Robin Hansen

A native of Berkeley, Robin was nurtured in a musical family by her parents, both prominent musicians and music teachers who instructed Robin and her siblings in piano and trumpet. She followed her three brothers on the violin, studying for 18 years with William Pynchon of the San Francisco Opera Orchestra.

Robin joined the American Federation of Musicians’ Union Local #6 at 16, becoming the sixth member of her family to belong to the Union. Soon after joining, she took the first professional audition listed in the Bay Area, which was for San Francisco Ballet Orchestra. After making it to the final round, she was hired to play professionally with the orchestra while still in high school, beginning with Nutcracker. Robin filled in on the trumpet with the Golden Gate Park Band, where her father, Robert Hansen, was the director/conductor.

While at university, Robin was the summer co-concertmaster with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute Orchestra under the tutelage of Leonard Bernstein, Herbert Blomstedt, and Michael Tilson Thomas, performing at the Hollywood Bowl. She was a frequent soloist while concertmaster of the Young People’s Symphony Orchestra and the Oakland Symphony’s Youth Orchestra, as well as the first concertmaster of the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra. She graduated with a Bachelor of Music degree from UC Berkeley, where she was concertmaster of the Cal Symphony, led by Michael Senturia, with whom she performed the Berg and Beethoven Violin Concertos. She also performed regularly with the Berkeley Contemporary Chamber Players.

Receiving three consecutive Alfred Hertz Memorial Traveling Fellowships from UC Berkeley for graduate study with Alexander Treger, concertmaster of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Ms. Hansen went on to study in Munich, Germany, with Christiane Edinger, concert violinist and recording artist. She joined Michael Tilson Thomas’ New World Symphony in Miami Beach, where she was a concertmaster during its inaugural years. She has toured with the San Francisco Symphony in Europe and with the Israel Philharmonic, conducted by Zubin Mehta, in the United States. Robin has performed extensively in the contemporary genre with the San Francisco Contemporary Chamber Players, Earplay, and Composers, Inc.

Robin is the executive director of the Midsummer Mozart Festival, a 52-year-old Bay Area institution. She has celebrated 29 seasons as concertmaster, collaborating with George Cleve, Paul Schrage, and Ryan Murray, as well as leading the Midsummer Mozart Chamber Players in their concerts. Ms. Hansen has been concertmaster several times at the Stern Grove Festival for the Grammy Award-winning San Francisco Ballet Orchestra, where she holds a first violin position. In the summer of 2023, on tour with the Company to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, she performed as the soloist in the Stravinsky Violin Concerto. Ms. Hansen is called upon to serve as concertmaster in many orchestras, including the Mendocino Music Festival, West Edge Opera, Solo Opera, Livermore Valley Opera, and the Modesto Symphony. In addition, she is a member of the Skywalker Symphony, which records movie and video score projects at Skywalker Ranch in Marin.