Melinda Daetsch

Melinda Daetsch is on the faculty of the Hartt School, University of Hartford where she teaches viola and pedagogy at the college level and coordinates the Suzuki viola program and String Chamber Music at the Hartt Community Division. She directs “The Hartt Community Division Viola Tour Group” which has performed in venues as diverse as the Rock Cats Baseball stadium in New Britain, CT the renowned Bern “Casino” concert Hall in Bern, Switzerland and in NYC as part of the NY Viola Society concert series offering repertoire from Bach and Shostakovich to Coldplay and bluegrass.

​

An avid chamber musician, Ms. Daetsch has performed as guest violist with the Lion’s Gate Trio, The Claremont Trio, The St Petersburg Quartet and the Philadelphia Piano quartet. She has performed with the Charleston, Hartford, and Key West Symphonies, and the Orchestra Symphonique Neuchatelois and Bern Kammer Sinfonia (Switzerland). She has participated in numerous music festivals, including The Luzerne Chamber Music Festival (NY) The Assisi Performing Arts Festival, (Italy), The Banff Arts Center (Canada), The Yehudi Menuhin Festival (Switzerland), Chamber Music Charleston, Historic Portsmouth Chamber Music and the Music at Penn’s Woods Festival at Penn State University.

​

Ms. Daetsch began the violin at the age of four at the Ithaca Talent Education school with Joan and Sanford Reuning. She discovered the viola at the age of 12 when violas were needed to complete string quartets at the first Ithaca College Summer Chamber Music Institute. She received a Master’s in viola performance from The Juilliard School where she studied chamber music with Juilliard Quartet member Samuel Rhodes. There her quartet received acclaim from the New York Times for their performance of Schoenberg’s seldom heard work “Ode to Napoleon” on the FOCUS! Festival of Contemporary Music. Ms. Daetsch’s primary teachers were Karen Ritscher and Karen Tuttle; she also studied chamber music with Felix Galamir, Paul Doktor, Raphael Hillyer and Glen Dicterow.  She also holds a BA with honors in comparative religion from Harvard University.