Joana Genova
Violinist Joana Genova is active as a chamber musician, teacher, orchestral player and a soloist. She is Co-Artistic Director of Taconic Music in Manchester, VT and the second violinist of The Indianapolis Quartet.
Biography
Genova, a Bulgarian-born violinist, has built a diverse career as a chamber and orchestral musician, soloist, and pedagogue. She is the second violinist of The Indianapolis Quartet and co- artistic director of Taconic Music in Manchester, Vermont. She is Artist Associate at Williams College and assistant professor at the University of Indianapolis. In addition to The Indianapolis Quartet, she concertizes with Williams and Taconic Chamber Players, and appears as a frequent guest at festivals and concert series. She has performed internationally in Bulgaria, Holland, Germany, Italy, and Bosnia-Herzegovina and has enjoyed collaborations with the Shanghai Quartet, Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio, Horszowski Trio, Enso Quartet, Toby Appel, Andrés Cárdenes, Carmit Zori, Nathaniel Rosen, Nathaniel Parke, Michael Haber, Danwen Jiang, Austin Hartman, Renee Jolles, Michael Rudiakov, Tom Landschoot, Sophie Shao, Jon Klibonoff, Ruth Laredo, Davide Cabassi, David Krakauer, Deborah Buck, Drew Petersen, among others.
Genova's recordings include Chamber Music of Vittorio Giannini (MSR Classics), Vision: Music of the 20th and 21st Centuries (Eroica Classical Recordings) and Four Seasons x2: Piazzolla and Vivaldi (Manchester Music Festival), Reflections and Whimsies: Chamber Music for Strings and Voice by Frank Felice and Robert Paterson’s String Quartets 1-3. She has appeared live on GNAT-TV and CAT-TV in Vermont, Wish TV Indianapolis, WQXR Albany, Vermont Public Radio-Live, WBAA and WICR in Indiana. As a soloist, Genova has been featured with the Metropolitan, Rockaway, Danbury, and Berkshire symphonies, Adelphi Chamber Orchestra, Harlem Chamber Players, Manchester Festival Orchestra, Yonkers Philharmonic, and under the baton of Raymond Leppard with the University of Indianapolis Gala Orchestra. She was concertmaster of the Amsterdam Bach Consort; a member of Amsterdam Sinfonietta, Brooklyn Philharmonic, and New Haven Symphony Orchestra; and assistant concertmaster of Carmel Symphony Orchestra in Indiana. Currently she is principal second violin of the Berkshire Symphony Orchestra in Massachusetts, and guest concertmaster of Sage City Symphony in Bennington. She made her solo debut at age 12 with the Plovdiv Chamber Orchestra and is a top prizewinner of the Svetoslav Obretenov National Competition in Bulgaria. She earned her bachelor’s degree at the Conservatory of Amsterdam and her master’s in chamber music at the Rotterdam Conservatory. Her teachers include Boyanka Shopova, Alexander Spirov, Peter Brunt, Ilya Grubert, and Samuel Thaviu. Genova performs on a Johannes Cuypers violin made in The Hague in 1786. Genova has been an instructor at Bennington since 2022 and returns for the 2023-24 academic year.