Mother’s Day Concert
Week of May 8, 2021
Violinist Kate Hatmaker is the cofounder and Executive/Artistic Director of Art of Élan, a San Diego-based chamber music organization committed to bringing innovative classical music to diverse audiences (www.artofelan.org), and has been a violinist with the San Diego Symphony since 2006. She has played with a wide variety of American orchestras, including the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and the New World Symphony, and has also performed at the Breckenridge Music Festival, the Vail International Dance Festival, and La Jolla Music Society’s SummerFest. She is a frequent chamber music recitalist and guest clinician and has been a featured soloist with numerous orchestras in North America, including the San Diego Symphony. A passionate advocate for innovation in the arts, she has been invited to speak at Carnegie Mellon University, UC-San Diego, San Diego State University and Point Loma Nazarene University, among others. She completed her Master of Music degree at Carnegie Mellon University and her undergraduate training at both the University of Iowa and the Sorbonne University in Paris, France, graduating Phi Beta Kappa with high honors and degrees in both Political Science and French.
Hailed as, “a deity of elegance” by the New Brunswick Beacon, pianist Tina Chong is a sought-after recitalist and chamber musician in North America. Since her orchestral debut at the age of nine, Tina has appeared as a guest soloist with orchestras throughout the world including the Calgary Philharmonic, Brazilian Symphony Orchestra, and Mississippi Symphony Orchestra. Under the management of Jeunesses Musicales du Canada, Tina has gone on several whirlwind concert tours throughout Canada. Her recital career has also brought her to the Kennedy Center, the Sala Chopin, and the National Arts Centre. Tina’s playing has been described as, “…mature and yet fresh, imbued with tradition and yet inhabited by individuality, the marks of an artist” (The Herald Times). She is a prizewinner of major international competitions, including the Montreal International Musical Competition, Canadian Music Competition, Jacques Klein Piano Competition, and Aspen Music Festival Competition. Tina is a graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music. Her primary mentors include Arnaldo Cohen, Angela Cheng, and Menahem Pressler. Tina is a recipient of multiple artistic grants from the Canada Council for the Arts. A native of Banff, Canada, Tina currently serves on faculty at San Diego State University and plays regularly with the San Diego Symphony Orchestra. Tina’s greatest loves are chamber music and dancing with her two young daughters