Kimberly Fitch & Dr. Hor B Chhay

Kimberly Fitch holds a Bachelor of Music from the Eastman School of  Music, and Master of Music in Viola Performance from UC Santa  Barbara. Kimberly studied with world-renowned teachers in the United  States and Europe including Helen Callus, Phillip Ying, James Dunham,  Jeffrey Irvine, Carol Rodland and Richard Wolfe. An enthusiast for a  wide variety of musical styles, Fitch studied with new music expert Brad  Lubman as well as period music scholars Kristian Bezeidenhout and  Christel Thielmann. As a scholarship recipient, Fitch attended the Aspen  Music Festival, Fontainebleau Schools in France, The Britt Institute with  the Cavani and Pacifica Quartets, Soundfest Quartet Institute with the  Colorado Quartet, and the Port Townsend Chamber Music Festival with  the Tokyo Quartet. Solo appearances include the Carl Stamitz Viola  Concerto with the Rogue Valley Symphony in Ashland, OR and the  Bartok Viola Concerto with the University Symphony Orchestra in Santa  Barbara as a first place winner of the Concerto Soloists  Competition. Fitch was a semifinalist at the 2005 Fischoff National  Chamber Music Competition, winner of the 2002 Youth Symphony of  Southern Oregon Concerto Competition, and recipient of the John  Celentano Award for Excellence in Chamber Music at the Eastman  School. Fitch performed as a violist and string coach for the Oregon  Shakespeare Festival’s 2014 production of Into the Woods, as a violinist  in the 2015 world-premier musical by Jeff Whitty, Head Over Heels,  violinist in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast in 2017, and actor, dancer and  klezmer in Paula Vogel’s Indecent in 2019. Kimberly makes her home in  Pasadena, CA where she maintains a studio of violinists and violists, and  freelances throughout the Los Angeles area.

Dr. Hor B Chhay, MD is a family medical doctor in Cambodia Town of Long Beach, CA. Dr.  Chhay has experience in acupuncture as well as Western medicine. In order to escape the  Khmer Rouge in Cambodia in the 1970s, he posed as a duck farmer, and was able to convince  the guards of his expertise in duck eggs and to deny having any other advanced education. Dr.  Chhay lost all of his siblings to the Khmer Rouge save one sister, who he was not able to be  forthright with about his plans to escape with his family, for their safety and hers. Upon arrival  in the United States, he credits his experience with the French language for his ability to  communicate and find work as a medical doctor. In the past decade, Dr. Chhay has taken up  an interest in playing the instruments of his country, especially the Tro and Takhe. Dr. Chhay is  concerned about the coronavirus pandemic, as he regularly sees patients with symptoms and  tests them in his office. He has a remarkable ability to handle the stress of his work and current  events, as this experience pales in comparison with his surviving the killing fields of the Khmer  Rouge in Cambodia.