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KANSAN.COM
ARTS & CULTURE
8
Baxter Schanze/KANSAN
Hannah Collins sits in the courtyard of Murphy Hall playing her cello. Collins has recently been appointed the visiting assistant professor of cello.
MUSIC IN FOCUS Visiting cello professor draws on lessons from others
◀ OMAR SANCHEZ @OhMySanchez
Now a visiting professor at the University, cello player Hannah Collins has used her instrument in a variety of ways, including recording, performing, teaching and more. But, in more than 30 years of playing the cello, she still looks back at that first time she picked it up as a source of creativity and motivation.
Collins began her relationship with the arts at a very early age - 4 years old - practicing the cello, a bowed-string instrument in the violin family.
At a certain point, a piece of art just moves you," Collins said. "You know that when you're 4 years old and you know that when you're 40."
Collins said she still uses that in her work.
"I think people that are doing [art] as a profession are always reaching back to that: simple and basic things," she said.
A New York native who was born near Rochester, Collins arrived at the University after a long journey in music performance and education. She is teaching cello at the school of music in different ways, including one-on-one weekly cello lessons, a group studio class and advising doctorate students in a performance program seminar.
And she's doing all this while finishing her doctorate degree.
While it is a lot to tackle, Collins' past ventures illustrate a rigorous work ethic and drive to succeed. Her resume includes some impressive achievements, including earning degrees at Yale University for both biomedical engineering and cello performance, working as a part of a professional development program that uses resources such as Carnegie Hall and Juilliard and performing a piece written by friend and Pulitzer-prize winning violinist/composer Caroline Shaw.
Somewhere in those achievements, Collins said a thread that weaves through them all is her willingness to work with others and learn from them on the way - a lesson she learned as a teenager in New York.
"For me, the best way to be driven and excel is be around people who have had experience," she said. "It's not just being in a practice room with myself or sussing out the room and figuring out how to beat [others]."
As a child, Collins learned this trait from her older sister, Sarah.
Sarah, who is almost 3 years older than her, played the violin during grade school. Attempting to find a way to bond with Sarah, Collins chose an instrument similar so they could both play together.
Collins said she was astonished by her sister's work with the violin.
"I was looking at my sister and was like 'Wow, she's practicing, maybe I should
do that," she said.
Sarah's mother, a scientist and piano player, and her father, a doctor, were also a source of inspiration. The motivation from her family pushed her to continue the cello throughout her time in school, she said. What hooked her into making music her life's work, however, was a high school camp, when she realized she could grow into an accomplished musician.
Greenwood Music Camp, located in Cummington, Mass., offered the opportunity for chamber players to practice in groups of four or five and feed off each others' performances.
"It was the whole vibe there," Collins said. "It's nice as a teenager to get used to playing in a quartet where you are all working together and you have this really positive experience."
With creativity and fun both important parts of her experience, she has now carried that over to her
work today.
In 2014, when she was approached about doing the cello piece "in manus tuas," which has a vocal component - something she had done before but not regularly - she jumped at the opportunity. It was a welcome challenge that puts her out of her comfort zone, she said.
"For Hannah, it was like in England; you're all the sudden driving on the other side of the road," Michael Compitello said, assistant proffessor of percussion who partners with Collins in the musical group New Morse Code.
As a part of the group, Compitello and Collins commission compositions from other people who can write for both percussion and cello. However, if they trust with the composer, they do not limit what their creativity dictates, Collins said.
In a new piece they are working on, a song written by Robert Hononcaled
"Down, Down, Baby," Collins will be using her cello for more than its intended purpose: percussive work. It's a challenge that Collins said is worth putting in the time for.
"I do definitely see it as a challenge, but it's something that allows me to learn about other things," she said.
Compitello and Collins will be premiering the piece Oct. 4, but before that, Compitello hopes they can both continue making music together and working with student musicians.
"My expectations for the year are that we can record music more often and that we can do our best to share some of our experiences we've been lucky to have with the students here," Compitello said.
Emily Taylor and Marilyn Stokstad Women's Leadership Lecture
DEMOCRATIC POLITICAL STRATEGIST Celinda Lake
What Women Want: Public Opinion, the 2016 Election,and Why Women Matter
7:30 P.M. Tuesday, September 20, 2016
WOODRUFF AUDITORIUM, KANASAS UNION
Reception to follow in memory of Marilyn Stokstad LOBBY, KANSAS UNION
Accused of cheating in DSCI 202? But that's BS!
Do you feel like you were ambushed?
Do you feel like you were ambushed?
Is the process railroading you into taking it?
Is it "guilty until you prove you are innocent"?
Did you know you can appeal? (Nobody told you that, huh?)
Odds are there is no evidence you did anything wrong, just an unsubstantiated accusation that is going to cost you $1300 in lost tuition. (Bet your parents probably brought that up this summer.)
Fight Back!
We can help you set the record straight. Call or text 785-551-1670 or email dsci202.ku@gmail.com
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