While the museum is temporarily closed, we are pleased to offer a “virtual concert” made possible by Guts Baroque in partnership with Laguna Beach Live!

The duo recently performed “Les Maîtres du violon: The Rise of the French Violin Sonata” and the entire program is available here from Thursday, April 9. Click below for the program, and join us from the comfort and safety of home for this month’s Live! at the Museum with Guts Baroque.

Cellist and gambist John Ott, a native of Los Angeles, received his Bachelor of Music degree in cello performance from UC Irvine in 2004, studying with Dr. Margaret Parkins, and in 2016 completed his Master of Music degree in Early Music, viola da gamba at the Longy School of Music in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he studied with Jane Hershey. In between, he performed with Symphony Irvine, Dana Point Symphony, Montage Civic Orchestra, and South Orange County Chamber Orchestra, played in the string quartet Elegie Quartet, and played chamber music all over Los Angeles and Orange County. During his two years in Massachusetts, aside from his Longy ensembles, he performed with Boston Camerata and Boston Opera Collaborative. He has played with the Orange County-based early music group L’Esprit Baroque since 2014. He maintains a large teaching studio, primarily at Vienna Music Institute in Irvine, CA, and is the cello coach for three high schools in Irvine Unified School District.

Fascinated and deeply inspired by the relationship between music, movement, and dance, violinist and Dalcrozian-in-training Sylvia Schwartz is a passionate chamber musician in both modern and historical performance practices. A native of Boston, Sylvia has performed with Guts, L’Esprit Baroque, Musica Angelica Baroque Orchestra, LA Chamber Chorale, The Meistersingers, Eudaimonia—A Purposeful Period Band, Harvard Baroque Chamber Orchestra, Harvard Early Music Society, New Bedford Symphony, New England Classical Singers, and Lizzie and the Flakjackets throughout the United States and Canada, in Estonia, Latvia, and at Shostakovich Hall in St. Petersburg, Russia. Sylvia earned a M.M. in Violin Performance from the Longy School of Music, where she studied violin with Laura Bossert and early music with Dana Maiben, Na’ama Lion, Vivian Montgomery, and Ryan Turner. She also holds a B.S. in Engineering from Olin College. Sylvia teaches privately in person and online, for the Irvine Unified School District, and at Vienna Music Institute in Irvine, California, and concertizes frequently with Guts and L’Esprit Baroque.

Live! at the Museum is presented in partnership with Laguna Beach Live!

Please note: In the interest of protecting the health and well-being of our community and staff, and to support efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19, Laguna Art Museum is temporarily closed to the public. Events and programs at the museum are cancelled during this time. Please click here for information.