PROGRAM NOTES
UPDATED PROGRAM ORDER
BEETHOVEN String Quartet No. 6 in B-flat major, Op.18 [26′]
I. Allegro con brio
II. Adagio ma non troppo
III. Scherzo: Allegro – Trio
IV. La Malinconia
CAROLINE SHAW Blueprint for String Quartet (2016) [8′]
—-INTERMISSION—-
PHILIP GLASS String Quartet No. 3, “Mishima” (1985) [18′]
I. 1957: Award Montage
II. November 25 – Ichigaya
III. Grandmother and Kimitake
IV. 1962: Body Building
V. Blood Oath
VI. Mishima / Closing
PUCCINI 3rd Minuet for String Quartet in A major [3′]
PUCCINI Crisantemi for String Quartet [6″]
KRZYSTOF LENCZOWSKI Adonis Blue [4″]
ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES
Naha Greenholtz, Violin
Naha Greenholtz is Concertmaster of the Madison and Quad City Symphonies. Past engagements include guest concertmaster appearances with the Oregon, Omaha, and Memphis Symphonies, the San Francisco Ballet, the Calgary Philharmonic, and a two-year residency with the National Ballet of Canada. Recent seasons have taken her to New Orleans, Chicago, and Melbourne (Australia) for guest appearances. She began her career as a member of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, and later, subbed and toured often with the Cleveland Orchestra.
She has made over 100 concerto appearances, including engagements with the Vancouver, Madison, Quad City, Burnaby, Muscatine, Clinton, and Kelowna Symphonies, the San Francisco Ballet, the National Ballet of Canada, and the National Repertory Orchestra.
Naha is Artistic Director of QCSO’s Up Close chamber series. Festival credits include Kneisel Hall, Taos, Spoleto, Lucerne, and the New York String Orchestra Seminar. She holds degrees from Juilliard and the Cleveland Institute of Music and plays a 1778 Antonio Gragnani violin. She lives in Madison with her husband, conductor Kyle Knox, their children, and their cats.
Emily Nash, Violin
Violinist Emily Nash, graduated with her MM in violin performance while studying with Almita and Roland Vamos at Northwestern University, graduating early and with high honors. She received her BM in violin performance from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign while studying with Simin Ganatra. Nash has shared the stage with Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, Emanuel Ax, Renee Fleming, The Eagles, Halsey, Sigur Ros, Johnny Mathis, Bobby Weir, Andrea Bocelli, and Game of Thrones composer, Ramin Djawadi.
Nash was awarded the Farwell Award from the Musicians Club of Women Scholarship Competition, was a First Prize winner in both the Greenwich Center for Chamber Music Competition and the Greater New Haven Youth Orchestra Concerto Competition. Other awards that Emily has received are the School of Music Scholarship Recipient at Northwestern University, the
Talented Student Scholarship Recipient at the University of Illinois, awarded Honorable Mention for the Carlson-Horn Competition for Young Instrumentalists, Special Recognition in Instrumental Music Award for the Shoreline Arts Alliance Competition, and received a Scholarship Award from the Friends of Morgan Music Scholarship.
Emily was the Civic Orchestra of Chicago’s Concertmaster from 2012-2013, and upon Yo-Yo Ma’s request, she was a mentor for the Artistic Challenge Project in 2014. This is Nash’s ninth season in the Quad City Symphony Orchestra where she serves as the Associate Concertmaster. Emily also recently received tenure with the Sinfonietta Orchestra of Chicago. Emily has also subbed with the Nashville Symphony, Hawaii Symphony, Milwaukee Symphony, Chicago Philharmonic, Fort Wayne Philharmonic, Illinois Philharmonic, Chamber Music on the Fox, Lake Forest Symphony, and the Midwest Mozart Festival. Emily is a founding member of the Cloud Gate String Quartet. Along with performing, Emily maintains a small private violin studio and has been an adjunct faculty member of the Vandercook College of Music. Emily resides in a Chicago suburb with her seven-year-old daughter, Natalie, and husband and violist, Bruno Vaz da Silva.
Violinist Emily Nash, graduated with her MM in violin performance while studying with Almita and Roland Vamos at Northwestern University, graduating early and with high honors. She received her BM in violin performance from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign while studying with Simin Ganatra. Nash has shared the stage with Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, Emanuel Ax, Renee Fleming, The Eagles, Halsey, Sigur Ros, Johnny Mathis, Bobby Weir, Andrea Bocelli, and Game of Thrones composer, Ramin Djawadi.
Nash was awarded the Farwell Award from the Musicians Club of Women Scholarship Competition, was a First Prize winner in both the Greenwich Center for Chamber Music Competition and the Greater New Haven Youth Orchestra Concerto Competition. Other awards that Emily has received are the School of Music Scholarship Recipient at Northwestern University, the
Talented Student Scholarship Recipient at the University of Illinois, awarded Honorable Mention for the Carlson-Horn Competition for Young Instrumentalists, Special Recognition in Instrumental Music Award for the Shoreline Arts Alliance Competition, and received a Scholarship Award from the Friends of Morgan Music Scholarship.
Emily was the Civic Orchestra of Chicago’s Concertmaster from 2012-2013, and upon Yo-Yo Ma’s request, she was a mentor for the Artistic Challenge Project in 2014. This is Nash’s ninth season in the Quad City Symphony Orchestra where she serves as the Associate Concertmaster. Emily also recently received tenure with the Sinfonietta Orchestra of Chicago. Emily has also subbed with the Nashville Symphony, Hawaii Symphony, Milwaukee Symphony, Chicago Philharmonic, Fort Wayne Philharmonic, Illinois Philharmonic, Chamber Music on the Fox, Lake Forest Symphony, and the Midwest Mozart Festival. Emily is a founding member of the Cloud Gate String Quartet. Along with performing, Emily maintains a small private violin studio and has been an adjunct faculty member of the Vandercook College of Music. Emily resides in a Chicago suburb with her seven-year-old daughter, Natalie, and husband and violist, Bruno Vaz da Silva.
Bruno Vaz Da Silva, viola
Bruno Vaz Da Silva began studying viola in 2004 in his native Brazil at the Escola de Musica de Brasilia. After one year, he placed in a solo competition and had the opportunity to perform with the Orquestra Sinfonica da Escola de Musica de Brasilia, performing the G Major Viola Concerto by Telemann. He graduated from the conservatory in two and a half years, a program which normally takes eight years, and then enrolled in the University of Brasilia.
Bruno has gained much experience as an orchestral and chamber musician. He has worked with the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Hawaii Symphony Orchestra, Civic Orchestra of Chicago, Chicago Philharmonic, Chicago Sinfonietta, Quad City Symphony Orchestra, Elgin Symphony Orchestra, among others. With the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, he had the opportunity of working with Yo-Yo Ma. Bruno was a founding member of the YOURS (Youth Orchestra Urban Rita Simon) Project Chicago, which is an El Sistema music program for unprivileged students, where he worked until 2012. Bruno Completed his undergraduate in music performance at North Park University where he studied with Charles Pikler, Chicago Symphony’s former principal viola and his MM at DePaul University, studying with Rami Solomonow, Lyric Opera of Chicago former viola principal. Besides being a performer, Bruno has arranged over 300 pieces for chamber groups. Some of his arrangements were featured at the Banff International String Quartet competition, Quad Cities Symphony Orchestra, and Candlelight concerts all around the world. Today, Bruno is a freelance musician in the Chicago area performing with ensembles such as the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Chicago Philharmonic, Chicago Sinfonietta, and several other local orchestras and chamber groups.
Hannah Holman, cello
Hannah Holman, cellist, joined the New York City Ballet Orchestra at the beginning of the 2012-2013 season. Her career has encompassed orchestral and chamber music, solo performances, and teaching. In a review of the second CD she recorded with pianist Réne Lecuona, Fanfare magazine declares “her tone and technique are the stuff that cello legends are made of “… Holman’s cello sings with a lustrous tone that’s hard to resist.”
In addition to her work with the New York City Ballet Orchestra, Ms. Holman is the principal cellist of the Quad City Symphony, a position she has held since 2008. She began her professional career in England playing with the English String Orchestra under Yehudi Menuhin and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra under Simon Rattle. Her previous orchestral work also includes serving as assistant principal cello with the Michigan Chamber Orchestra, the Richmond Symphony; and the American Sinfonietta.
Hannah is fortunate to have a diverse career allowing much time for solo work. 2025 has been a very busy and exciting year so far, and more to come…Hannah performed the Rococo Variations by Tchaikovsky with the Sheboygan Symphony, WI,in March, she performed the Jermone Robbins Suite of Dances at both Lincoln Center and the Joyce Theater, she performed a Beethoven Sonata duo recital with Davide Cabassi in Milan Italy, and she just got back from performing 2 recitals in Germany. Upcoming highlights include a performance of the Elgar Cello Concerto with the Yonkers Philharmonic in November, a UK tour of the music of Eric Starr from the recent CD, Between the Sandhills and the Sea, and premiering a brand new cello concerto she commissioned by Rebecca Burkhardt with the Quad City Symphony Orchestra in March 2026. Other more recent career highlights include post production of CD #3 with Réne Lecuona featuring cello sonatas by late romantic female composers. Other recent concertos with the QCSO have included Schelomo by Bloch, the Korngold Cello Concerto and Jennifer Higdon’s Soliloquy, She is in the middle of a video project highlighting the lives of women cellists from the past, and performed six pieces with the Iowa City Community Chamber Orchestra, each piece focusing on a different cellist. She performed the 4th Cello Suite of J.S. Bach in Carnegie Hall on March 3, 2020 as part of the Bach Cello Suite Festival, celebrating 300 years of the cello suites.
An active chamber musician, Ms Holman helped found Trio 826, with her dear friends Susanna Klein, violin, and Julia Bullard, viola. She was a founding member of the Beaumont Piano Trio, which performed around the United States and England, and was also a founding member of Quadrivinium, a music ensemble in residence at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. From 2002-2011, she was a member of the Maia Quartet, the University of Iowa’s quartet in residence, which toured China, Japan, and throughout the United States, including teaching residencies at Interlochen Center for the Arts, the Great Wall International Music Academy in China, and the Austin Chamber Music Center. She regularly performs in chamber ensembles with musicians from throughout the United States and Europe.
A dedicated private teacher who finds great fulfillment in helping students of all ages grow musically, Ms. Holman was on the University of Iowa music faculty from 2002-2012, and most recently was on the faculties of the University of Northern Iowa and Biola Conservatory. She has also served on the faculties of the Worcester College (UK), Michigan State University Community School, and Virginia Union University. She has participated in numerous festivals, and has been on the faculty of the Eastern Music Festival since 2001 and currently serves on the faculty of the International Cello Institute, the Wintergreen Festival, and Taconic Music. Hannah is the founder and Artistic Director of a new music school based in the Quad Cities, The Deanery School of Music.
Ms. Holman studied at the Eastman School of Music and Michigan State University, where she completed her Bachelor of Music degree. She obtained her Master of Music Degree with Fritz Magg at the New England Conservatory. Hannah was fortunate enough to have several lessons with William Pleeth in London as postgraduate study. Her musical education began at age 5 with her grandmother. She is eternally grateful for the fine teaching of a transformative teacher, Louis Potter, during her junior high and high school years.
Hannah is delighted to have found a gorgeous J. B. Vuillaume cello from 1856 in 2024, and is loving getting to know it.
Ms. Holman – whose hobbies include foodie and thrifting activities, as well as traveling to new places- lives in NYC. Please visit her at her website: hannahholmancello.com