Meet the Musicians
Kate Hatmaker
Violinist Kate Hatmaker enjoys a varied career as performer, educator and entrepreneur. She is the Executive and Artistic Director of Art of Élan and has been a tenured violinist with the San Diego Symphony since 2006. Ms. Hatmaker has been a featured soloist with a wide variety of North American orchestras, including the San Diego Symphony, and has performed at the Vail International Dance Festival, La Jolla Music Society’s SummerFest, and the Breckenridge Music Festival, among others. She has served on the faculty at the University of California-San Diego and the Coronado School of the Arts and is a frequent chamber music recitalist and guest clinician, as well as being a passionate advocate for innovation in the arts. She completed her Master of Music degree at Carnegie Mellon University and her undergraduate training at both the University of Iowa and the Sorbonne University in Paris, France, graduating Phi Beta Kappa with high honors and degrees in both Political Science and French.
Lives in: San Diego, CA
Connection to San Diego: Violinist with San Diego Symphony Orchestra, Art of Elan co-founder, executive director, artistic director
Demarre McGill
Demarre McGill has gained international recognition as a soloist, recitalist, chamber and orchestral musician. Winner of an Avery Fisher Career Grant and the Sphinx Medal of Excellence, he has appeared as soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Seattle, Pittsburgh, Dallas, Grant Park, San Diego and Baltimore symphony orchestras and, at age 15, the Chicago Symphony.
Now principal flute of the Seattle Symphony, he previously served as principal flute of the Dallas Symphony,Florida Orchestra, and Santa Fe Opera Orchestra. He recently served as acting principal flute of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and earlier with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.
As an educator, Demarre has performed, coached and presented master classes around the globe. With his brother Anthony, he was a speaker and performer at the 2018 League of American Orchestras Conference. In August of 2019, he was named Associate Professor of Flute at Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, and is an artist-faculty member of the Aspen Music Festival and School.
Demarre is a founding member of The Myriad Trio, and former member of Chamber Music Society Two, He is the co-founder of The Art of Elan and, along with clarinetist Anthony McGill and pianist Michael McHale, founded the McGill/McHale Trio in 2014.
Lives in: Seattle, WA
Connection to San Diego: Co-founder of Art of Elan, former member of San Diego Symphony
Julie Smith Phillips
A long time Art of Elan performer, Julie Smith Phillips has been Principal Harpist of the San Diego Symphony since 2007, Phillips is one of the most prominent young harpists today, performing as both an orchestral musician and concert artist. Silver medalist winner in the 2004 USA International Harp Competition and Bronze medalist in 2001, her playing has been described as “precise” and “luminous” (American Record Guide). She made her National Symphony Orchestra debut in 2003 and has been honored in numerous competitions throughout the country. Along with Demarre McGill, she is a founding member of the Myriad Trio, who have performed several Art of Elan concerts over the years.
Ms. Phillips is equally experienced as a chamber and orchestral musician collaborating with renowned musicians across the country. She regularly appears on the San Diego Symphony Chamber Concert Series, Art of Elan, Myriad Trio, ECHO series, and the San Diego New Music Ensemble.
Lives in: San Diego, CA
Connection to San Diego: Principal Harp, San Diego Symphony
Keir GoGwilt
Keir GoGwilt is a violinist, writer, and musicologist, whose work spans a range of critical and creative disciplines. As a violinist he has been described as a “formidable performer” (New York Times) noted for his “evocative sound” (London Jazz News), “keen musical intellect” (The Wire), and “finger-busting virtuosity” (San Diego Union Tribune). He is a founding member of the interdisciplinary performing arts company, AMOC, and he co-composes, improvises, and performs music with bassist Kyle Motl as part of their duo, Treesearch.
GoGwilt studied literature at Harvard University, where he was awarded the Louis Sudler Prize in the Arts, and is a PhD candidate in Music at UC San Diego. His research shows how methods of musical instrument instruction have shaped tenets of musical aesthetics usually attributed to 19th-century theorists and composers. In addition to being a teaching assistant for courses including histories of classical music and jazz, he has designed and taught a hybrid seminar/performance workshop, “Histories and Philosophies of Performance.”
Lives in: San Diego, CA
Connection to San Diego: Completing doctoral degree in music at UCSD
Rose Lomardo
A frequent Art of Elan performer, Rose Lombardo was appointed Principal Flute of the San Diego Symphony in 2011 at the age of 23. At the time, she was in her second year of graduate studies with Jim Walker at the Colburn School Conservatory of Music in Los Angeles and graduated with a Professional Studies Certificate. Previously, Ms. Lombardo earned a Bachelor of Music degree from The Juilliard School where she studied with Jeffrey Khaner. Ms. Lombardo has traveled across the globe as an orchestral, chamber and solo artist. Her solo recitals have taken her from Boston to Europe and to China, and she has had the privilege of collaborating with some of the finest musicians in the most beautiful halls around the world, Ms. Lombardo performs regularly in San Diego with Art of Élan and San Diego Symphony Chamber Music Series.
Lives in: San Diego, CA
Connection to San Diego: Principal Flute, San Diego Symphony
Stephanie Richards
An adventurous trumpeter, conductor and composer, Steph Richards is a radical innovator in the avant-garde and experimental scenes. He is driven by a curiosity how listeners interact with music and what sensory variables are open to experimentation. From choreography to underwater percussion, her compositions have premiered on stages as varied as Carnegie Hall, the Blue-note and Lincoln Center to underground iconic venues such as The Stone. Her electro-experimental record Fullmoon (Relative Pitch Records) for trumpet, resonating percussion and electronic sampler was hailed as a “spellbinding” (NPR) debut which was promptly followed by the avant-jazz “Take The Neon Lights” (Birdwatcher Records) that earned high praise from Downbeat, the New York Times and NPR. In addition to her own work, she is on faculty at UC San Diego and is a Yamaha artist.
Lives in: San Diego, CA
Connection to San Diego: Professor of Music at UCSD
Online Concert Dates and Artists (Live Tuesdays, 6pm PST)
June 9 – Kate Hatmaker, Violin – Virgin and Child with Saint John by Francisco de Zurbarán (1658)
June 23 – Demarre McGill, Flute- Notre Dame by Maximilien Luce (ca. 1900)
July 7 – Julie Smith Phillips, Harp – In the San Felipe Valley by Charles Reiffel (1927)
July 21 – Keir GoGwilt, Violin – Doors I by Claudia Fernández (1998, published 2001)
August 4 – Rose Lombardo, Flute – Las Tres Virgenes Volcano at Sunset by Eliot Furness Porter (1966)
August 18 – Stephanie Richards, Trumpet – Circle, Blue-Violet by DeWain Valentine (1978)
