Anna Hiemstra

Dutch violinist Anna Hiemstra was born into a musical family and started pursuing music seriously at an early age. She was admitted at age 12 to the prestigious Young Talent division of the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, where she studied with Koosje van Haeringen.

After relocating to the United States, Anna received her Bachelor’s Degree with honors at Mannes College of Music in New York in 2010, and completed her Master’s Degree there in 2013. She studied primarily with Daniel Phillips and Laurie Smukler.

 

Anna’s chamber music and orchestral performing has brought her to venues like the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and New York’s Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center. She has performed alongside musicians such as Vladimir Feltsman and Ani Kavafian as well as with members of the New York Philharmonic and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. Conductors she has worked with include JoAnn Faletta, Paul Nadler, Nicholas McGegan and Edwin Outwater. In 2013, Anna became concertmaster of the young and dynamic Urban Playground Chamber Orchestra in New York City. She was more recently part of a highly acclaimed recording of symphonies by Étienne Nicolas Méhul, an oft-overlooked French Romantic composer.

 

Anna has performed at festivals such as the Mannes Festival, Aurora Chamber Music and the Pablo Casals Festival. She has played in masterclasses for Stephan Picard, Vera Beths, Rainer Schmidt and Christian Altenburger, among others.

 

Anna has a keen interest in contemporary music and has performed with groups like Mimesis Ensemble and Ensemble Mise-en. As member of the Mannes American Composers Ensemble (MACE), Anna had the opportunity to work with composer and conductor Lowell Liebermann and perform chamber music by contemporary composers in New York’s Lincoln Center.

 

After developing an interest in teaching, Anna studied pedagogy with Ann Setzer. She has taught at the Harmony Program in New York as well as at Midori & Friends, and recently traveled to Puerto Rico to give masterclasses to talented young violinists.

 

Anna was trained in historically informed performance and plays the baroque violin in addition to her modern instrument. She currently divides her time between the U.K. and the Netherlands, and plays an early 18th century Dutch violin by Pieter Rombouts.