About Hannah Schneider
Hannah Schneider is the founder and music director of Oxford Alternative Orchestra, an ensemble dedicated to the intersection of classical music, social impact, and alternative performance practices. In addition, she is assistant conductor at The Grange Festival, UK, and of the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra (2018-2020), where she spearheaded their inaugural Side by Side education project (2019). She is in demand as a guest conductor in Russia, the UK, the United States, and the Ukraine, including engagements in 2019-2020 with the Lviv Philharmonic Orchestra, Yakutsk Philharmonic Orchestra, Kaluga Young Symphony Orchestra, and in the US, the Wallingford Symphony Orchestra, So&So (New York), and Ballet Hartford. She is also a Rhodes Scholar at the University of Oxford, where she wrote a PhD specializing in Soviet opera.
the CHRYSALIS project
At CBA, Schneider worked on a series of five short films, exploring the idea that a particular kind of metamorphosis, transformation, and hope is only possible in a place of darkness; a concept encapsulated by the image of the chrysalis. Each piece fuses the media of dance, film, and classical music, featuring a piece of new choreography set to new compositions recorded by the Oxford Alternative Orchestra (OAO).
The project involved the musicians of OAO in the UK, and five award-winning choreographers in different locations around the world: Burkina Faso (Aguibou Bougobali Sanou [CBA ’21]), Sweden (Ksenia Zvereva), the US (Stefanie Batten Bland [CBA ’19]), Russia (Xander Parish), and New Zealand (Sarah Foster-Sproull [CBA ’21]).
Gallery
