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Tri-County Concerts Association

Artist Profile

Hannah Rose Nicholas, viola

Hannah Rose Nicholas, viola A Philadelphia native, Hannah grew up playing music and singing. She started viola at age 17. She has performed with the San Francisco Symphony, Lucerne Festival Academy (soloist 2015), Colorado Symphony, New World Symphony (2014-17), Central City Opera Orchestra (principal), Pennsylvania Ballet Orchestra (principal, spring 2018), and the Philadelphia Orchestra (spring 2018).

Hannah has given solo performances at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. and the New World Center in Miami Beach, where she was praised for her "rich tonal sonority" (South Florida Classical Review). Principal viola highlights with the New World Symphony include Strauss' Don Quixote with cellist John Sharp, and on tour with soloist Anne Sophie Mutter. The New York Classical Review wrote of the Carnegie Hall performance: “Violist Hannah Nicholas’s solo line that elided off the end of one of Mutter’s phrases was exceptional.”

Hannah performed in the 2017 Barnes Ensemble, a contemporary music residency in Philadelphia led by the JACK Quartet. She is a featured artist with the O, Miami Poetry Festival (2016, '17, '18), working with poets and artists on multimedia concerts. Recent collaborations include commissions from composer Sahba Aminikia and a new duo with violinist-composer Layale Chaker. Hannah's own compositions have been performed at the James Turrell Skyspace at Rice University, the Archway Gallery in Houston for the Art of Cultural Intersection in Music series (2016), and the University of Texas El Paso "Perspectives in Counterpoint" Residency (2018).

Merging voice and viola, Hannah is a founding member of the indie-rock trio The alt Default, winner of the 2015-16 Knight Arts Challenge South Florida. She is co-writer of "Eyes Like the Sea," (from The alt Default EP 2017).

Hannah earned a Masters in Music from New England Conservatory, studying with Kim Kashkashian, and an Artist Certificate in Chamber Music from San Francisco Conservatory, studying with Paul Hersh and Jonathan Vinocour. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Modern Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Pennsylvania, where she currently teaches songwriting in the College House Music Program.

Website: www.hannahroseviola.com