Lena Yasmin is an Iranian American soprano based in Los Angeles. A native to Southern California, she has performed with organizations such as Pacific Opera Project, Guild Opera Company and Independent Opera Company. She is a proud recipient of Opera Buffs’ Career Grant and was recently featured in its young artist showcase. In the past two years, Lena placed as a semi-finalist in the Pasadena Vocal Competition, the Southern California Philharmonic Young Artist Competition, and the Lyra New York Competition.

Currently, Lena is completing a Master of Music degree in Vocal Performance at UCLA under the instruction of Professor Juliana Gondek. She performed the role of Anne Trulove in Opera UCLA’s production of The Rake’s Progress, directed by Peter Kazaras and in collaboration with the UCLA Philharmonia under Professor Neal Stulberg. Most recently, Lena sang the role of Adina in UCLA’s production of L’elisir d’amore, conducted by Dr. Rakefet Hak and directed by James Darrah.

Outside the realm of opera, Lena has performed classical folk melodies and new music by Armenian composers as the soprano soloist for the VEM Ensemble. This group, carefully curated by Professor Movses Pogossian, has given Lena the opportunity to tour and give public outreach concerts, as well as perform at the Hammer Museum in Westwood. She is delighted to be a recipient of the Armenian Music Scholarship, which has exposed her to the joy of chamber music during her time at UCLA.

Pianist James Lent is Lecturer and Coordinator of Instrumental Collaborative Piano at UCLA in addition to serving as a coach and accompanist for vocal studies. James completed his DMA at the Yale School of Music under teachers Boris Berman, Claude Frank, and Peter Frankl. He made his Alabama Symphony debut to critical acclaim performing Rachmaninoff’s Concerto No. 2 on 24 hours’ notice to replace Andre Watts.

He has performed with the Vancouver Symphony, the Houston Symphony, the Shanghai Philharmonic, the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, the Utah Symphony and the Florida West Coast Symphony, among others, and as solo recitalist at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, the Schleswig-Holstein Festival in Germany, for the National Chopin Foundation in Miami, at Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, and at the Cleveland Museum of Art, where he premiered a new work written for him by American composer Frederic Rzewski.

Lent has performed with the renowned Paris-based Ensemble Intercontemporain under the direction of Pierre Boulez in a sold-out concert at Carnegie Hall, and his performances have been heard on National Public Radio.

His numerous awards include prizes in the New York Concert Artists Guild International Competition, the National Chopin Competition, the Washington International Piano Competition at the Kennedy Center, the Olga Koussevitsky Piano Competition in New York, and the Houston Symphony Ima Hogg National Young Artist Competition.He was a fellowship recipient at the Aspen Music Festival, the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, the Sarasota Music Festival, and the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, where he studied with Jerome Lowenthal.

Lent also teaches at AMDA (American Musical and Dramatic Academy) as collaborative pianist, vocal coach, and musical director. He has also served on the summer faculty at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara and the Hawaii Performing Arts Festival.