Barry
Socher
Los Angeles native Barry Socher studied violin in Pasadena
with Virginia Baker and Alice Schoenfeld and chamber music
with Alice and Eleonore Schoenfeld, later attending the
University of Southern California School of Performing
Arts where he studied violin with Eudice Shapiro, composition
with Frederick Lesemann and Ramiro Cortes and conducting
with Hans Beer and Daniel Lewis. At summer programs in
Aspen, Santa Fe and Crans-sur-Sierre, Switzerland, he
also studied violin with Zino Francescatti, composition
with Darius Milhaud and chamber music with Robert Mann,
Walter Trampler and Claus Adam. Barry was concertmaster
of the Young Musicians’ Foundation Debut Orchestra
under Michael Tilson Thomas and toured Europe with the
Idyllwild Youth Orchestra as concertmaster and soloist.
He taught at the Idyllwild School of Music and the Arts
and at the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestral Institute
for many summers and has been on the faculties of Pomona
College and U.S.C.
Barry has been a member of the
Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra since 1981 and performs
frequently with the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s
New Music Group and Chamber Music Society. Currently
leading the Los Angeles Master Chorale Orchestra, the
Fresno Philharmonic Orchestra and the Pasadena Pops
Orchestra as concertmaster, he has also been guest concertmaster
of the Long Beach Symphony and concertmaster of the
Ojai Festival and Oregon Bach Festival Orchestras. He
was first violinist of the Arriaga Quartet, first place
winners of the 1974 Coleman Chamber Music Competition,
and is the founder and first violinist of the Armadillo
Quartet, known for its 34 1/2 -hour Haydn Quartet Marathon
concert in 1983, which made its Carnegie Hall debut
in December of 1999 in the world premiere of the P.D.Q.
Bach String Quartet. He has appeared in recital throughout
Southern California and has soloed with the Los Angeles
Chamber Orchestra, the Pasadena Pops Orchestra and the
Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. He has performed
in numerous recordings of symphonic, chamber, motion
picture and popular music: he was violin soloist on
Carole King’s Tapestry album, soloist with the
Arriaga Quartet on Chick Corea’s My Spanish Heart
album and with the Armadillo Quartet on A&M’s
Lost In the Stars Kurt Weill tribute album in his arrangement
of Youkali - tango habanera.
His compositions have been performed
by the Y.M.F. Debut Orchestra, the William Hall Chorale,
the Fresno Philharmonic Orchestra, the Topanga Philharmonic,
the Los Angeles Philharmonic Chamber Music Society and
at the Ojai Music Festival in addition to other ensembles
in the Los Angeles area as well as in Canada, England,
Germany, Switzerland, Finland, Hong Kong and at the
Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland. He has been assistant
conductor of the Idyllwild Festival Orchestra and the
national touring company of Jesus Christ Superstar and
has conducted youth orchestras throughout California.
