Award-winning cellist Tatum Hodgson is known for her rich tone, expressive artistry, and deep commitment to both education and audience engagement. She has performed in major venues such as Walt Disney Concert Hall, Severance Hall, and concert halls throughout Austria and Switzerland.

As a soloist, she has appeared with orchestra performing Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations and Vivaldi’s A Major Concerto, following competition wins in California and at Indiana University. Most recently, she earned first prize at the 2025 ASTA Solo Strings Competition.

She has participated in prestigious music festivals across the U.S. and abroad, including fellowships at the Aspen Music Festival and School, the Britt Festival Orchestra, and the AIMS Opera Orchestra in Graz, Austria.

Chamber music is the heart of Tatum’s artistic identity, shaping her approach to performance, collaboration, and musical storytelling. She views music as a powerful means of communication—capable of expressing the depth of human experience and fostering connection across cultures and communities. Her performances, whether solo, orchestral, or collaborative, are driven by a passion for storytelling and connection.

An avid chamber musician, Tatum was a member of the Advanced String Quartet Program at the Cleveland Institute of Music and earned first prize at the 2023 Glass City Chamber Music Competition with her quartet. She has performed in masterclasses for the Emerson, Dover, and Danish String Quartets, and continues to seek collaborative projects that deepen musical dialogue and inspire audiences.

Tatum has a breadth of orchestral experience, playing in notable ensembles such as Canton Symphony Orchestra, and the Cleveland Ballet Orchestra, and holding principal positions in baroque and opera ensembles at the Aspen Festival, Suburban Symphony Orchestra, and the CIM Orchestra.

As an educator, Tatum has had extensive pedagogical training and experience teaching private lessons, group classes, large ensemble coaching, theory instruction, and competition adjudicating. Tatum regularly conducts educational concerts, passionate about introducing audiences to new repertoire and sharing her love for music with community. She believes in music education not only for its artistic value, but for its power to cultivate empathy, develop character, foster community, and build the problem-solving skills that carry into every area of life. She is dedicated to lifelong professional development in her performance career and teaching methods so that she can provide the highest-level training to her students.

Tatum holds a Bachelor of Music from the Cleveland Institute of Music in Cello performance with a minor in Suzuki Pedagogy and is pursuing her Master of Music degree at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, where she studies with Desmond Hoebig and Valentin Radutiu. She is a recipient of the Demaris De Lange Hudspeth Scholarship in Music.