Who We Are — From Scratch

Our Team

Joseph Bricker

A “tour de force” performer (Seen and Heard International), percussionist Joseph Bricker is the Associate Principal Timpanist/Percussion of the Cincinnati Symphony and Pops Orchestras. Prior to joining the CSO, Bricker was the percussion fellow with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago from 2019-2022. In addition to Cincinnati and the Civic Orchestra, he has performed with the Chicago, National, Dallas, Houston, and New World symphonies, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Metropolitan Opera, and several others. In the summers, he has held fellowships with the Verbier, Tanglewood, Pacific (Japan), and Aspen music festivals. As an educator, he was a Morse Teaching Artist Fellow at the Juilliard School’s Music Advancement Program, and has worked with organizations such as Notes for Peace, the Interlochen Arts Academy, Chicago Public Schools, the Aspen Music Festival, the Illinois Music Educators Association, and several others. Joe can also be heard as composer/performer on a 2017 advertisement for TaylorMade-Adidas featuring Tiger Woods, and has been the recipient of awards from the Zildjian Company, the Aspen Music Festival, National Public Radio, and the Skokie Valley Symphony. He received his Master of Music from DePaul University, studying with Cynthia Yeh, and his Bachelor of Music from the Juilliard School, studying with Greg Zuber.

Hannah Christiansen

Hannah Christiansen is the artistic director of the Zafa Collective, a Chicago-based new music ensemble for which she also serves as violinist. An Affiliate Artist of Guarneri Hall, Hannah is particularly interested in performing contemporary music and has recently collaborated with composers including Luis Fernando Amaya, George Lewis, Liza Sobel, and Augusta Read Thomas. She has been an Artist in Residence at Northwestern University and Roosevelt University, completed a fellowship with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago in 2021, and was a 2017 Sponsored Artist of High Concept Labs; Hannah also regularly presents a lecture series on extended techniques for the violin at the University of Chicago. Hannah holds a degree in French Language and Literature from Oberlin College in addition to her violin studies at Oberlin Conservatory and Northwestern University, and her major teachers are Milan Vitek, Gerardo Ribeiro, and Janet Sung. Hannah performs on a violin by Joseph Gagliano of Naples, c. 1780 courtesy of Guarneri Hall NFP and Darnton & Hersh Fine Violins, Chicago.

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