Biographies
Alissa Freeman
PIANO
With a unique profile in education, performance, research, and entrepreneurship, pianist Alissa Freeman has been lauded for her excellence in each of these arenas. She has been the recipient of two Presser Awards, the Rackham Predoctoral Fellowship, numerous full-tuition academic and music scholarships, the MarySue Harris Teacher Fellowship, invitations to present for many large national and international arts and music organizations, and several awards in national and state piano competitions. She was also the founder and director of The 5pm Series, a concert series that offered financial support to musicians during the COVID-19 pandemic by hosting over 100 online concerts across the world.
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Both in her personal and professional life, one of Alissa’s goals is to understand barriers to inclusivity and find creative ways to remove them. Her passion project, ||:HerClassical:|| promotes music written by 18th-century women composers by compiling and producing recordings, editions, and teaching resources. Though she is dedicated to finding works outside of the canon, she also enjoys tackling complex standards: she recently recorded the entire set of Chopin’s Op. 25 etudes, and her concerto performances have included the Michigan premiere of Doreen Carwithen’s Piano Concerto with the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra in 2022, as well as award-winning performances of Prokofiev’s 2nd Piano Concerto and Rachmaninov’s 2nd Piano Concerto.
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Alissa received her Doctoral and Masters Degrees in Piano Performance and Pedagogy from the University of Michigan. Her instructors have included Logan Skelton, Scott Holden, John Ellis, Matthew Bengtson, and Maria Prinz. Alissa currently manages and teaches at Panoramic Piano Studio in Madison, WI. She enjoys going on long hikes with her husband, Anthony, and dog, Ruby.
Hillary Hempel
VIOLIN
Music is a gift, a language, a way to share what composers have written, to express and create emotions and colors through sound. These bring Hillary Hempel joy when playing music whether orchestral, chamber, or solo music.
Hillary, originally from Lyons, Illinois, moved to Madison, Wisconsin after becoming Assistant Principal Second Violin of Madison Symphony Orchestra and becoming a member of the first violin section in Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra in 2017. Since 2023, she has served as a member of the Hunt String Quartet through Madison Symphony, which she loves! She subs in Quad Cities Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Iowa, and Oakwood Chamber Players.
She soloed with Middleton Community Orchestra performing Brahms Violin Concerto in December 2022. She performed Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto in D Major with Northwestern’s Philharmonia Orchestra after winning Northwestern University’s Concerto Competition in 2014.
Hillary was a member of the Civic Orchestra of
Chicago from 2014-2016. She attended Colburn Conservatory of Music for her undergraduate degree and Northwestern University for her master’s degree. She studied with Robert Lipsett, Danielle Belen, and Almita Vamos.
When Hillary is not playing the violin, she enjoys running and hiking, in any season, and spending time with friends and family.
Hannah Wolkstein
CELLO
Cellist Hannah Wolkstein received her bachelor's degree in Music Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she studied with Uri Vardi and Parry Karp, and received scholarship awards for both Cello Performance and Music Education.
For two years Hannah lived in Atlanta, Georgia for a special apprenticeship studying with Wolfgang Laufer, former cellist of the Fine Arts Quartet. She also studied at the Glenn Gould School at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, Canada for one year with Bryan Epperson, former principal cellist of the Canadian Opera Company. Prior to Atlanta and Toronto, her cello teachers included Karl Lavine and Warren Downs.
Hannah has participated in many music festivals including the Pablo Casals Festival in Prades, France, the Henry Mancini Institute in Los Angeles, the Quartet Program and the Colorado College Music Festival. She was a winner of the Ruth Kern concerto competition in Atlanta, Georgia where she performed with the Atlanta Community Orchestra as a soloist on two occasions.
Hannah was also the cello sectional coach for ten years and has performed as a soloist with the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestra. Hannah is currently a Speech and Language Pathologist for the Madison Metropolitan School District and is the mother of two little girls.
Hannah has studied the Suzuki method at the Chicago Suzuki Institute and enjoys a private studio of cello students of all ages. She has been a cello instructor for Camp Begin and the UW-Madison Summer Music Clinic. Hannah currently performs both as a soloist and ensemble player for various events throughout Wisconsin.