Originally published in Finger Lakes Times on April 26, 2025
Hannah Collins, a nationally recognized cellist, arts administrator, and educator, will return to the Finger Lakes this June for a performance at the Geneva Music Festival, where she has been a resident artist for more than a decade.
Though her career has taken her around the world, Collins’ musical journey began right here in Geneva.
“It’s my hometown, so I return to family and friends,” she shared. “I grew up playing music with people in this community — and even though our careers have taken us in many different directions, the festival is a chance for us to play together and reconnect.”
The idea of music as a connector lies at the heart of Collins’ work and is the driving question behind her career: Just how powerful can music be?
Passionate about the power of music to foster social change, Collins sees her work as an opportunity to connect communities with issues that matter. This philosophy is embodied in her recent appointment as executive director of the Longwood Symphony Orchestra in Boston, an ensemble of volunteer musicians from the healthcare field, including doctors, researchers, therapists, and medical students, many of whom are accomplished musicians in their own right.
Under Collins’ leadership, the orchestra raises funds for nonprofit organizations that support the medically underserved in the region, blending music and medicine in a way that benefits those most in need.
“I have a strong belief in the impact of music on health and healing,” Collins said. “It’s about using our art to advocate for those who need it most.”
Her educational background, a blend of biomedical engineering from Yale alongside degrees in music from prestigious institutions like Yale School of Music, the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, and City University of New York, brings an interdisciplinary perspective to her work. Her new role reconnects her with the medical research community — this time, from the musical side.
Collins also explores artistic territory as half of the cello-percussion duo known as New Morse Code with percussionist Michael Compitello. Their collaboration of cello and percussion, though unconventional, allows for an innovative creative process.
“When we founded this project, it wasn’t about what instruments we were going to play,” she explained. “It was about why we were creating music together.”
This approach has led to impactful performances centered on issues like climate change and its effects on our ecosystems. Their work has earned recognition, including the Ariel Avant Performance Prize, a testament to their ability to use music for impact-centered work.
“It was a good lesson for me that you find your way when you pursue the things you’re interested in,” she reflected. “We set out to see what could happen as we were designing.”
For Collins, music is a language for engaging in a conversation between composer, performer, and audience. And, like language, she noted that shared understanding can take time.
Some of the most iconic works in classical music were misunderstood initially, only to be revisited and embraced in later years. Collins sees herself as part of that ongoing dialogue, where music is continuously shaped by new interpretations.
“We like to ask ourselves ‘What would Mozart have said?’ to better understand a piece’s original purpose and its place in history,” she said. “Attention is often on composers, but it’s also important to consider the influential historical figures who helped shape these works.
“Music creates a space where people can experience and think about issues in ways that the demands of our everyday life don’t always allow.”
As Collins prepares to return to the Geneva Music Festival this June, she is looking forward to the reconnection that chamber music can bring.
“It’s such a joy to play with people you know and trust,” she said. “I hope we can communicate how much connection we’re feeling on stage and extend that out to the audience. We really want to create a human-connected experience for people.”
This is the essence of the Geneva Music Festival — a celebration of music’s power to unite communities.
Collins will perform alongside world-class artists Clive Greensmith, Esther Park, Eric Wong, Geoffrey Herd, and Clara Lyon next month.
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The Geneva Music Festival is recognized by the U.S. IRS as a non-profit organization under section 501(c)3 of the Internal Revenue Code. The Festival’s business address is P.O. Box 543, Geneva, NY 14456, (315) 326-1951, info@genevamusicfestival.com.
