Hannah Frey is an active chamber and orchestral musician in St Louis, Missouri. She is first violinist of the Perseid Quartet, plays regularly with the Union Avenue Opera Orchestra, the Metropolitan Orchestra of St Louis, with visiting shows at the Fox Theatre, and with a local band, Third Millennium World’s Fair. She has performed or collaborated with many other groups in the area including the St Louis Symphony, the MUNY Orchestra, and the Shakespeare Festival St. Louis.
Hannah is a native of Clinton, South Carolina. She received both her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from the Cleveland Institute of Music, where she studied with Linda Cerone and William Preucil.
Hannah is a dedicated educator with a large private studio and teaches students of ages and levels out of her home in St Louis. She is also on the violin faculty at Washington University of St Louis and Lindenwood University and recently joined the teaching staff for Beginning Strings for the Kirkwood District Schools. She believes that anyone can learn to play the violin and is insistent on sharing her love of music with others. Hannah is a Nationally Certified Teacher of Music through the Music Teacher's National Association.
Hannah is a strong proponent of continuing education and learning from other teachers. She has received Suzuki training with Rudy Hazucha, Susan Kempter, Carol Smith, Vera McCoy-Sulentic, and has taken Suzuki Online Seminars with Teri Einfeldt, Kirsten Marshall, and Daina Volodka Staggs. She has attended Indiana University's Retreat for Violin and Viola Teachers with Mimi Zweig and she also has certification for teaching Books 1 and 2 of the Mark O'Connor Method. She received a certificate in Soft Skills from the Rochester Institute of Technology through EdX and continues to take classes and seminars online, including recent ones on improvisation with Avi Friedlander and the Creative Ability Development Method with Laura Nerenberg.
Due to COVID she isn't performing very much so she is planning to take more teaching courses this year, including a year long course on the Creative Ability Development Method, a shorter term course for some Suzuki training on viola, a weekend workshop with Charles Krigbaum, and Books 3 and 4 of the Mark O'Connor Method, and probably a few more random seminars along the way.
Hannah is not just a serious classical violinist. She plays regularly with the experimental folk group Third Millennium World's Fair, who have played at various festivals and venues around the city, including the Artica Festival and Showcase St Louis. She played the role of “The Fiddler” in OnSite Theatre Company’s production of “The Runaway Cupcake” and helped as a composer and violinist for the remake of the same play, now titled "The Last Cupcake" for Shakespeare St Louis's 2019 Education Tour. Additionally she has performed with a variety of popular artists over the years, including The Who, Two Cellos, Weird Al Yankovic, Harry Connick, Jr., Josh Groban, and Trans-Siberian Orchestra, and she played electric violin as part of “The Prophecy Show”, a Trans-Siberian Tribute Band.
In addition to her musical skills, Hannah is also a writer. She won an essay contest sponsored by Thomastik Strings and her winning essay on “Tone” was published in the Suzuki Association of the Americas’ Summer 2009 Minijournal. More recently, in January of 2020, she had an article published in the American String Teacher Magazine called "Techie Teacher Truths: Using Technology in the Studio." She has had several reviews published in the American Music Teacher Magazine and she is on the review committee for the ASTA Magazine and will have reviews published in a few upcoming editions of the American String Teacher Journal. She also writes a blog about life, cats, traveling, and more!