly tours with violinist Lindsay Deutsch and TAKE 3, a pop-rock/classical crossover group. She has performed TV/film composer Charles Fox’s Victory at Entebbe concerto, including at the Rubin Academy in Tel Aviv and with the LAJS at the historic Orpheum Theatre in downtown L.A. where Fox wrote, “Wendy’s playing was as beautiful, spirited and rich in feeling as I could imagine.”
Highly sought after as an expert in new music, Prober is a close collaborator with composer Maria Newman, for whom she has premiered and recorded dozens of the composer’s works including the 2015 premiere of her piano concerto, Emma McChesney. Of her recording of Newman’s Maskil Piano Sonata, American Record Guide writes, “I can’t imagine a more committed or convincing performance.” Recent composer residencies with Newman include Indiana University, Central Washington University, and the Eastman School of Music. In 2018, Prober appeared on CBS Sunday Morning with composer/violinist Newman in a feature on the Newman family musical dynasty.
As founding pianist and Managing Director of Viklarbo Chamber Ensemble, Ms. Prober wrote and received multiple grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the California Arts Council, Utah Performing Arts Tour and the Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department. Bringing vitality and diversity to the concert stage, they have nationwide performances include: The Cerritos Center • The Bruman Chamber Music Series of the UCLA Center for the Performing Arts • Dame Myra Hess Concert Series •California Plaza Grand Performances • Syracuse University • La Jolla Athenaeum Arts and Music Library • Caltech • Museum of Neon Art • Laguna Beach Chamber Music Society • Newport Harbor Art Museum • Los Angeles County Museum of Art • Pittsburg State University • Dallas Museum of Art • Twentieth Century Unlimited • Brigham Young University • Maurice Abravenel Hall • University of Utah • Chamber Music Society of Logan • Southern Utah University • KiMo Theatre • Kerr Cultural Center • Verde Valley Concert Association • Willamette University • Headwaters Council for the Performing Arts • Memphis State University New Music Festival • University of Hawaii • Honolulu Academy of Arts.
Ms. Prober received her Bachelor of Music degree from Northwestern University where she studied with Robert Weirich, graduating with honors and elected lifetime member of the National Music Honors Society Pi Kappa Lambda. She worked with John Perry at the Aspen Festival, later earning her Master of Music with him at the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California. She has performed in master class for Claude Frank, Murray Perahia and Menahem Pressler, and was resident artist at the Sarasota Music Festival and Banff Centre for the Arts.
Ms. Prober is Principal Pianist of the Malibu Coast Silent Film Orchestra, whose performances include the Private Theatre of Hearst Castle, Eastman School of Music, University of Maryland, Annenberg Beach House, Central Washington University, LA’s Grand Performances, as well as the San Luis Obispo International Film Festival with legendary actress Katherine Ross. Their recorded performances for silent film are regularly broadcast on such networks as Turner Classic Movies. She is resident pianist at the Montgomery Arts House for Music and Architecture (MAHMA), the Malibu Coast Music Festival, and the Los Angeles Jewish Symphony Chamber Players.
After the 2025 wildfires that ravaged Pacific Palisades and Altadena, Wendy, along with several local musicians, founded Free Concert Clothing Co-op to provide gently used and new tuxedos and concert attire for the hundreds of area musicians who either lost or were displaced from their homes. Ms. Prober is also on the Board of Directors for Art Trek, a not-for-profit arts organization and community center bringing quality visual, literary and performing arts to the masses.
Critically Acclaimed Conductor & Music Director of the award-winning Malibu Coast Chamber Orchestra (MCCO), Malibu Concert on the Bluffs Orchestra, and the Malibu Coast Silent Film Orchestra, Scott Hosfeld is a favorite among his professional colleagues and students. He serves as director of conducting at Pepperdine University and was formerly Director of Orchestras and Ensembles for the Idyllwild Arts Foundation and Academy. Hosfeld has been principal conductor of the Kairos Festival Orchestra, the Dorian Festival Orchestras, the Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival Orchestra, the Icicle Chamber and Symphony Orchestras, the Central Washington University Chamber Orchestra, and the Eastern Sierra Symphony Chamber Orchestra. Mr. Hosfeld has led concerti for international concert soloists Nathaniel Rosen, Camilla Wicks, Andrew Shulman, Paul Coletti, Delores Stevens, Maria Newman, Namhee Han, Spencer Martin, John Michel, Carrie Rehkopf, and Mike Marshall, among many others.
As a Conducting Fellow of George Manahan, conductor of the New York City Ballet,; and a viola/chamber music protege of the late concert artist, composer and pedagogue, Lillian Fuchs, Mr. Hosfeld earned his BM and MM from the Manhattan School of Music. Grand Prize Winner of Young Artists International, Hosfeld made his Carnegie Recital Hall Debut in 1980 as violist of the Riverside String Quartet. With the Val Coeur String Quartet, Mr. Hosfeld toured Soviet Russia, Europe, Mexico, Central and South America.
Mr. Hosfeld was the founding executive and artistic director of the Icicle Creek Music Center (ICMC) in the Cascade Mountains of Leavenworth, Washington. Hosfeld’s vision enabled ICMC to grow from an international annual summer festival into a year-round Chamber Music and Arts Center, complete with 15 buildings dedicated to serious classical arts teaching and performance (including a concert hall) on a 9-acre campus. Hosfeld’s decade-long tenure at ICMC made possible that organization’s still flourishing curriculum of chamber and orchestral programs for elite professional and student musicians in an alpine setting.
As an educator, Mr. Hosfeld has served as Faculty/Artist-in-Residence for the University of Arizona, Eastern Mennonite University, James Madison University, Louisiana State University, Central Washington University, Omaha Conservatory of Music, and Creighton University, and CSULong Beach. Dedicated to the education of pre-college musicians, Hosfeld founded two long-standing youth orchestras in the 1980’s and 90's: The Shenandoah Valley Youth Symphony in Virgina and the Icicle Youth Symphony in Washington. Mr. Hosfeld served as Music Director and Supervisor on the historical silent film restorations of "Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm" (1917) directed by Marshall Neilan and starring Mary Pickford; and "Quality Street" (1927) directed by Sydney Franklin and starring Marion Davies and Conrad Nagel, and many early silent film shorts.
Commended by the United States Congress, the California State Senate, the California State Assembly, and twice from his home City of Malibu for his work as a major visionary for the non-profit Malibu Friends of Music, Mr. Hosfeld currently holds the Alfred Newman Conducting Chair, and the Camilla Wicks Violin Chair at the Montgomery Arts House for Music and Architecture (MAHMA) in Malibu, California. Hosfeld is the recipient of a 2010 Malibu Music Award as "Classical Artist of the Year."
Paula Hochhalter, cellist, studied Music Performance at the University of Southern California with Gabor Rejto, and coached chamber music with Alice and Eleanor Schoenfeld, Eudice Shapiro, and Aaron Copland. She attended Yale's Summer String Quartet program with the Tokyo String Quartet and Raphael Hillyer, as well as two summers at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara. She thereafter toured with the Vuillaume String Quartet on the East Coast and participated in the International String Quartet competition at the Munich Chamber Music Festival. She has toured with major jazz, pop, and rock recording artists including Barbra Streisand, Chick Corea, Don Ellis, Andrea Bocelli. Over the years she has recorded with those artists in addition to Paul McCartney, James Taylor, Celine Dion, Michael Jackson and Adele.
She has been a member of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and has performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, Santa Barbara Symphony, New West Symphony, American Ballet Theatre, and Los Angeles Ballet. Ms. Hochhalter has been a performer at festivals around the country, including the Mozart Festival in San Luis Obispo, Strawberry Creek Festival in Malibu as well as the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara. She is a member of the Malibu Coast String Quartet with whom she has recorded extensively on composer Maria Newman's original works. An active player in the movie studies, she can be heard in the film scores of such composers as John Williams, Danny Elfman, James Horner, Heitor Perrera, Marco Beltrami, Mark Isham, and the silent films scored by Maria Newman, among others. Paula can be heard on Spotify under 'trufflemusik.com' in collaboration with pianist Liz Myers recording 'A Sweet of Brahms' along with singers in 'The Gift' and 'A Southern Christmas'.
Ms Hochhalter is a teacher at Valley Music Workshop, which regularly collaborates at Collier House for concerts, featuring the Malibu Coast Quartet and Viklarbo Chamber Ensemble. A family of artists, singers, songwriters and players makes this a lively community indeed!
American Mezzo-Soprano Diana Tash appears internationally in both operatic roles onstage and as a featured soloist. Her mezzo stage work has been hailed as “radiant” by the Los Angeles Times and “skillful” by the New York Times. On her latest album Bach Woman, produced by The Teshin Company, she appears with the Lyris Quartet, and other baroque string instruments. Home in Los Angeles, she is a sought after voice teacher and guest clinician, appearing in recital all over Southern California (and once at Carnegie Hall, too) with her longtime pianist Armen Guzelimian. Diana and world renowned counter-tenor Brian Asawa released an album of baroque duets “Spirits of the Air” in October 2014, and that year enjoyed critical acclaim with a mini tour that included dates in San Francisco, Los Angeles and in Mexico, at Guadalajara’s famed Teatro Degollado for the annual Festival de Mayo celebration.
Some of her recent work includes two staged performances of Jake Heggie’s CAMILLE CLAUDEL: INTO THE FIRE. Once at Boston Court w/California String Quartet, and once at Festival Opera in Northern California. Composer Jake Heggie maintained that her performances were “ferociously committed,” and that “Diana sang the buhjezzuz out of my score.” Other recent engagements include Music Marin w/NYPhilharmonicViolist Cynthia Phelps, and Beethoven 9 as the mezzo soloist with the Korean-American Symphony at Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. Also: Handel’s Messiah as mezzo soloist w/Santa Barbara Choral Society. Mendelssohn’s Elijah with Grant Gershon and the LA Master Chorale at Disney Hall. Bernstein’s Jeremiah Symphony with the Akron Symphony. Annina in La Traviata with Pacific Symphony. Medoro in Sacramento Opera’s Orlando and Maiden in Long Beach Opera’s Medea. Mrs. Gleaton in Festival Opera’s production of Carlisle Floyd’s Susannah.
Early in her career as a soprano, she performed at the Aldeburgh Festival in England with Maestro Stuart Robinson, and at the Aspen Festival with Maestro Lawrence Foster. Shortly after winning the Western Regional Metropolitan Opera Finals, Diana was a Resident Artist with LA Opera from 1992 to 1996. Performances there included: L’elisir d’amore, Cosi Fan Tutte, L’italiana in Algeri, Carmen, Pelléas and Mélisande, Xerxes, Elektra, Der Rosenkavalier, Rigolette, Albert Herring.) She returned in 2004, as Mercedes in Carmen conducted by Placido Domingo. That year, she also worked at San Diego Opera and Opera Pacific in Mozart’s The Magic Flute.
She has toured with composer Maria Newman and her Viklarbo String quartet as well as with The Debussy Trio performing the music of Ian Krouse.
Some appearances with famed pianist Armen Guzelimian have included solo recitals for Santa Barbara Opera, at Carnegie Hall in 2008, as well as Los Angeles’s Zipper Hall in 2006, from which a live recording, Diana Tash, in Recital was released on LML records.
Other recordings include Sacred Transitions: A Song Cycle based on the meditations of Harold M. Schulweis, by composer and pianist Russell Steinberg.
Dr. Tania Fleischer is an active pianist and collaborative artist in Southern California currently on the faculty of Loyola Marymount University where she teaches piano and is director of the Chamber Ensembles program. As a young pianist, Dr. Fleischer attended Juilliard Pre-College and won numerous prizes throughout the New York Metropolitan area. She appeared as soloist with many community orchestras as well as the New Jersey Symphony and performed regularly as a recitalist and in a duo with harpist Stacey Shames, with whom she shared her New York Debut at Carnegie Recital Hall. At the age of 14, she was hailed by New Jersey Magazine as one of their "Young Artists to Watch." She has been a recipient of the Deutscher Akademischer Austauchdienst Award for study in Freiburg, Germany, as well as a winner in the German Hochschule Piano-Cello Duo Competition and the Stravinsky Awards International Piano Competition.
Dr. Fleischer holds degrees from the University of Michigan, the University of Southern California and UCLA. Before joining the faculty at LMU, Dr. Fleischer developed and eventually headed the Accompanying Program at Chapman University, where she also taught piano, coached voice and co-directed the Opera Program.
Dr. Fleischer is active in community engagement through the arts at LMU and in the City of Culver City. She is a former Arts for LA ACTIVATE fellow in Cultural Policy and has been a Cultural Affairs Commissioner for the City of Culver City for 6 years.