Hannah Watson

Bitter Jester Music Festival Judge

Hannah K. Watson has been playing the violin since age ten and started singing a few years later. She is classically trained on the violin and has always been very active as a singer in choral groups, bands, and ensembles of all types. She grew to love and extensively learn many other musical worlds such as bluegrass, jazz, metal, and country throughout her youth and college; graduating in 2012 from Columbia College Chicago with a Bachelors in Music Composition.

She currently plays and sings with many high profile bands in the Chicago area, performs in weddings, recording sessions, and writes her own music earning a living as a freelance musician & composer.

Whether on stage or in the studio, Hannah is known for her enthusiastic performances, dedication, exemplary ear, versatile improvisations, proficient sight-reading, innate flexibility aka a very 'go-with-the-flow' attitude, an extensive repertoire of country and rock tunes, and to top it all off - a tendency to have fun with everything that she does.

Hannah grew up in choir and loving the Beatles, Lord of the Dance, and Vivaldi as a kid. There's not a musical style she doesn't consume or want to learn more about.

Hannah served as the concertmaster of The Chicago Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra in 2010 having been involved with this group and The Lake Shore Symphony Orchestra for many years prior. She also embraced her inner cowgirl as the fiddler and lead-female singer for the Midwest's favorite country cover band Suburban Cowboys for 6 years, and through this opportunity, became the fiddler and backup vocalist for "Made in America" a Toby Keith tribute band. She played violin for Trippin Billies, (the nation's most renowned Dave Matthews tribute band), and regularly picks up gigs with bands like Jennifer Fletcher & the Reckoning, Rockstar Rodeo, Hey Cowboy, Simply Sound, Leonum and the Greenleaf Band.

Through all of this stage-performing, she's been fortunate to play on some of Chicago's most iconic stages including the House of Blues, Chicago Theatre, The Metro, Lincoln Hall/Schuba's, The Vogue (IN) & has been distinctly honored to open for other fantastic bands including Sixteen Candles, Sister Hazel, Phil Vasser, and perform alongside artists like Jim Peterik(Survivor), Tom Higgenson (Plain White T's) and Keith Anderson. She now plays with Chicago-based Rock/Americana group named American Pie. Besides gigging her weekends away, she is the co-founder of a collective of musicians called Chicago Street Strings, a local & versatile wedding and special events performance group of top-notch professional freelance musicians.

When she's not busy shredding and belting it out into the late evening hours, Hannah can be found working in her home studio, learning new music, diligently writing or collaborating on projects with other creatives. Most recently Hannah has taken up streaming on Twitch under the alias Phunk Phiddler. Be sure to catch a stream soon! Phollow her channel here! Want to collaborate with Hannah? Click here!