Drawing from immense talent in the Bay Area, Eclecta Quartet features highly-trained string wizards with a love for performing a variety of styles. Our members are composers, arrangers, band leaders, concertmasters, teachers, and leaders in our field. With a dozen female electric string players on the roster, Eclecta Quartet can perform in any configuration – from a duo to an octet, and anything in-between! Most importantly, each musician brings a passion and dedication that creates a world-class experience for each and every engagement.
Shaina Evoniuk (Founder) hails from Ashland, Oregon, and is an integral part of the Bay Area music scene. In addition to leading Eclecta Quartet, Jazz Mafia’s String Section, and the five-piece genre-bending chamber ensemble Cosa Nostra Strings, she’s performed with ODESZA, Train, Gregory Porter, Third Eye Blind, Roy Ayers, The Human Experience, David Grisman, Chicago, Lyrics Born, Macy Gray, The Monophonics, DJ Qbert, Deltron, Liz Phair, Zion-I, & Chali 2na, and appeared at the Kennedy Center, Super Bowl XLIX, Carnegie Hall, Montreal Jazz Festival, Playboy Jazz Festival, and Beijing’s Spring Festival. Recent recording credits include Leon Bridges Bet Ain’t Worth The Hand, the 2019 GRAMMY winner for Best Traditional R&B Performance.
Following her solo debut with the SF Symphony, Ilana Blumberg has appeared at the Tanglewood, Marlboro, and Aspen festivals as well as with Bay Area groups such as the Left Coast Ensemble, Earplay, Opera Parallele and many more. As an orchestral musician, Ilana performs with the Sacramento Philharmonic, Symphony Silicon Valley, and the symphonies of Oakland, Santa Rosa, Modesto, Berkeley and Marin. Highlights this year included working with Philip Glass and appearing with ODESZA in SF and Mexico. She has supported artists including Wynton Marsalis, Luciano Pavarotti, Il Divo, Michael Buble, Sara Brightman, and Andrea Bocelli and performed on Broadway in musicals such as Aida and the Producers. When not playing the violin, she can usually be found on a running path somewhere.
Bay Area cellist, composer, and teacher Joanne de Mars holds her Master’s Degree from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where she studied with Jennifer Culp. Described as “beautiful and hypnotic… thrilling to watch and hear” (SF Music Weekly), Ms. de Mars is a member of contemporary ensemble Wild Rumpus, Merced Symphony, and Bella Rosa String Quartet. As a solo performer, she has collaborated with UC Berkeley Dance Department, St. Mary’s Department of Theater, and Stanford’s New Ensemble. Joanne’s versatile playing lends itself to both classical and contemporary styles. She plays regularly in the Bay Area rock scene as a session player, having performed with Tony Toni Tone, Goapele, Persian master Shajarian, and many other notable bands. Joanne currently lives in Oakland with her partner, dog and cat, and derives inspiration from daily runs in the trails of the Oakland hills.
Originally from Latvia, violinist Alise Ewan was exposed to music, dance, and visual arts from an early age, thanks to her artistic family. After graduating from the Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music in Rīga, Latvia, she traveled the world performing and studying. Experienced in many musical styles, she has performed throughout the world in Canada, USA, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Costa Rica, Columbia and in almost every country in Europe. In the Bay Area she can be often seen with groups like the Oakland Symphony, Santa Rosa Symphony, and Symphony Silicon Valley, as well as in quartets performing at private and corporate events. In her spare time, she is interested in cross-cultural relations, follows fashion, does some modeling, and loves to dance and travel.
Multi-genre violinist Celia Harris plays styles ranging from classical to hip-hop, tango to jazz. In addition to playing with Eclecta Quartet, she has performed, recorded, and toured with Trio Zincalo, Redwood Tango Ensemble, Jazz Mafia, and many more. Some of her notable credits include performances with Deltron 3030, Lyrics Born, DJ QBert, Connie Francis, and Chuck Prophet, as well as members of Zion-I, Jurassic 5, Crown City Rockers, and Guided By Voices. She’s played at venues such as Yoshi’s Jazz Club, Palace of Fine Arts, Castro Theatre, and the Hollywood Bowl, and festivals including Stern Grove, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, Outside Lands, and Rock the Bells.
Maaike Kahn, a graduate of the Cleveland Institute of music, is a cellist who has played in chamber ensembles and orchestras throughout the country, most recently in the New World Symphony under the direction of Michael Tilson Thomas. She is the artistic coordinator and cello teacher for Enriching Lives through Music, an el Sistema program, and performs with other ensembles throughout the bay area. Maaike lives in San Rafael with her husband and two boys.
Rachel Noyes has been playing the violin since the age of 3. She attended the San Francisco Conservatory Preparatory School, the Cleveland Institute of Music, and the University of Maryland as well as summer programs in the Aspen Music Festival and Bowdoin Summer Music Festival. Rachel loves playing different genres of music, with highlights include playing with Stevie Wonder and performing at the official Super Bowl Tailgate Party in 2015. When not found playing violin, Rachel teaches Pure Barre in both San Rafael and Berkeley and enjoys being outdoors in beautiful NorCal.
Crystal Pascucci is a cellist, composer and improviser. As a performer, she is most active in the contemporary and experimental music communities. As a composer, she has researched vocal transcription and performative scoring of vocal inflections and rhythms. A graduate of Mills College, she is an active performer of free improvisation. In these contexts, she often approaches her instrument in a non-traditional way using extended techniques for sound development. She performs regularly with Roscoe Mitchell, Pamela Z, Ellen Fullman, Gino Robair, Lisa Mezzacappa, David Behrman and the Paul Dresher Ensemble. She writes music for and plays in the band, Two Aerials, and is a member of the Dirty Snacks Ensemble.
Christina Simpson began playing viola at the age of eight under the tutelage of Linda Ghidossi-Deluca in Santa Rosa, CA. She has had the privilege of performing in master classes for Gustavo Dudamel, Valery Gergiev, Pamela Frank, members of the St. Lawrence, Emerson, and Takacs Quartets, among many others. She is currently the violist with Elevate Ensemble, and plays with groups around the Bay Area including Modesto and Merced Symphonies, One Found Sound, and Eclecta Quartet. She also serves as the Social Media Coordinator for the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra and helps run a company with her friend making custom 3D printed shoulder rests.
Violinist and violist Ivy Zenobi is embracing a diverse career as a symphonic, chamber musician, rock musician, and private instructor. In recent years, concert appearances include the Santa Rosa Symphony, San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus, Chora Nova, The National Geographic Symphony, and the Philharmonic Kitchen. Outside of the classical scene, Ivy was a member of the rock band Naked Fiction, performed at the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival, recorded at Skywalker Ranch and The Bachelor. Ivy Zenobi received her B.M. from the University of Colorado at Boulder and her Masters from the University of Toronto, Canada.
ECLECTA QUARTET 