Best Local Musicians for Hire in Houston

Nina Pitts earned her Bachelor’s degree in Cello Performance from Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music and her Master’s from the Manhattan School of Music’s Orchestral Performance Program, where she studied with Brinton Smith and Qiang Tu respectively. A native from China, she also attended the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts located in Houston. She has participated in prestigious festivals like the New York String Orchestra Seminar, ENCORE, Madeline Island Chamber Music, NOI, and the Music Academy of the West where she collaborated with musicians such as David Chan, Caroline Shaw, Jaime Laredo, Stéphane Denève, Paul Katz, and Alan Stepansky. She is passionate about opera and orchestral playing, having worked with conductors such as James Conlon, Stéphane Denève, and Marin Alsop. Nina has also delved into arts administration taking on various administrative jobs at arts organizations such as the Aspen Music Festival & School and Spoleto USA. In her spare time, she enjoys watching soccer and baking and spending time with her family. 

Anna Mann is a 22-year-old violist from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her playing has been described by the Boston Globe as “...bright with the ability to overcome the upper register of the viola…”. As an avid orchestral player, Anna has spent recent summers as a fellow at the Aspen Music Festival and School, Schleswig Holstein Music Festival, and Tanglewood Music Center. She often served as principal violist of the NEC Philharmonia and was a regular substitute with the Atlantic Symphony Orchestra. Throughout her chamber music studies, she’s had the privilege to work with members from the Cleveland, Emerson, and Borromeo Quartets, among others. Anna is also a passionate teacher as she worked in the NEC preparatory school as a sectionals coach and as a violin and viola teacher at the Boston String Academy for several years. Currently she teaches violin and piano at the Groove Music School in Houston, Texas. 

Anna received her Bachelor’s of Music degree from the New England Conservatory where she was a student of Martha Katz and Mai Motobuchi. Currently she studies at The Shepherd School of Music at Rice University as a student of James Dunham. Other important teachers include Daniel Getz, Meng Wang, and Kerri Ryan.

Multifaceted Houston-based artist Emily S. Richardson, M.M., regularly gives both solo and ensemble performances in venues around the country, advocating for music spanning the Baroque era through the cutting-edge of today’s contemporary classical music.
As a lover of string ensembles, she became the first violinist of the Agathon Quartet, which formed at Rice University and competed in the 2021 Coltman Chamber Music Competition Finals, and the Music Academy of the West invited Richardson to perform in the String Quartet Seminar led by the esteemed Takács Quartet. Last season, she was featured in the Context concert series curated by pianist Brian Connelly, and she is a founding member of Trio Argonaut, which has commissioned three new works for the upcoming season.
In addition to trio works, Richardson will premiere a violin concerto written for her by Houston-based composer Victor Cui in Spring 2025.
Richardson is an avid orchestral musician and has been invited to perform with the San Diego Symphony, Houston Ballet Orchestra, and the conductorless KINETIC Ensemble in Houston. She holds a tenure-track position at the Colorado Music Festival in Boulder, CO, directed by Maestro Peter Oundjian. In recent years, Richardson has performed the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan, and Spoleto Music Festival in Charleston, SC.
In addition to modern violin, she displays a strong interest in Baroque performance. She recently gave a guest lecture at Rice University on the subject of Baroque ornamentation in J. S. Bach’s solo violin Sonatas and Partitas and is preparing to record her rendition of Bach with added ornaments. She performs both Baroque and modern violin as a member of the Mercury Chamber Orchestra, a Houston-based historical performance ensemble.
Richardson plays on a 1973 Carl Becker violin generously loaned to her by the Colburn Collection.

Colombian violinist Mauricio Oliveros, is an active recitalist, chamber musician, arranger, freelance musician and educator. He is currently the Associate Concertmaster of the Symphony of Southeast Texas and is on the Adjunct Faculty at Houston Baptist University, The Kinkaid School, and Tallowood Academy of Fine Arts.  He performs regularly throughout the American Continent, and has also appeared as soloist with the Symphony of Southeast Texas, the University of Houston Concerto Orchestra, the Magnolia Chamber Orchestra and the Valle Symphony Orchestra in Colombia.  He has attended important music festivals, including the Youth Orchestra of the Americas (YOA), the Texas Music Festival, and the Mimir Chamber Music Festival.  He has been a member of the Valle Symphony Orchestra (Colombia), San Angelo Symphony Orchestra, Irving Symphony Orchestra, Midland-Odessa Symphony Orchestra, and Opera Vista.  Dr. Oliveros is a former member and mentor of the prestigious YOA Global Leaders Program and has given violin and chamber music masterclasses in the USA, Colombia, Peru, Uruguay, Cuba and Mexico. An avid lover of chamber music, Dr. Oliveros is a co-founder of the Houston-based Terra Nostra Ensemble, which performs music written by composers from Latin America and the Iberian Peninsula.

Omeed Manshouri is a violist who enjoys a varied career as performer and teacher. A native of Houston, he attended the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts. Since then he has performed with various professional ensembles in New York, Hartford and Houston. Collaborations with ensembles have included Brazos Valley Symphony, Brazosport Symphony Orchestra, Garden State Philharmonic, International Chamber Orchestra of America and Manhattan Symphonie. Omeed has performed at notable venues such as Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, Bushnell Performing Arts Center and Jones Hall. He has also been featured as a guest artist for the Terra Nostra Ensemble as well as the Westheimer String Quartet. Omeed has spent his summers performing at various music festivals throughout the United States, Germany and Italy. 

​

He holds a Master Degree from Mannes College in New York under the tutelage of Daniel Panner, violist of the Mendelssohn String Quartet, a Graduate Professional Diploma from the Hartt School of Music in Connecticut with soloist – Rita Porfiris, and a Bachelor Degree from the Moores School of Music studying with principal violist of the Houston Symphony - Wayne Brooks.

​