Karla Hamelin
Academy Faculty
A vibrant musician and innovative educator, Canadian cellist Karla Hamelin is a graduate of The University of Texas at Austin with a Doctorate of Musical Arts in Cello Performance. While a doctoral student, she was the teaching assistant to Professor Phyllis Young and taught in The University of Texas at Austin String Department. Before pursuing her doctorate degree, Karla attended The University of Michigan and earned a Masters of Music degree in cello performance under the tutelage of Anthony Elliott.
An accomplished performer and avid chamber musician, Dr. Hamelin is a frequent recitalist that appears regularly as a collaborative artist. She has worked with numerous artists in other disciplines including composers, dancers, choreographers, visual artists, poets and actors as well as studio musicians. Her ability to play a broad and diverse spectrum of repertoire has made her in demand as a performer of new works, a sought after orchestral and chamber musician, as well as a featured artist in a baroque cantata series.
An advocate of new music, Dr. Hamelin has performed with contemporary music ensembles such as the American Repertory Ensemble, the University of Texas at Austin New Music Ensemble, Audio Inversions and several others. Having had the opportunity to have been a part of several new music performances, commissions and premieres, Dr. Hamelin has been able to work closely with and alongside notable living composers such as Dan Welcher, Jennifer Higdon, John Adams, Donald Grantham, Joan Tower, Joseph Turrin, Donald Crockett, Diana McIntosh and Jake Heggie.
Equally dedicated to performing and teaching, Dr. Hamelin is the Assistant Professor of Cello at Concordia University Texas. Since the fall of 2006, she has also been on faculty at the Austin Chamber Music Center. In demand as a private teacher, Dr. Hamelin has quickly established herself as a highly respected pedagogue whose students have consistently placed in all state and regional orchestras, have also been prize winners in state and national competitions as well as being accepted at major music schools across the US. Her commitment to teaching and music education is evident in the high level of dedication and playing demonstrated by her students.
Karla plays regularly with the San Antonio, Waco, Temple, San Antonio Opera and Mid-Texas Symphony Orchestras. Since moving to Austin, Karla can be seen in playing in fun and rather unorthodox music venues with the local Austin bands: The Infinite Partials and The Chickpeas as well as performances in Austin’s South by Southwest Music Festival. Recently Karla has become a member of the College of Examiners and has been appointed as an adjudicator for the Royal Conservatory of Music in Canada.
In her spare time, Karla enjoys rowing on Lady Bird Lake and running the many hilly and scenic trails of Austin and Central Texas where she trains for full and half marathons.
For more information please go to www.karlahamelin.com.
