Resident Musicians

2020-21 Resident Musicians

BETSY HINKLE, Violin | Founder, Curriculum Designer
Betsy Hinkle is a Boston-based violinist equally at home on the concert stage and serving her community through equity-based education and performances. She has performed throughout New England with orchestras and chamber ensembles, namely the Boston Public Quartet, musiConnects Players, the Boston Ballet Orchestra and the Orchestra of Emmanuel Music.
Betsy is a 2018-2020 META Fellow of the Massachusetts Cultural Council. Previous honors include serving as the 2017 Alumni Commencement speaker at New England Conservatory, and receiving the 2014 Barbara C. Harris Award for Social Justice.
Betsy founded the non-profit musiConnects in 2007 to establish and support educational and artistic residences using an innovative chamber music model. From 2007 - 2017 she served as the organization’s Executive and then Artistic Director. She remains a very active Resident Musician, concentrating on teaching, performing and designing curriculum for musiConnects.
Betsy received her Master of Music in Violin Performance, as well as a Music in Education Concentration, in the studio of Nicholas Kitchen of the renowned Borromeo String Quartet. A native Floridian, she received her Bachelor of Music from the Florida State University, on full academic and music scholarships, and played in the Honors Piano Trio as a Liberace Scholar. She lives in Roslindale with her husband and two children and loves cooking, baking and gardening.

JOSHUA ADDISON, Violin | Director of Artistic Planning
Joshua Addison has performed with various orchestras in the New England region and appeared as soloist with the Keene Chamber Orchestra, where he served as concertmaster for five years. He joined musiConnects in its inaugural year as second violin of the Chittick String Quartet and returned to musiConnects in 2011 after a three-year hiatus to become one of the founding members of the Sumner Quartet. In addition to his orchestral and chamber music engagements, Joshua sometimes plugs in a pearl-white electric violin and performs with Bill Banfield's Imagine Orchestra, a chamber jazz ensemble.
Joshua has been active with musical outreach programs in Chelsea and Lawrence, Massachusetts, and was a recipient of the Massachusetts Cultural Council's META (Music Educators and teaching Artists) Fellowship in 2015. He also teaches violin for the BYSO Intensive Community Program's residency at the Haley School in Roslindale. As a writer Joshua has contributed several short biographies to Musicians and Composers of the 20th Century (Pasadena, CA: Salem Press, 2008). Joshua received an undergraduate degree in History from Boston University and a Master's degree in violin performance from the University of California, Los Angeles. His teachers include Movses Pogossian, Guillaume Sutre, Daniel Phillips, and Rohan Gregory.

THOMAS BARTH, Cello
Cellist Thomas Barth received his Master’s degree from The New England Conservatory of Music in 2019, where he was a recipient of the Gregor Piatagorsky Memorial Fund scholarship. In recent months, he has performed at Carnegie Hall as a member of the New York String Orchestra Seminar and throughout New England with groups such as A Far Cry, The Juventas Ensemble, Palaver Strings, and the Harvard Baroque Chamber Orchestra. His primary teachers include Richard Aaron and Lluís Claret, and he has performed in masterclasses for leading concert cellists such as Truls Mørk, Anner Bylsma, and Johannes Moser. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in cello performance with highest honors from the University of Michigan with supplementary studies at the Royal Conservatory of The Netherlands. Thomas is passionate about bringing thoughtful musical programming to the widest possible audiences; as a chamber musician, he has performed in diverse venues such as schools, farms, churches, and community centers throughout North America and Europe. In addition to his performance schedule, he maintains a private teaching studio and serves on the faculty at the Brookline Public Schools and El Sistema Somerville. For the past several years, Thomas has maintained regular yoga and meditation practices and is interested in the connection between mindfulness, music, and movement.

RACHEL PANITCH, Violin
Rachel Panitch is a violinist, improviser, composer, and teaching artist. She has been an artist-in-residence in neighborhoods, in schools, and in Zion and Acadia National Parks. Rachel uses her violin and voice to tell and translate stories. Her playing has been called "fearless" and brings together aural and written musical traditions. Rachel performs Classical music with the Cardamom Quartet, is a dance fiddler with French Roast, and weaves stories with Thread Ensemble (an improvisatory trio of violins, voices, and vibraphone) and with Grammy award-winner Bill Harley. Rachel’s music is featured on a PBS Utah Bucket List episode, and the National Park Service’s “100 Years of Arts in the Parks” video series.
Rachel specializes in teaching improvisation and fiddling, and works regularly with a number of music education organizations and schools around Massachusetts and Rhode Island. In 2009, Rachel founded Rhode Island Fiddle Project, a free music program teaching traditional fiddle and dance music to students, inspired and incubated by Community MusicWorks in Providence, RI. She was chosen as a Jubilation Fellow, a national award recognizing "individuals with exceptional talent for helping young people feel fully alive through rhythm." Rachel received her Masters of Music in Contemporary Improvisation from New England Conservatory, and holds a BA in Anthropology from Vassar College. Rachel works with Harmony Strings and teaches composition and improvisation projects across our Residency Program.

DAVID RUBIN, Violin | Program Director
David Rubin joined musiConnects in 2016 as a Resident Musician, teaching enthusiastic young violinists and performing chamber music throughout Roslindale & Mattapan. David currently teaches in the Roslindale Community Program, as well as in mC's Residency Program partnerships at KIPP Academy Boston & Mattahunt Elementary. A dedicated teaching artist, David completed a two-year fellowship at Community MusicWorks in Providence, RI and a teacher-training workshop under Mimi Zweig at Indiana University's Summer String Academy. David enjoys spending summers in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, teaching high school string students at Superior String Alliance's Camp Vivace.
A busy orchestral musician, David currently serves as concertmaster of the Cape Ann Symphony and assistant principal with the New Bedford Symphony, and performs as a substitute with ensembles such as Rhode Island Philharmonic and BMOP. From 2016-2019, David was a member of the Lucerne Festival Academy & Lucerne Festival Alumni, performing contemporary music under noted conductors such as Sir Simon Rattle, Riccardo Chailly, and Susanna Mälkki, in tours to Hamburg (Elbphilharmonie), Berlin, and Paris. Other career highlights include radio broadcasts for Wisconsin Public Radio and WFMT Chicago, performances alongside mentors at Emmanuel Music's Bach Institute and Music from Salem, and projects on gut strings with Providence Baroque and Madison Bach Musicians. A native of Oak Park, IL, David studied violin with Sharan Leventhal, Wen-Lei Gu, and Kristin Cappelli-Hedlund; completed degrees at Boston Conservatory and Lawrence University; and pursued additional training at the Banff Centre and Conservatorium van Amsterdam.

KEVONNA SHUFORD, Viola
Kevonna Shuford is a vibrant violist who has a passion for collaborative projects. Kevonna completed a bachelor's degree at the New England Conservatory under the tutelage of Martha Katz. She is currently a member of the Boston Philharmonic and also performs with numerous Boston based ensembles. A native of Florida, she established a youth string program at Faith’s Place Center for Arts Education. Kevonna served as principal viola under the baton of Valery Gergiev and has had the pleasure of working with esteemed artists such as Janine Jansen, Denis Matsuev, Emmanuel Ax, Jaime Laredo,and Christoph Eschenbach. Additionally, she has had the opportunity to play in masterclasses for distinguished artists such as Kim Kashkashian, Paul Katz, Dimitri Murrath, and Clive Greensmith. As a member of the National Youth Orchestra (2016), Kevonna greatly enjoyed traveling to new places through past performances at major concert halls across Europe and the US, such as the Concertgebouw and Carnegie Hall; now, she is an avid outdoor enthusiast and enjoys taking walks or rollerblading around Boston. This will be Kevonna’s first season with musiConnects as a Resident Musician.

Associated Faculty, Roslindale Community Program

FRANCESCA MCNEELEY, Cello
Francesca McNeeley is an avid chamber musician and teacher, as well as a fierce advocate for contemporary music. As a New Fromm Player at the Tanglewood Music Center, she premiered string quartets by John Harbison, Mark Neikrug, and Kui Dong, and gave the “excellent” American premiere of Joseph Phibbs’ first quartet (Boston Globe). She’s had the honor of learning from some of the great chamber musicians of our time, including Kim Kashkashian, Lucy Chapman, the Cleveland Quartet, Concord Quartet, Juilliard Quartet, and Brentano Quartet. Ms. McNeeley completed her B.A. at Princeton University, graduating magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa. She completed her master’s degree under Norman Fischer at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, and served for many years as a teaching artist with the DaCamera Young Artist Program in Houston. She has earned fellowships and prizes from the Tanglewood Music Center, the Music Academy of the West, and the Toronto Summer Music Festival, and is also on the management roster of Seven-Eight Artists. She recently completed a graduate diploma at the New England Conservatory in the studio of Yeesun Kim. Other mentors have included Astrid Schween, Tom Kraines, and Darrett Adkins. Francesca from 2018-20 as a musiConnects Resident Musician, and is currently on the faculty of musiConnects' Roslindale Community Program.

ELIZABETH STEFAN, Viola
Originally from Bel Air, MD, Elizabeth Stefan is currently a freelance violist in the Boston area, playing regularly with the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra. She is also a founding member of Phoenix, a newly formed orchestral ensemble. Elizabeth has performed extensively throughout the United States and Europe, both in orchestral and chamber music settings. A founding member of musiConnects' Sumner Quartet, Elizabeth served for four years as Program Director, in addition to eight seasons as a Resident Musician. She currently teaches students in musiConnects' Roslindale Community Program. In addition to maintaining a private studio of violin and viola students, she has taught violin in several schools with Making Music Matters! Former faculty positions include Community Music Center of Boston & CMCB's Summer Music programming. Elizabeth completed her master's studies at the New England Conservatory, where her principal teacher was Dimitri Murrath. Previously, she studied at the Eastman School of Music, where she earned her BM, along with an Arts Leadership Certificate with a focus in contemporary orchestral issues. She also received Eastman's Robert L. Oppelt Viola Prize for the class of 2009.