» Meet the Current Temianka Scholars
Lindsey Cho
BM Strings Performance, '27
Lindsey began studying the violin when she was 12 years old at her middle school where she discovered her passion for music. Lindsey first studied violin under Somi Kwon when she was 13 and later went on to studying under other renowned violinist, Ronald Houston and Song Young Kim who contributed unique insights to Lindsey's vision for music. Lindsey played in her schools orchestra as both Co-Concertmaster and Concertmaster. Throughout highschool years, Lindsey has been a part of the Greater Dallas Youth Orchestra and secured a place in TMEA All-State orchestra in 2022 and 2023. She was also the first violinist of the Baldwin Quartet, led by Ronald Houston, who went on to become a finalist in the 2022 Coltman Chamber Competition. Lindsey also participated in many concerto competitions and was a finalist in the Juanita Miller Concerto Competition in both 2022 and 2023. Her dedication to music led her to pursue
music at Chapman University, where she is currently studying under Dr. So Jin Kim and serves as the first violinist of the Temianka Quartet. As she continues to evolve as a musician, she hopes to inspire and captivate others around the world.
Adrian Fernandez
BM Violin Performance, '24
The current recipient of the Temianka-Saparoff Violin and Bow, Adrian started playing the violin at the start of 8th grade, though prior to that, he started playing the viola at his public middle school in 5th grade. He switched shortly after his aunt gifted a violin to him from a local music store for his 13th birthday. He was on his own, learning as much as he could with the classes at school and without any private lessons from the day he started. It wasn’t until his junior high school year, after his mother got a second job, where his family was finally able to pay for private violin lessons for him with the distinguished Dutch violinist, pianist, and conductor Antoine van Dongen. After a year of tremendous and vigorous work, Adrian earned the co-concert master seat in his high school’s symphony orchestra. From there, he auditioned at various universities and colleges, ultimately enrolling at his top choice, Chapman University, as a violin performance major. Adrian Fernandez has earned the assistant concertmaster seat in previous years at Chapman University. He was also recently invited to be concertmaster at the Cremona International Music Academy in the summer of 2022 as well as given the opportunity to be in the Temianka Quartet for the 2022-2023 Academic school year. Adrian hopes to become not only a soloist, a chamber musician, but also a teacher in his later years.
Kaitlyn Irianto
BM Violin Performance, '25
Kaitlyn started learning the violin at the age of eight as an after-school activity. Though it was only after she went to the London Olympics to perform in a local orchestra that she fell in love with performing on the violin. Throughout her high school career, Kaitlyn held principal seats in the Orange County Youth Orchestra and in her high school orchestra. She was also a violinist in her school performance group, Montage, and played at various venues for groups such as CHOC Children’s Hospital and the Pasadena Tournament of Roses Foundation. Kaitlyn is also thankful to have been part of the Musishare Young Artists Program under William Fitzpatrick’s direction, having performed in masterclasses from Philip Setzer, Cho-Liang Lin, and Cornelia Heard. Kaitlyn looks forward to growing both musically and personally while studying violin performance at Chapman.
Ella Magen
BM Strings Performance, BM Conducting, '26
Ella Magen is a student at Chapman University’s Hall-Musco Conservatory of Music studying Cello Performance under Dr. Yoshika Masuda and Instrumental Conducting under Maestro Danko Druško. Through her decade of experience and training in the performing arts, she has gained a multitude of opportunities such as serving as the principal cellist of Agoura High School’s top orchestral ensemble as well as Conejo Valley Youth Orchestra’s most celebrated symphony orchestra. She has also received a two-year fellowship with the California Young Artists Symphony. In addition, Ella served as the vice president of Agoura High School’s branch of Tri-M Music Honors Society. Since her acceptance to the Hall-Musco Conservatory of Music, she has served as the associate principal cellist, received the title of Temianka Scholar for being accepted into Chapman University’s top string quartet, and continues to work with The Chapman Orchestra as their ensemble manager. She has also participated in masterclasses with renowned cellists Taeguk Mun and Ross Gasworth, and played for prestigious events such as David Foster’s ALS fundraiser event and the OC Arts awards ceremony in her various string quartets she has had the privilege to play with during her time at Chapman.
Kelly Picton
BM Strings Performance, '25
Kelly started playing the cello when she was 11 years old through her public school music program in Carlsbad, California. She began taking private lessons early on under Michelle Tan Owen with the Suzuki method and has since studied with accomplished cellists such as Caitlin Fahey Crow, Yao Zhao, and Laszlo Mezo. Kelly has also taken masterclasses with Warren Hagerty and Marek Szpaklewicz and currently studies under Yoshika Masuda at Chapman University. Throughout her career, her passion for music has led her to play in multiple orchestras, ensembles, and quartets of various genres. She served as the principal cellist for her high school’s award-winning chamber orchestra 2018–2020, as the assistant principal for her unified school district’s honor orchestra in 2019, and was the cellist and gig coordinator for her high school’s primary quartet 2016–2020. Outside of school, Kelly attended the National Cello Institute Program at Pomona College in 2017, played as principal cellist in 2019 in the Disney Performing Arts Conservatory summer program, and served as a cello teacher 2019–2020 in the non-profit organization Young Leaders in Music Education. Kelly enjoys performing a variety of music genres and has collaborated with local San Diego band Trouble in the Wind and a Chapman favorite, Kishi Bashi. Kelly has played in the City Ballet of San Diego Orchestra since 2019 and North Coast Symphony Orchestra since 2018, performs around Southern California as a free-lance musician, and continues to play in various ensembles at Chapman University while studying cello performance.
Sarah Schmainda
BM Strings Performance, Honors Program, '26
Sarah Schmainda is Southern California-based violinist studying under the guidance of Dr. So Jin Kim, pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Violin Performance. Additionally, she holds a double minor with the Honors College at Chapman, as well as the Film Music minor. For over a decade, Sarah has placed and won in several regional competitions and has had the privilege of being chosen to participate in masterclasses with Martin Beaver, Stefan Jackiw and Etienne Gara. In addition to being the president of the Tri-M Music Honors Society, Sarah also served as the concertmaster of the award-winning Palos Verdes Peninsula High School symphony orchestra. Currently, Sarah serves as a fellow in the prestigious American Youth Symphony, a pre-professional orchestra. She has been called on numerous occasions for pit work with the South Bay Pit Orchestra, now merged with LA Chamber Music Company. Since the beginning of her undergraduate studies at Chapman, Sarah has worked in cooperation with several student musical productions and compositions. In collaboration with her first-year string quartet, she has performed at distinguished events such as the Augie’s Quest Cure ALS fundraiser at the Waldorf Astoria and the Association of California Symphony Orchestras at the Mission Inn Riverside. In the summer of 2023, Sarah attended the Atlantic Music Festival and performed in the orchestra for Midori Goto. In dedicating her studies to music, she aspires to build her career as a professional orchestral musician as well as studio violinist.
Eleas Vrahnos
BS Computer Science, BS Electrical Engineering, Business Administration minor, '24
Eleas has been playing the viola since 4th grade, originally starting out with the violin in 1st grade. His school music teacher at the time, Dr. Tammy Yi, recommended that he switch from the violin to the viola, and he has stuck with it ever since. Eleas participated in all his schools’ orchestras and quartets before Chapman. He earned multiple Director’s Awards from his elementary and middle schools and became principal viola during his later years in the Orange County School of the Arts high school symphony orchestra, under Maestro Christopher Russell. Others he has studied viola under at OCSA include Dr. Nicholaus Yee and Mr. Phillip Triggs. He has also participated in numerous outside ensembles before college, including Prelude Chamber Strings under Helen Weed, Pacific Symphony Santiago Strings under Mrs. Irene Kroesen, the Pacific Symphony Youth Orchestra under Dr. Roger Kalia, and the Pacific Symphony Youth Quartet. He was very fortunate to have studied under Mr. Robert Becker, former Strings Director at Chapman, for almost all of his viola-playing life. Eleas mainly studies computer science and electrical engineering at Chapman University, but is happy to continue playing the viola at Chapman.