Newly appointed as the Valley Symphony Orchestra's Music Director, Michael Arshagouni has been active as a musician for over twenty-five years.  He has led orchestras and choirs at Los Angeles Valley College, Lyon College (Arkansas), Los Angeles City College, UCLA, the Royal College of Music (London) and numerous community orchestras and choirs, and he has toured Europe, Japan and the United States with several of these ensembles.  He has recently conducted a performance of Schubert's great Mass No. 6 in E-flat, D.950 with the combined forces of LAVC and LA Pierce College.  Other recent performances include Mozart's Piano Concerto No.23 in A and Coronation Mass, Haydn's Feuersinfonie and Faure's Requiem. He has conducted numerous musical theatre performances, including The Mikado, The Boys from Syracuse and Amahl and the Night Visitors,  as Music Director for the LACC Theatre Academy production of Landscape of the Body.  He has appeared on radio and television conducting the music of Armenian composers.

In addition to his performance endeavors, Dr. Arshagouni maintains an active life as a musicologist and educator.  He has published articles and has lectured nationally and internationally on a variety of music subjects, including the operas of Mozart, Piccinni and Reichardt, the choral music of Handel, orchestral music of 19th-century Russian composers, and the music of Armenian composers.  He has recently finished a five-year tenure as Vice-President and Program Chair of the Pacific Southwest Chapter of the American Musicological Society.

He earned his Ph.D. in Musicology from the University of California, Los Angeles, completing his dissertaion Aria Forms in Opera Seria of the CLassic Period: Settings of Metastasio's Artaserse from 1760-1790.  He also received his MFA in Conducting from UCLA.  He studied conducting with Norman Del Mar and Peter Phillips at the Royal College of Music, London, and took master classes with Christopher Hogwood and Sir David Willcocks.

DR. W. TERRENCE SPILLER

W. Terrence Spiller, pianist, earned degrees in piano performance form the University of Washington, Indiana University, and the University of Southern California.  Dr. Spiller, a prize-winner in international piano competitions, was recognized by the University of Southern California School of Music as the outstanding doctoral graduate of 1991.

Dr. Spiller has performed across the United States as soloist, recitalist, chamber musician, and accompanist.  The Los Angeles Times reviewed his performance at the Long Beach Bach Festival of Mozart's Piano Concerto in G, K.453 as "polished, genteel."  The Torrance Daily Breeze called his performance with the Peninsula Symphony Orchestra of Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No.2 as spirited, whimsical and intense.... From flowing sensuality to pounding drama, soloist and orchestra matched wits in a vigorous joint effort.  The Milwaukee Sentinel cited a chamber music performance as breathtaking, soul-stirring.  The San Luis Obispo Telegraph-Tribune called him "inspired...a musical powerhouse.

Dr. Spiller is Professor and Chair of Music at the California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo.

DR. JULIA HEINEN

Critics rave, “Julia Heinen is a sensation,” “Absolutely brilliant,” “Plays with intensity, conviction and impressive virtuosity.”

As a soloist, Julia Heinen has performed hundreds of recitals throughout the United States and had the distinct pleasure of premiering several works written specifically for her. In February of 2003, she performed a recital including several new works at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall and recently finished a compact disc recording including several of these pieces which was released in the Fall of 2007 by Centaur Records.

In addition to Dr. Heinen’s solo performances, she is often heard as a chamber musician performing most notably with Trio Chiaroscuro and the Oneota Chamber Players. She is also an accomplished ensemble player having served as principal clarinetist with the American Wind Symphony, a professional wind ensemble which tours the United States and Europe. As an orchestral player, she has served as principal clarinetist with the Santa Clarita, LaCrosse, Dubuque, Valdosta, Greenville, Augusta and Rochester Symphony Orchestras and was featured several times as a concerto soloist with those ensembles. In addition, her orchestral performance also include several concerts with the Minnesota Orchestra and she can frequently be heard locally on the Hour of Power orchestra from the Crystal Cathedral.


As an artist and clinician for the Selmer Corporation, Dr. Heinen does frequent clinics and masterclasses in many universities and colleges throughout the United States. Originally from Minnesota, she currently lives in Los Angeles, where she serves as professor of music at California State University, Northridge, teaching clarinet, coaching chamber music and coordinating the musicianship program. She holds a masters degree from the University of Michigan, an artist diploma from Northwestern University and a doctorate from the University of Minnesota. Her teachers have included Herbert Blayman, Robert Marcellus, Timothy Paradise and Cloyde Williams. She performs exclusively on Selmer Signature Artist Series clarinets, mouthpieces and barrels made by Clark Fobes and bells made by Morrie Backun.