Madeline Hocking

‘Exceptional’.
‘Ms. Hocking is a sensitive artist, who painted a picture of serene beauty in her playing… It was enchanting.’

-New York Concert Review

Short Bio

Hailing from Qathet, Canada, Madeline Hocking is a violinist, composer, and artistic director committed to giving contemporary music the attention and passion it deserves. She thoroughly enjoys collaborating with composers on world premieres of their works, as well as projects engaging with improvisation and other art mediums. Madeline is co-founder/co-artistic director of Noise Catalogue, an award winning contemporary music collective based in New York City. She also co-hosts an ongoing concert series with violist and composer Trevor New, ‘Telematic Collisions’, which employs cutting-edge technology to maximize audience interactivity and accessibility. 

Madeline has achieved widespread recognition as a soloist, having appeared with the American Composers Orchestra, New Chamber Ballet, the San Francisco Conservatory Orchestra, the Vancouver Philharmonic, the Strathcona Symphony Orchestra, the Comox Music Centre Orchestra, and at IRCAM forum. She is extremely dedicated to chamber music; she was a violinist with contemporary chamber ensemble Semiosis Quartet from 2022-2024, was featured as a chamber musician in the New York Philharmonic's 'Nightcap' series, and has won numerous awards at chamber music competitions across Canada. She has also been featured at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, National Sawdust, the Banff Centre, the Bang on a Can Marathon, and countless festivals across North America. As a composer, her works have been performed at venues across the US, Canada, and Hungary. Madeline received her Bachelor's degree from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and a Master's degree in contemporary violin from Manhattan School of Music.

Long Bio

Originally from Qathet, Canada, Madeline Hocking is emerging as a dynamic performer, composer and artistic director based in New York City. A fierce advocate for new music, she maintains an active freelance career on the east coast of the US, collaborating with composers and artists throughout North America on a variety of projects, including giving world premieres of solo violin works, creating interdisciplinary concerts with artists from other disciplines, and more. She is drawn to the collaborative, experimental process of working closely with living composers on their music, and is committed to highlighting new voices and perspectives in the realm of contemporary art. She is co-founder of Noise Catalogue, which won the Ursula Mamlok Prize in 2023 for its significant contribution to the performance of contemporary music, and it currently a resident ensemble at So Percussion Studio in Brooklyn.

Known for her warm, singing tone and sensitive phrasing, as well as for her forward-thinking approach to concert curation, Madeline has been the recipient of widespread acclaim as a chamber musician, artistic director, and soloist. She performed her New York Philharmonic debut in 2023 on the ‘Nightcap’ concert series, and has been a featured soloist with the American Composers Orchestra, New Chamber Ballet, the San Francisco Conservatory Orchestra, the Vancouver Philharmonic, the Strathcona Symphony Orchestra and the Comox Music Centre Orchestra. She has also performed a solo for the New York City Canadian Consulate, and for Queen Margrethe II of Denmark in a performance with the Royal Danish Academy of Music Orchestra. Throughout her career, Madeline has performed at venues including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Centre, David Geffen Hall, National Sawdust, Chan Centre, Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, the Canadian National Arts Center, San Francisco Center for New Music, the Banff Centre, MIT, and Koerner Hall at the Royal Conservatory of Music, in addition to music festivals throughout the world. Some music festival highlights include the American Composers Orchestra’s SONiC Festival, Music By the Sea (Canada), The Next Festival of Emerging Artists, the Banff Centre Evolution: Classical Festival, Hungary Live Festival, the Orford Arts Centre Violin Masterclasses, Bang on a Can Summer Festival, Banff Centre Masterclasses for Strings and Winds, 1:2:1, Zodiac Festival, National Youth Orchestra of Canada, and the Pacific Regional International Summer Music Academy.

As a collaborator and artistic director, Madeline loves any opportunity to delve into interdisciplinary projects, recognizing how artists in various mediums can enhance each other’s work by combining their different perspectives and modes of expression. Recent examples have included creating the world premiere performances of works by composers Elizabeth Gartman and Christian Frederic Bloquert, in choreographed performances with New Chamber Ballet. She was also the member of the first musical group to present augmented-reality visual art at the New York Philharmonic (performing alongside chromic duo and Brian Ellis) in 2023. Since its inception, her collective Noise Catalogue has undertaken numerous interdisciplinary projects, including an interactive installation at Bard College based on Italo Calvino’s ‘Invisible Cities’, and designing a multi-media concert performance with artist Knox Peters, featuring numerous original works, live painting, spoken word, projections, and spatialized sound. Madeline has collaborated and performed with choreographers Miro Magloire, Mark Morris, Jordyn Ryder, Saki Kawamura, and with Brooklyn Motion Capture Dance Ensemble. Alongside Semiosis Quartet, she recorded the soundtrack for ‘Eric Larue’, a film directed by Michael Shannon which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival last year, and has recorded the soundtracks for numerous other short films in New York City.

Electronics and technology have become an increasingly prominent element of Madeline’s work, stemming from a passion to enhance concerts’ capacity for audience interaction in novel ways. Recent examples have included performing a solo work for violin and electronics at the IRCAM forum, and since 2022, co-hosting an ongoing series of interactive concerts with violist Trevor New, ‘Telematic Collisions’, wherein audience members attending both virtually and in-person can directly affect elements of the musical performance in real time. In 2022-2023, she performed with this cutting-edge technology (developed by En.j.inn Arts) as a virtual soloist with the American Composers Orchestra (ACO) at the Dimenna Center numerous times in the Earshot ColLABoratory Series. She also performed in the 2023 SONiC Festival at Tishman Auditorium alongside Trevor New, Dorothy Chan, and others, with the ACO.

As a composer, Madeline’s works have been performed throughout the US, Canada, and Hungary. In recent years, she has also performed the world premieres of original duos for violin and percussion co-written with Dániel Matei, at venues including the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, the Kiscelli Museum of Budapest, Manhattan School of Music, and Bard Conservatory.

Throughout her life in music, Madeline has enjoyed engaging with other genres as well. She is a former member of the Celtic/trad band ‘Ceilish’, which performed at the 2010 Winter Olympic Games Torch Relay, and at the Aberdeen International Youth Festival the previous year. She has also performed with Canadian bluegrass band ‘The Rakish Angles’ in 2018, has appeared on albums with jazz saxophone legends Phil Dwyer, Ryan Oliver and Cory Weeds, and most recently, had the opportunity to study Hungarian fiddle music with István Pál, a life-changing musical experience.
Madeline holds a Master of Music degree in contemporary violin from Manhattan School of Music, and a Bachelor of Music from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and has had the privilege to study with Curt Macomber, Wei He, Ian Swensen, Eszter Haffner, Nicholas Wright, Mary Sokol-Brown, and Cathy Reckenberg.

For more behind the scenes content & concert photos, follow Madeline and her ensembles on Instagram:
@anastasia.the.pumpkin
@noisecatalogue
@semiosisquartet
@enjinnarts