Meena Bhasin
Co-Artistic and Executive Director
Celebrated as “alluring” and “a powerful voice” (San Francisco Classical Voice), Meena Bhasin is a violist, and pleasure activist whose identity has never fit neatly into a box. Born in New York to an Iranian Jewish mother and a Punjabi Sikh father, her early life was filled with an insatiable passion for cross-cultural dialogue and an itch for interdisciplinary learning. She started honing her musical skills at the age of four. Through experiences as an adolescent performing and collaborating in places like Japan, Israel, China, and at the United Nations, she realized what a powerful connecting force music could be in the world. This realization has affected every artistic choice she has made since.
Meena’s professional life has been diverse and varied. She is a co-founder of Decoda — the affiliate ensemble of Carnegie Hall—which is dedicated to creating meaningful musical experiences through dynamic performances, education, and a quest for social impact. She has led Decoda around the globe in projects ranging from Mexico to India and Abu Dhabi, bringing music to great stages as well as places where it is rarely heard, including prisons, hospitals, schools, and shelters. In 2015, she was invited to perform at the Obama White House, highlighting Decoda’s work in criminal justice reform.
Meena is a member of the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players and the Festival Orchestra of Lincoln Center in New York City. She makes regular appearances with the San Francisco Symphony, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and the Boston-based chamber orchestra, A Far Cry. She relishes collaborations across genres and has toured the US as a soloist with legendary rock band Jethro Tull and performed Persian music as a soloist with the New York Philharmonic. Her chamber music collaborators have included Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zukerman, Emanuel Ax, and Joyce DiDonato. As part of her training, Meena was in Ensemble Connect, the post-graduate leadership program of Carnegie Hall and the Juilliard School. Prior to that, she graduated as a Presser scholar from New England Conservatory and also holds a BA in international relations from Tufts University.
Owen Dalby
Co-Artistic and Executive Director
Praised as “dazzling” (The New York Times), “expert and versatile” (The New Yorker), and “a fearless and inquisitive violinist” (San Francisco Classical Voice), Owen Dalby leads a rich musical life as a soloist, chamber musician, new and early music expert, orchestral concertmaster, and educator. As a member of the St. Lawrence String Quartet, Owen is Artist-in-Residence at Stanford University. With the SLSQ, recent and upcoming projects include tours of all the major chamber series in North America and Europe, as well as solo debuts with the LA Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and the NHK Philharmonic (Tokyo) in John Adams’ Absolute Jest for string quartet and orchestra. As a member of one of today’s most active classical ensembles, Owen performs with the SLSQ around 75 concerts each year and spearheaded a major new release of Haydn string quartets (Opus 20) on vinyl LP, CD, streaming, and HD video.
Prior to joining the SLSQ, Owen lived for a decade in New York City where he was a co-founder of Decoda, the affiliate ensemble of Carnegie Hall, and was also the concertmaster of Novus NY, the contemporary music orchestra of Trinity Wall Street. He made his Lincoln Center debut in 2010 with Lou Harrison’s Concerto for Violin and Percussion Orchestra at Alice Tully Hall, and that same year gave the world premiere of Look Around You, a one-man double concerto by Timo Andres for solo violin and viola, with the Albany Symphony Orchestra.
Owen is regularly invited to perform chamber music at festivals from Hamburg to Honolulu, and from Iceland to Mumbai. His many chamber music collaborators have included Stephen Prutmsan, Inon Barnatan, the Danish String Quartet, Daniel Hope, Christian Tetzlaff, Dawn Upshaw, the Persian kamancheh virtuoso Kayhan Kalhor, and Simon Rattle.
Owen received early training with Anne Crowden at the Crowden School and bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Yale University where he studied with Syoko Aki. In 2010 he completed a three-year tenure with Ensemble Connect, a fellowship of Carnegie Hall and the Juilliard School.
He performs on the “Fetzer” Stradivarius made in Cremona in 1694 and a Sam Zygmuntowicz violin made in Brooklyn in 2006, both on generous extended loan.
Alessandra Aquilanti
General Manager
Alessandra Aquilanti specializes in arts administration and leadership, with a focus on communications, development, and strategic planning. She began her career in the marketing department of the San Francisco Symphony and has since worked in the Office of Development at Stanford University and as the program manager for the St. Lawrence String Quartet. She has developed print, digital, and radio marketing campaigns, launched large-scale fundraising efforts, and planned and executed the annual St. Lawrence String Quartet Summer Chamber Music Seminar, a ten-day festival reaching thousands of community members. Alessandra earned her BA and MA in Italian studies from New York University and her PhD in Italian literature from Stanford University. In her spare time, she is a freelance violist in the Bay Area.
Rebecca Jacobson
Operations Manager
Rebecca Jacobson is a violinist born and bred in Noe Valley. She grew up taking lessons at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music before pursuing a Bachelor’s of Music at McGill University’s Schulich School of Music in Montreal, Canada. Since graduating in 2017, Rebecca has had a varied freelance career that has involved a variety of solo, chamber and orchestral performances, teaching opportunities, and music festivals across North America and Asia. Now, Rebecca is thrilled to be back in San Francisco and helping to bring top tier chamber music to new audiences with Noe Music!