Hannah Wolkowitz, composer

Meet Hannah

Hannah performs on Show 457.

Hannah Wolkowitz (composer/saxophone), 18, lives in Chesterfield, Missouri, and is a senior at Parkway Central High School. Hannah began studying saxophone in 2018 and music composition in 2020, and previously studied piano for seven years. For composition, she was mentored by Dr. Carolina Heredia, Daixuan Ai, and Dr. Veronika Krausas. Her current teacher is Dr. David Werfelmann. For saxophone, Hannah’s past teachers include Jeffrey Collins and Dr. Chris Bartz. Her current teacher is Dr. Randy Smith.

As a composer, Hannah was selected as the Music Teachers National Association (MTNA) Senior Performance Composition Representative of Missouri for her composition Euphoria (Oct. 2024). Euphoria was also selected for programming at the 2025 International Music by Women Festival. In addition, Hannah was selected as an NPR From the Top Fellow (Aug. 2024) and was selected as a 2023-24 fellow for Luna Composition Lab where she composed An Ocean Escapade for the Kronos Quartet. This past spring, Hannah was selected as a 2024 winner of the International Young Composers Competition at the Community Music School of Webster University, and was awarded third place at the University of Missouri’s Creating Original Music Project (COMP) competition in the high school notated music category with her piece They Are All Gone. In 2023, she won the top prize in the COMP competition with Strawberry Shortcake. In 2022 and 2023, Hannah composed two prize-winning pieces at Indiana University’s Jacobs Composition Academy.

As a saxophonist, Hannah was recently selected as the winner of the West Central Division MTNA Competition Senior Performance and will compete at nationals in Minneapolis, Minnesota in March. She was also selected to perform in the U.S. Navy Band’s International Saxophone Symposium (2023, 2024, 2025) and will perform her own composition, Euphoria, in Jan. 2025. She was a finalist in the U.S. Navy Band’s Young Artist Solo Competition in 2023 and 2024 and performed alongside the band both years. She has also won numerous concerto competitions in 2022 and 2023, including those held by the University of Illinois-Springfield where she performed Concertino da Camera by Ibert, University of Missouri-St. Louis, and the Alton Symphony Orchestra where she performed Concerto in Eb Major by Glazunov at both. Hannah was also a guest saxophonist with the St. Louis Civic Orchestra for Pictures at an Exhibition by Mussorgsky.

Other saxophone honors include first chair in the Missouri All-State Band (2025), second chair in the Missouri All-State Band (2022, 2023, 2024), first chair in the Missouri All-Suburban Honors Band for the past six years, and top honors at the 2022, 2023, and 2024 high school Solo and Ensemble contests. Hannah is also the saxophonist in Klezundheit! (a St. Louis Klezmer band) which has recently performed at The Muny Pre-Show Festival, the St. Louis Art Museum and the St. Louis Sababa Jewish Arts and Cultural Festival. She has attended various saxophone programs including the MPulse Saxophone Institute at the University of Michigan (2022, 2023, 2024), Indiana University Saxophone Academy (2023, 2024), Interlochen Saxophone Intensive (2023), and the University of Missouri Kansas City Saxophone Workshop (2023).