2021 Performers
Ensemble-in-Residence:
Hub New Music
Called “contemporary chamber trailblazers” by the Boston Globe, Hub New Music–composed of flute, clarinet, violin, and cello–is forging new pathways in 21st-century repertoire.
The ensemble’s ambitious commissioning projects and “appealing programs” (New Yorker) celebrate the rich diversity of today’s classical music landscape. Its performances have been described as “gobsmacking” (Cleveland Classical), “innovative” (WBUR), and “the cutting edge of new classical music” (Taos News).
Hub’s 2021-22 highlights include concerts presented by the Morgan Library and Museum, Celebrity Series of Boston, Seattle Symphony, Soka Performing Arts Center, and Williams Center for the Performing Arts. Season residencies include visits to Baylor, Portland State, Illinois State, and Georgetown universities. The coming season brings premieres of new works by Nathalie Joachim, Laura Kaminsky, and Nina C. Young. In fall 2021, the Library of Congress presented the “virtual premiere” of Hub’s collaboration with composer Carlos Simon, Requiem for the Enslaved, which will tour in 2022-23. Simon’s large-scale work honors the lives of 272 slaves sold by Georgetown University (where Simon serves on the faculty) in 1838, and features spoken-word artist Marco Pavé, trumpeter Jared Bailey, and Simon on piano.
Hub’s debut album, Soul House, released on New Amsterdam Records in 2020 was called “ingenious and unequivocally gorgeous” by the Boston Globe. The ensemble’s upcoming recording with Silkroad’s Kojiro Umezaki (shakuhachi) and Asia-America New Music Institute (AANMI) will be released on Tōrō Records in 2022. Other upcoming recording projects include Carlos Simon’s Requiem for the Enslaved, and Michael Ippolito’s abstract-expressionist inspired work, Capriccio. The group will also be featured on Eric Nathan’s portrait album, Missing Words, to be released on New Focus Recordings.
Hub New Music is a group of passionate educators whose approach to teaching melds the artistic and entrepreneurial facets of modern musicianship. The ensemble was recently in residence with the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Nancy and Barry Sanders Composer Fellowship program, working with 10 outstanding high school aged composers. Other residency activities include those at New England Conservatory, Princeton, Harvard, University of Michigan, University of Texas-Austin, UC Irvine, and University of Nebraska-Lincoln. In 2021/22 the ensemble continues its K-12 program, HubLab, that uses graphic scores and improvisation to create group compositions with students of all levels.
Hub New Music owes thanks to its supporters including Chamber Music America, the Cricket Foundation, Boston Cultural Council, the Florence & Joseph Mandel Family Foundation, Johnstone Fund for New Music, Amphion Foundation, Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, and Alice M. Ditson Fund for Contemporary Music at Columbia University. The ensemble’s name is inspired by its founding city of Boston’s reputation as a hub of innovation. Hub New Music is exclusively represented by Unfinished Side.
Ensemble-in-Residence:
The Hausmann Quartet
Well-known to Del Mar audiences through their appearances on the Del Mar Foundation's First Thursdays concert series, the Hausmann Quartet is one of Southern California's finest chamber ensembles.
The Hausmann Quartet has established itself as an integral part of the cultural life of Southern California since its arrival in San Diego in 2010. As faculty Artists-in-Residence at San Diego State University they teach and organize the chamber music program, engage in interdisciplinary collaborations with other departments and visit local schools for concerts and clinics on behalf of the School of Music and Dance. Their latest endeavor is Haydn Voyages: Music at the Maritime, a quarterly concert series on a historic ferry boat exploring the string quartet repertoire through Haydn’s quartet cycle. They pioneered interactive programs for students, adult amateur musicians and local seniors, veterans and homeless with support from Mainly Mozart, the Irvine Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts and ACMP, and continue to administer and direct these programs as their own non-profit organization serving the Greater San Diego area, with recent grants from the California Arts Council and County of San Diego. Founded in the summer of 2004 at Lyricafest, they have recently been hailed as “Excellent” by the San Diego Union-Tribune, which stated, “Their outstanding virtue is a rare one: the ability to disappear into and behind whatever they are playing, leaving only the music in view.” They maintain an active performance schedule throughout North America and Asia. The members of the Hausmann Quartet are violinists Isaac Allen and Bram Goldstein, violist Angela Choong and cellist Alex Greenbaum.
For more information about the Hausmann Quartet, please visit hausmannquartet.com.
Tasha Koontz,
Soprano
Recognized by Parterre Box for her “sumptuous, gleaming lyric instrument” and by Opera Wire for her “secure silvery high notes,” soprano Tasha Koontz is an artist garnering attention from coast to coast.
Ms. Koontz lends her unique combination of nuanced and vocally exciting performances to a gallery of leading ladies in her repertoire. In the 2019/20 season, Ms. Koontz sang the soprano solos in Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream with the San Diego Symphony, performed the role of the High Priestess in Verdi’s Aïda with the San Diego Opera, performed as the soprano soloist in Vivaldi’s Gloria with the San Diego Festival Chorus & Orchestra, and performed Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915 with the California Chamber Orchestra.
In the 2018/19 season, Ms. Koontz returned to San Diego Opera singing the role of Frasquita in Carmen under the baton of Maestro Yves Abel. Broadway World recognized Ms. Koontz for her “accurate powerful voice,” and the San Diego Union- Tribune followed suit, describing her as a “power soprano.” Later that same season, Ms.Koontz made her debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra singing the High Priestess in Verdi’s Aïda under the baton of Maestro Riccardo Muti.
Equally at home on the concert stage, Ms. Koontz has performed as the soprano soloist with the La Jolla Symphony & Chorus for their performances of Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 4, as well as Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana. Ms.Koontz debuted with the San Diego Symphony in their Jacobs Masterworks: Music and world of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Concert. Additional concert repertoire includes Brahms’ Ein Deutches Requiem, Strauss’ Four Last Songs, Handel’s Messiah, Poulenc’s Gloria, Bach’s B minor Mass, as well as Faure’s Requiem. The soprano has also appeared with the Chicago Arts Orchestra, Newfoundland Orchestra, Coeur d’Alene Symphony Orchestra, Spokane Symphony Orchestra and the Northwestern University Orchestra.
Ms. Koontz has been the first place vocal winner in the Musical Merit Foundation Awards competition as well as the La Jolla Symphony & Chorus Young Artist Competition, the second place winner in the Susan and Virginia Hawk Vocal Scholarship Competition, the recipient of an encouragement award in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions Western Region. She was also chosen to compete in the semi-finals of the Belvedere Competition, was named a Finalist in the Fritz and Lavinia Jensen Foundation Vocal Competition. Additional awards and recognition include the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions Illinois and Indiana Districts and Central Region as well as the San Diego District and Western Region, the Coeur d’Alene Symphony Competition, the Bel Canto Foundation Competition, and the Brava! Opera Theater Competition.
Ms. Koontz is a Master of Music graduate of the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University, where she studied with acclaimed soprano Carol Vaness. She received her Bachelor of Music degree from Northwestern University. For more information about Ms. Koontz, please visit
Peter Walsh,
Piano
Peter Walsh has established a reputation as a dynamic pianist of great versatility, equally at home as a recitalist, orchestral keyboardist, and assistant to conductors at opera theaters across the country.
Walsh has been hailed by Opera News for his “especially solid and prominent playing” and “warmly expressive accompaniment.” He has served on the music staffs of Opera Omaha, Utah Opera, Central City Opera, Wolf Trap Opera, San Diego Opera, Houston Grand Opera, and LA Opera, and has assisted renowned conductors James Conlon, Gustavo Dudamel, Grant Gershon, Jane Glover, Eun Sun Kim, Speranza Scappucci, Robert Spano, and Patrick Summers, amongst others.
In the 2020-2021 season Walsh was engaged to play Opera Omaha’s production of Le nozze di Figaro and accompany its recitatives, a production that was unfortunately canceled due to Covid-19. He played orchestral keyboard for San Diego Opera’s drive-in production of Puccini’s La bohème under the baton of Rafael Payare and orchestral piano for LA Opera’s production of Stravinsky’s Oedipus rex under the baton of James Conlon. Walsh additionally collaborated with baritone Rod Gilfry in a virtual recital for Vocal Arts DC, as well as with soprano Tasha Koontz for a virtual recital sponsored by the Musical Merit Foundation of San Diego. He presented his own virtual solo piano recital in November of 2020 and has maintained a private, online studio of piano students and vocal coaching clients throughout the pandemic.
An active recitalist, Walsh has performed in Carnegie Hall under the auspices of the Marilyn Horne Legacy at Carnegie Hall. During the 2016 and 2017 summer seasons he enjoyed an association with the Ravinia Festival, collaborating with the singers of the Steans Music Institute. Walsh has enjoyed a long term collaboration with baritone Rod Gilfry and has performed with Gilfry and legendary mezzo-soprano Dolora Zajick in performances at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. He has participated in the Music Academy of the West, the Aspen Music Festival, and the Fall Island Vocal Arts Seminar.
A skilled improvisor, Walsh has worked as a répétiteur for the Los Angeles Ballet and the City Ballet of LA. Walsh performed with American Ballet Theatre as orchestral keyboardist for Stravinsky’s Firebird featuring principal dancer Misty Copeland. Most recently, he played orchestral celesta for the Los Angeles Ballet’s Nutcracker at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood.
Walsh is a graduate of the Houston Grand Opera Studio (2016-2018) and the LA Opera Domingo-Colburn-Stein Young Artist Program (2014-2016). He holds bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees in piano performance from the USC Thornton School of Music, where he studied with Lucinda Carver and Kevin Fitz-Gerald. Walsh completed his doctorate with academic distinction, pursuing minor fields in music theory and analysis, keyboard collaborative arts, and jazz studies.
For more information, please visit peterwalshpiano.com.
Joanna Morrison,
Cello
A native of Orlando, Florida, cellist Joanna Morrison completed her Bachelor of Music and Master of Music Degrees at Boston University studying under Leslie Parnas and George Neikrug.
In 2007 Ms. Morrison won a position in the Honolulu Symphony and served as principal cello of the Hawaii Symphony from 2012 to 2015. She also was an acting member of the San Diego Symphony from 2016-2020. Concert tours have taken Ms. Morrison to Japan, Taiwan, Singapore and South Korea as well as much of Europe and the United States performing under conductors including Zubin Mehta, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Leonard Slatkin, David Zinman and Manfred Honeck.
An avid chamber player, Ms. Morrison has collaborated with artists including Jon Kimura Parker, Chee-Yun Kim, Joyce Yang and Thomas Sauer and has studied under members of the Guarneri and Juilliard Quartets. While in Hawaii, Ms. Morrison was a member of Chamber Music Hawaii’s Galliard String Quartet and the Ebb and Flow Arts modern ensemble. She has received fellowships to summer festivals around the world including Aspen Music Festival, National Orchestral Institute, AIMS in Graz, Austria, International Festival Institute at Round Top, Blossom Music Festival, Cascade Music Festival and Verbier Festival where she served as principal cellist for the world tour with Charles Dutoit and Martha Argerich. In recent summers Ms. Morrison has been on faculty at the Hawaii Performing Arts Festival and participated in the Britt Festival in Oregon.
Joanna Morrison resides in San Diego with her husband, violist Ethan Pernela, their daughter, Zoe, and two dogs, Mochi and Riley.