Originally from Qathet, Canada, Madeline Hocking is emerging as a dynamic violinist, composer and improvisor 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 musicians throughout North America on a variety of projects ranging from giving world premieres of solo violin works, to partaking in group improvisations involving the use of electronics and mixed media. She is co-founder of Noise Catalogue, and is the newest member of Semiosis, a Boston-based string quartet that specializes in contemporary music.

Electronics and technology have become an increasingly prominent element in Madeline’s work, stemming from a passion to enhance a concerts’ capacity for audience interaction in novel ways. Recent examples have included performing at the IRCAM forum, and 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. Having very recently added ‘composer’ to her resume, she was ecstatic to give the world premiere of her work for violin and live electronics, ‘In Transit’ (2022) at Manhattan School of Music this past year. In her writing, she has a passion for using electronics to reframe orchestral instruments in new contexts, and exploring the full spectrum of sound that the violin has to offer.

Known for her warm, singing tone and sensitive phrasing, she has been the recipient of widespread recognition as both a chamber musician and soloist, having had the honor of soloing with the San Francisco Conservatory Orchestra, the Vancouver Philharmonic, and the Comox Music Centre orchestra, as well as being awarded 1st place in a multitude of chamber music competitions in British Columbia, Canada. Madeline has performed at venues including Lincoln Centre, National Sawdust, Chan Centre, MassMOCA, the Canadian National Arts Center, San Francisco Center for New Music, and HERE Arts Center NYC, and at music festivals throughout the world. Some music festival highlights include Music By the Sea, The Next Festival of Emerging Artists, the Banff Centre Masterclasses for Strings and Winds, Orford Arts Centre, Bang on a Can, 1:2:1, Zodiac Festival, and National Youth Orchestra of Canada.
She 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. 

Throughout her life in music, Madeline has enjoyed engaging with other genres as well. Formerly a full-time fiddler, 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 and Cory Weeds, and most recently, had the opportunity to study Hungarian fiddle music with István Pál in Budapest, a life-changing musical experience.

When not making music in some capacity, Madeline can be found reading, hiking in the mountains, or volunteering in her community.