Biography

Professor Mari Hahn has been on the UAA Music Department faculty since 2002.  She received her Doctorate of Musical Arts and Masters of Music from the University of British Columbia, and her BM Performance degree from the University of Toronto.  She also studied at the Scuola Musicale in Milan, Italy.  She was a two-time recipient of the prestigious Killam Fellowship at UBC, and founded the chamber opera company Opera Breve in Vancouver, British Columbia.

She remains active as a versatile performer of opera, oratorio and art song. Performances include the soprano solo in Poulenc’s Gloria and Bach’s St. John Passion with the Anchorage Concert Chorus, Gorecki’s Third Symphony with the Anchorage Civic Orchestra, and the Defiant Requiem with conductor Murry Sidlin.  She has performed in numerous solo and chamber recitals, including the Anchorage Festival of Music, and the UAA Early Music Ensemble. She can be heard on the album Soundscapes of Restoration with music by climate activist composer Matthew Burtner. 

As a music and stage director, she has served as the Chorus Master for the Anchorage Opera for three seasons, and stage directed La Cambiale di Matrimonio, Impresario and Mozart and Salieri. She has also collaborated with the UAA Department of Theater, serving as music director for seven productions including Fantasticks, A Little Night Music and Godspell.  As the founder and director of the UAA Opera Ensemble, she has produced and directed 11 seasons of productions such as Le Nozze di Figaro, Kismet and Elixir of Love.  She created an Alaska Native adaptation of Englebert Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel, entitled Aklaq and Nayak , in a collaborative production with Anchorage Opera that toured to Unalakleet and Nome.

As a vocal instructor, she teaches a variety of techniques and genres from classical to the contemporary commercial styles of music theater, jazz and popular music.  She served two terms as the District Governor of NATS and has organized many workshops by visiting artists who are leaders in their fields, such as Norman Spivey, Jeanne Lovetri, Nancy Bos, and Natalie Weiss.  

Dr. Hahn’s research involves combining somatic techniques and vocal pedagogy.  She is a certified Alexander Technique instructor, and is the Music Department resource for muscular-skeletal well-being.  She was an invited presenter at the NATS Regional Conference in Seattle, and a presenter at the Vocal Institute at the University of British Columbia for three summer sessions. She is very active as a consultant, adjudicator and clinician locally and nationally. She is currently training in the Estill Voice Methods, focusing on contemporary vocal techniques.

For community service she participated in the Carnegie Hall Lullaby program, mentoring prison inmates at Highland Mountain Correctional Institute.  For university service, she has served on the University Faculty Evaluation Committee as chair of the tri-partite sub-committee.  Currently, she is the Fine Arts Representative on Faculty Senate, and serves on the Diversity Committee.