Joe Mcnalley, Founder and Artistic Director - Contrabass Violin

Mr. McNalley began bass violin studies at the age of eleven, and started writing orchestral music in his early teens. Formal training with Edwin Barke Ran Blake, Miroslav Vitous and Hankus Netsky at the New England Conservatory of Music was followed by advanced studies with Bertram Turezky at U.C. San Diego.

Widely acclaimed for his stylistic versatility, Mr. McNalley maintained a stimulating and varied performance schedule as principal bass of the San Diego Chamber Orchestra, the Roger Wagner Chorale and the Irvine Camerata. He also played with the Hawaii Symphony and Honolulu Symphony and Opera Orchestras.

Jazz has figured prominently in Mr. McNalley's career. He has been honored several times for his solo and ensemble playing at the Monterey Jazz Festival and has performed with George Russell, Vinnie Golia, Jimmy and Jeanie Cheatham's Sweet Baby Blues Band, Jay McShann, Eddie "Mr. Cleanhead" Vinson, Thad Jones, Charles McPherson and other notables of Jazz and Blues. A performance in which he collaborated with the Tom McNalley Trio was heralded as the "#2 Culture Concert of the Year" by LA Weekly.

Mr. McNalley has held the positions of Associate Professor of Music at U.C. San Diego, and Professor of Music at the Conservatorio in Estatal de Baja California. He has lectured on music and the arts for the Metropolitan Museum, the Lied Center and the Phi Beta Kappa Society, and participated as a panelist for PBK's National Symposium on Liberal Arts Education.

Mr. McNalley not only founded the Hutchins Consort, but also produced an entire repertoire for the Hutchins violin octet, having arranged or composed over 75 pieces since 1999.

Mark Dresser - Contrabass Violin

Mark Dresser has been composing and performing solo contrabass and ensemble music professionally since 1972 throughout North America, Europe and the Far East. His own projects include Mark Dresser's "Force Green," and the Mark Dresser Trio, performing his music for the French Surrealist film masterpiece of Luis Bunuel and Salvador Dali, "Un Chien Andalou" as well as the German expressionist silent film classic, "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari".

A brilliant contrabass player, Mr. Dresser has performed and recorded with many of the luminaries of 'new' jazz composition and improvisation. For ten years he performed with the Anthony Braxton Quartet, as well as diverse groups led by Ray Anderson, Tim Berne, Anthony Davis, Gerry Hemingway, John Zorn, and others. He has a relationship with the Hutchins instruments that spans almost two decades.

Mr. Dresser holds both B.A. and M.A. degrees in Music from U.C. San Diego where he studied contrabass with the seminal virtuoso of twentieth century performance practice, Maestro Bertram Turetzky. He has received grants from New York Foundation for the Arts and Meet the Composer, and was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship for advanced contrabass study with Maestro Franco Petracchi.

Frederick Charlton, Composer-In-Residence - Bass Violin

Since the release of his first CD, "Bach on Fire", Frederick Charlton has received worldwide acclaim for his intelligent approach to the interpretation of J.S. Bach's Unaccompanied Partitas for Violin, which he arranged for double bass. More importantly, the innovative playing technique he developed to transpose these pieces, note for note, from the smallest to the largest instrument in the traditional string family has clearly taken the art of solo bass violin performance to a new level.

Mr. Charlton's unique playing style and versatility have carried him into collaboration with such leading artists as James Galway, Glen Campbell, Amy Grant, John Tesh, David Foster and Michael W. Smith.

In addition to his superb playing ability, Mr. Charlton sets the industry standard as a prolific composer and arranger. Over the last few years he has been commissioned for new works and arrangements by individual performers and symphony orchestras, including the Pacific Symphony, Carlos R. Nakai, Chamber Music Sedona, James Pellerite, R'eut Ben Zen, the Amadeus Trio and Saadoun Al'Bayati. As Composer-in-Residence for the Hutchins Consort, his talents have significantly influenced the Consort's repertory, both in arrangements of traditional classical music and new compositions specifically designed for the Violin Octet.

Geoff Gartner - Baritone Violin


Mr. Gartner has performed in the Gobi desert, on ships at sea, and in caves hundreds of feet under the ground. His varied roles as a musician include cellist, pianist, conductor and musicologist. His performance repertoire extends from the Baroque to the newest music of today.

Mr. Gartner received his Bachelor of Music with Honors from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and his Master of Arts degree from U.C. San Diego, where he is currently completing doctoral studies in contemporary music performance.

Omar Firestone - Tenor Violin


Omar Firestone, a native of Palo Alto California, began playing cello at 8 years old. As a young student he was principal of the San Jose Youth Symphony, and his teachers included Margaret Rowell and Bonnie Hampton. While completing his advance studies with Laszlo Varga at San Francisco State University, he was a three-time recipient of the Morrison Scholarship award and a member of the Morrison String Quartet. Mr. Firestone also performed regularly with the Santa Cruz Symphony, Santa Rosa Symphony, and Berkeley Symphony (director, Kent Nagano). He has studied chamber music with Daniel Kobialka, principal 2nd of the San Francisco Symphony (receiving Honorable Mention at the Carmel Chamber Competition), and Baroque performance practice with Laurette Goldberg at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Mr. Firestone served as principal cellist of the Orquesta de Baja California for six years and has performed as principal with the San Diego Chamber Orchestra. He is principal cello of the California Consort (director, Warren Gref) and a member of the Golden Valley String Quartet.

Carolyn Lechusza Aquallo - Alto Violin


Cellist, improviser and composer, Carolyn Lechusza has freelanced in the New York region for the past ten years. She made her New York debut with the American Symphony Orchestra in 1997, playing the Kabalevsky Cello Concerto. The following year, Leon Botstein conducted the ASO's premier of Ms. Lechusza's cello concerto, "Lament", with the composer playing the cello solo. Her composition teachers include Joan Tower and Alvin Curran. Beyond playing the traditional cello solo repertoire and composing in the conventional instrumental mediums, Ms. Lechusza has improvised with Fred Frith, Joelle Lendre, Pauline Oliveros, Wadada Leon Smith and Cecil Taylor. She is currently a Cota-Robles Fellow at U.C. San Diego, where she is pursuing her PhD in cello performance.

Emily Dufour - Baritone, Tenor & Alto Violins


Emily is currently pursuing her Master of Music degree at U.C. San Diego, where she is studying with Charles Curtis. She completed her undergraduate studies at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music where she studied with Darrett Adkins and Frances Marie-Uitti.

As a member of the Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble, Ms. Dufour played concerts throughout the U.S., including a chamber music concert at Weill Recital Hall in New York. She has held principal cellist of the Oberlin Orchestra and Oberlin Chamber Orchestra, and performed with other orchestras in Ohio. Ms. Dufour has toured extensively with the Fairchild String Quartet who gave a memorable concert at the Smithsonian Hall of Musical Instruments on the museum-owned quartet of Stradivarius instruments.

Mirabai Weismehl - Mezzo Violin


A native of San Francisco, Mirabai Weismehl started her musical training at age seven, singing in choruses and productions with the San Francisco Opera Company. She was introduced to the violin at the age of nine. Ms. Weismehl received formal training from Joseph Silverstein, Dr. Roland and Almita Vamos, and Zoya Leybin of the San Francisco Symphony. She received her undergraduate degree from Oberlin Conservatory of Music and completed her education at Longy School of Music, where she attained her Masters Degree.

Ms. Weismehl is the recipient of the Joseph Gingold Award and the prestigious Kaufman Violin Prize. She has held the position of first violinist with the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra and Concertmaster of the New World Symphony (director, Michael Tilson Thomas), the Portland Symphony Orchestra, Boston Baroque, Boston Cecilia, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Handel & Haydn Society Period Orchestra, Akron Symphony and Canton Symphony. She also played viola in performances with Apollo's Fire Baroque Orchestra. Ms. Weismehl was invited to become a founding member of the first violin section of the Orquestra del Palau de les Arts "Reina Sofa" de Valencia, led by music director Lorin Maazel.

Nathan Schmidt - Mezzo Violin


Described as a "violinist thoroughly accomplished in execution and interpretation" (David Cleary, The New Music Connoisseur), Nathan Schmidt is a welcome addition to the Hutchins Consort.

He has studied at the New England Conservatory with James Buswell, and at the Juilliard School with Joel Smirnoff. As a fellow at both Santa Barbara's Music Academy of the West and the Tanglewood Music Center, Mr. Schmidt has collaborated with such artists as Charles Wuorinen and Andre Previn.

Mr. Schmidt is a committed performer of contemporary music and has concertized with the Second Instrumental Unit, with whom he gave a 90th birthday tribute concert for Milton Babbitt, and the Wet Ink Ensemble.

Beth Folsom - Soprano Violin


For Beth Folsom, the best part of being a musician is that she can "make a living by living her passion". To see her play the violin is to experience that passion in action. Her lifelong love of symphonic music began at the age of five when she attended a concert by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Fritz Reiner. Since then, she has played in numerous orchestras, including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Opera, the San Diego Symphony, the San Diego Opera, the San Diego Chamber Orchestra, the Mainly Mozart Festival and many others, including Concertmaster of the Santa Clarita Symphony Orchestra.

A versatile musician, Ms. Folsom's musical career has taken her all over the world to play with a wide spectrum of musicians. For three years, she toured with Yanni, most memorably in India at the Taj Mahal and in China's Forbidden City, both while recording the video and CD Tribute. She has also played with te Moody Blues, Placido Domingo, Pavarotti, Andrea Bocelli, Kenny Loggins, John Denver, The Man hattan Transfer, Mannheim Steamroller. James Taylor and many other great performers.

Currently, Ms. Folsom resides in Encinitas, where she is known for her musical generosity to the community and her enthusiasm for organizing concerts.

In her newest ensemble, The Hutchins Consort, she plays everything from Bach to Piazzolla on the soprano violin.

Igor Tchetchko - Soprano Violin


Mr. Tchetchko received his undergraduate degree from the Stoliarski School. He completed his advanced studies under Professors Leonid Kogan and Sergei Kravchenko at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow, where he worked with the Borodin Quartet and performed as a soloist with the Moscow Philharmonic. From 1991 he served as concertmaster of the Orquestra de Baja California. Mr. Tchetchko has appeared as a soloist in many parts of the world.

Gascia Ouzounian - Treble Violin


Gascia Ouzounian earned degrees in violin performance and computer music from McGill University in Montral, where she was a student of Denise Lupien. She spent two years as the concertmaster of McGill's acclaimed new music group, the Contemporary Music Ensemble, under Denys Bouliane and has been guest concertmaster for the La Jolla Symphony, the UCSD Chamber Orchestra, and the S. E. M. Ensemble in New York. Ms. Ouzounian is presently a PhD candidate and Associate Lecturer in a critical studies program at U.C. San Diego.

Christopher Otto - Treble Violin


There are few young musicians whose talent equals that of Christopher Otto in the composition and performance of new music. As a violinist and composition major at the Eastman School of Music, he excelled at both disciplines, earning him the opportunity to apprentice with new music icons Sir Harry Birtwistle, Pierre Boulez, Helmut Lachenmann, and Steve Reich. Mr. Otto has also participated in new music festivals, such as the Lucerne Festival Academy, the Darmstadt Summer Courses, the Stockhausen Courses, the Institute and Festival for Contemporary Music at Mannes, June in Buffalo, and the International Festival of Contemporary Music in Morelia, Mexico. He is currently pursuing a Masters Degree in Music at U.C. San Diego.