Megan Koch just recently moved to Boston from San Francisco, and is looking forward to exploring the city, and being back on the East Coast… but wish her luck during the winter!
Megan has performed in Carnegie Hall, played with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, and performed live on WXXI, the classical music station in Rochester, NY. She has performed alongside Robert Mann, Michael Kannen, Ian Swenson, and Steven Dann, and has worked extensively with many of the world’s foremost musicians, among them Joan Tower, Pamela Frank, and the Tokyo String Quartet. As a member of the Rivendell Quartet, she had the opportunity to travel to Kazakhstan and the Kyrgyz Republic, in association with the US State Department and Carnegie Hall. There, they performed several concerts, coached aspiring young conservatory students, and experienced the rich culture of both countries. The quartet also traveled to Singapore, where they mentored young musicians at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory, and performed alongside faculty, as well as at the US Embassy of Singapore. Megan was a founding member of the Bandon Piano Trio, with whom she has worked with such renowned artists as Menahem Pressler and Seymour Lipkin. In an April 2007 performance of Shostakovich’s Piano Trio No. 2, “the young musicians captured the music’s grief, violence, and irony through excellent playing that was technically assured and emotionally powerful.” (The Hedgehog)
Megan is an avid teacher and chamber music coach. She taught privately in the San Francisco Bay area and coached chamber music for the past two summers at Summer Music West and at the Palo Alto Chamber Orchestra Camp. Her commitment to education has also led her to participate in several outreach programs, bringing music into nursing homes and schools.
Megan Koch is very committed to new music, having collaborated with several composers and premiered several works. She has performed new music as part of the New Music Ensemble at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and has performed on the Composer’s Ink Concert series in San Francisco. She also loves early music, and has played a bit of gamba, and performed in the Early Music Ensemble at SFCM.
Megan began her studies at the age of four at the David Hochstein School of Music in Rochester, New York, and has participated in master classes with Yo-Yo Ma, Stephen Geber and Matt Haimovitz, among others. She has performed under Leonard Slatkin, toured Germany and France, and has served as the principal cellist of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music Orchestra, and the Peabody Concert Orchestra.
Megan plays on an anonymous German cello made around 1708, which previously belonged to her teacher, Jean-Michel Fonteneau.
