Dr. Joanna Owen

Dr. Joanna Owen joined Mason Community Arts Academy in the Summer of 2021 as a violin teacher, and is currently serving as a Professor of Violin at George Mason University and Northern Virginia Community College. She received her Master of Music degree from the San Francisco Conservatory and her Doctor of Musical Arts Degree from the Eastman School of Music. Her additional studies include Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, California, Accademia Chigiana in Sienna, Italy, and the Austro-American Institute in Vienna, Austria. Her extensive orchestral experience began with positions with the Rochester Philharmonic and the Syracuse Symphony and continued locally as Associate Concertmaster of the Maryland Symphony Orchestra. In 2018 she collaborated as a concertmaster for a recording with Grammy Award-winning guitarist Sharon Isbin. For four years Dr. Owen served as a contracted member of the National Symphony Orchestra, during which time she shared the stage with Yo-Yo Ma, Joshua Bell, Steve Martin, Renee Fleming, and Common, to name a few. While with the NSO she had the privilege to play on five international tours on four continents.

Dr. Owen has held teaching positions at the Washington International School and the University of Rochester. She coached chamber groups at Mason Summer Chamber Music Intensive as well as the Summer Music Institute at the Kennedy Center where she prepared young musicians for the capstone experience of a concert on the Millennium Stage. As a participant of the NSO In Your Neighborhood series, she conducted clinics at the Levine School and currently serves as an ensemble coach for Langley High School. In her years of coaching and mentoring, she prepared young musicians for leadership positions in area youth ensembles.

As a chamber musician, she performed with members of the Rochester Philharmonic, the US Army Field Band and regularly contributes to the Maryland Symphony chamber ensembles where she was featured in Brandenburg concerti. Recently Dr. Owen collaborated with the Iris Music and the Chamber Dance Project at the Shakespeare Theatre in Washington, DC.

Passionate about musical outreach, Dr. Owen co-founded an artist agency in Warsaw, Poland that is dedicated to the musical education of young listeners. The year-round concert series, now in its 20th season, presents over 200 concerts annually and reaches thousands of students.

Note: This instructor has different rates. Please contact academy@gmu.edu for detail.