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BYO Artists-In-Residence Program Every orchestra’s dream is to have a professional quartet at the ready to demonstrate, teach, and encourage its members. Berkeley Youth Orchestra is proud to announce the addition of our “Artist in Residence” String Quartet. Through instruction and professional “modeling” the BYO String Quartet elevates the support for each member of the orchestra to a very high level. Our quartet demonstrates the repertoire for each concert to students and literally sits in with sections to assist students with the mastery of parts. Members of the string quartet get to know the members of their section and individualize instruction every week. They bow the music, perform the music, are positive role models, coach the ensembles, and are available to meet individual student needs. John Bennett, Artist-In-Residence - Cello
Heghine Boloyan, Artist-In-Residence - Violin
Clif Foster, Artist-In-Residence - Violin
Ilana Matfis, Artist-In-Residence - Viola
Meet the rest of the BYO Family Jay Lehmann, Artistic Director and Conductor Stephanie Hironaka, Librarian
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John was born and raised in the Bay Area; he attended San Francisco State University and California State University at Hayward. His cello teachers include Allen Gove, Laszlo Varga, Margaret Rowell, and Irene Sharp, with chamber music coaching from Bonnie Hampton and Roy Bogas. Currently, Mr. Bennett is the cello instructor at Pacific Union College and the Paulin Center for the Creative Arts in Angwin where he both teaches and coaches the Junior Orchestra and chamber music. He also teaches at his private studio in Vallejo. He is a member of the Vallejo Symphony and the Napa Valley Symphony, freelances as much as time permits, and has a music contracting business, The Armonioso String Group. Mr. Bennett frequently performs with his wife, the pianist, Karen Balabanian. 
Heghine is a teacher with 40 years of experience in the USSR and America. She is a teacher at The Crowden School and a coach for the Oakland Youth Orchestra. She currently performs with the Oakland East Bay Symphony and the Santa Rosa Symphony. She has performed with the San Francisco Chamber and Ballet Orchestras and was Concertmistress for Camerata Americana Chamber Orchestra. Heghine has performed with the San Francisco Opera and Merola program.
Clif grew up in the Chicago area where he attended the American Conservatory of Music. His further classical studies were with Paul Makanowitzky and the Meadowmount School. He has played under such highly regarded conductors as Carlo Maria Giulini, Georg Solti and Daniel Barenboim and is a tenured member of the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra. Clif has performed on recordings with Art Pepper, Linda Ronstadt, John Williams and Yanni as well as on numerous movie soundtracks. His television credits include Good Morning America and the Tonight Show with Jay Leno. From 1994 to 1998, Clif was Concertmaster for the Yanni World Tour, and he appears on the Tribute and Albert Hall videos. He has performed live with a wide and varied range of well-known artists including Andrea Bocelli, Josh Groban, Sarah Brightman, Boz Skaggs, Moody Blues, Rod Stewart, Smokey Robinson, Sammy Davis, Jr. and Ella Fitzgerald. Clif currently lives in Benicia with his wife, Paula, and their German shepherd, Bogey. He is very active in developing a chamber music series there as well as a youth string program. Clif is currently the strings and chamber music coach at Solano College.
Ilana grew up in the Boston area and began playing the violin at age 5. After switching to the viola seven years later, she joined the Greater Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra and subsequently decided on a career as a musician. Ilana received her Bachelors’ degree in Music from Wesleyan University in Connecticut, where she was principal violist of the Wesleyan Orchestra and winner of the 2003 concerto competition. Looking for a change of scenery, Ilana moved to California to attend the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where she received her Master’s degree in Viola Performance and studied with Don Ehrlich and Jodi Levitz. In past summers, she has participated in the Aspen Music Festival and ENCORE School for Strings; she is also a chamber music coach for the Villa Sinfonia Foundation's Zephyr Point Chamber Music Camp. Ilana currently works as a freelance violist in the Bay Area and studies with Catherine Van Hoesen of the San Francisco Symphony. In her spare time, she enjoys vegetarian cooking, hiking, and wandering around San Francisco. At BYO, Ilana has been selected as Viola Artist-in-Residence to develop our viola/third violin section.