A native of Bowling Green, OH, Gina Buzzelli is a freelance musician based in Kansas City. Primarily an orchestral player, she performs regularly with various orchestras in the area. An avid educator, she maintains her own private studio as well as providing assistance for the local public schools.

Gina holds a Masters degree and a Graduate Certificate in violin performance from the University of Northern Colorado under the tutelage of Jubal Fulks. Gina earned her B.M. in Music Performance at Ball State University under Anna Vayman where she was the recipient of the Presidential Scholarship in the Arts and the Presidential Academic Scholarship. Her other former teachers include Merwin Siu, Ioana Galu, and Mary Natvig. She has had the opportunity of participating in masterclasses with artists such as Hilary Hahn, Felix Olschofka, Simon Roland-Jones, Felicia Moye, St. Martin in the Fields Chamber Orchestra, Tesla String Quartet, and Trio Solis.

In addition to classical music, Gina has performed in jazz ensembles (vocal and instrumental) during her time at BSU and UNC. In the summer of 2015, she was a featured soloist with BSU’s top jazz band on their European Tour. Furthermore, she is a founding member of the All Angles Orchestra and the Dynamix String Quartet. The All Angles Orchestra is a 15-piece ensemble combining orchestral woodwinds, a string quartet, a mix of brass instruments, and a jazz rhythm section allowing the group to produce a wide variety of colors and textures, and serves as the perfect creative vehicle for young jazz composers on the rise. The Dynamix String Quartet is comprised of four string players who met while studying at UNC and enjoy performing and arranging popular songs, acting as a liaison between the more popular musical styles and a classical string instrumentation. In 2020 their recording of Nikolai Kapustin’s String Quartet No. 1 from Nikolai Kapustin’s String Works was released on Feeling Good Music CO., Ltd. 

During her summers, Gina has participated in various music festivals. She had the pleasure of working with conductors Carl Topilow, Karina Canellakis, Tania Miller, Teddy Abrams, and Anu Tali at the National Repertory Orchestra in 2019. Other festivals include Round Top Festival Institute, National Music Festival, Miami Summer Music Festival, Eastern Music Festival (as a student in 2013 and a string fellow in 2018), and the International Lyric Academy Opera Festival in Viterbo, Italy. Continuing her interest in alternative styles, Gina has spent multiple summers attending the Jamey Aebersold Summer Jazz Workshop and Mark O’Connor Fiddle Camp where she has been fortunate to work with jazz violinist, Sara Caswell. 

An advocate for new music, Gina is a founding member of [sunflower]: a new music ensemble dedicated to working with living composers, engaging diverse audiences, and exploring how chamber music can evolve in modern society. Due to the 2020 Coronavirus pandemic, [sunflower] debuted with their online “Through the Pavement” series commissioning works by various composers including Joseph Pereira, Molly Joyce, and Chris Vu. While attending UNC, Gina also participated in the Open Space New Music Festival performing works by composers such as Andrew Norman, Augusta Read Thomas, Sean Friar, and Aaron Helgeson.