hannah collins, cello
Cellist Hannah Collins is a multifaceted artist, educator, and arts-in-health advocate. Winner of De Linkprijs for contemporary interpretation, she is committed to championing compelling new works for cello. Resonance Lines, her solo debut album on the Sono Luminus label, is an “adventurous, impressive collection of contemporary solo cello music,” negotiated “with panache” (The Strad), pairing music by Benjamin Britten and Kaija Saariaho with commissioned works by Caroline Shaw and Thomas Kotcheff.
Over the past decade, New Morse Code, her “remarkably inventive and resourceful duo” (Gramophone) with percussionist Michael Compitello, has developed projects responding to our society’s most pressing issues, including The Emigrants, a documentary chamber work by George Lam, dwb (driving while black), a chamber opera by Roberta Gumbel and Susan Kander, and The Language of Landscapes, a multimedia work by Rome Prize winner Christopher Stark. They were named the winners of the 2020 Ariel Avant Impact Performance Prize which supported the development of new works addressing sustainability and scientific innovation.
Solo and chamber music performances have taken Hannah to festivals such as the Aldeburgh Festival, Musique de Chambre à Giverny, Orford Centre d'arts, and Kneisel Hall. She is a member of the Boston-based, self-conducted chamber orchestra A Far Cry, and has recently performed with The Knights, Bach Aria Soloists, and Grossman Ensemble. Praised for her “incisive, vibrant continuo” playing (S. Florida Classical Review), Hannah also appears regularly as a Baroque cellist with the Sebastians, TENET, and Trinity Baroque Orchestra.
Hannah earned a B.S. in biomedical engineering from Yale and holds degrees in music from the Yale School of Music, the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, and City University of New York. She is an alumna of Ensemble Connect, a collaborative program of Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School, and the Weill Music Institute and has held faculty positions at the University of Kansas and University of Chicago. She is the executive director of the Longwood Symphony, the orchestra of Boston’s healthcare community, which is devoted to promoting the role of the arts in individual and community health.