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.  

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, the second when she was invited back as a favorite performance of the orchestra.

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Hannah has studied the Suzuki method at the Chicago Suzuki Institute and enjoys a private studio of cello students of all ages.

Her students have won local concerto competitions and continued to study cello at universities throughout the country.
She has been a cello instructor for Camp Begin and the UW-Madison Summer Music Clinic. Hannah performed as a soloist and was the cello sectional coach for ten years with the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestra. 

Hannah currently performs both as a soloist and ensemble player for various events throughout Wisconsin. She is a founding member of the PBS recorded Avanti Piano Trio, which recently performed on the Live at the Mead Witter School of Music series at UW-Madison.

 

Hannah is currently a Speech and Language Pathologist for the Madison Metropolitan School District and lives in Madison with her husband and two daughters.