About the performers:
Abigail Hughes Stoner:
Abigail Hughes Stoner is an active solo artist, concert harpist and pianist, and distinguished pedagogue in the Chicago and west suburbs area. She has performed with numerous ensembles, including the Lake Geneva Symphony Orchestra, the Fox Valley Orchestra, the Kishwaukee Symphony Orchestra, and the Illinois Valley Symphony Orchestra. She has played as a session artist for various groups including singer songwriter Casely, Ska punk band Streelight Manifesto, and Bandits of the Acoustic Revolution. She enjoys sharing and collaborating with artists all over the globe, and was recently featured in an Italian web magazine, Crono.news. Abigail received her Bachelor’s in Harp Performance at Wheaton College Conservatory of Music in 2017, graduating Magna Cum Laude. She is currently pursuing her Masters of Harp Performance at Northern Illinois University School of Music with an anticipated graduation in 2021.
Martin Rojas:
Martin Rojas was born to Colombian parents in Washington DC. Starting his viola studies with Leonora Karisina of the National Philharmonic at the age of fourteen, Martin’s passion for the instrument quickly grew and a year later he started at the Peabody Preparatory’s Performance Academy for Strings, under the tutelage of Dr. Christian Tremblay. In years since Martin has participated in the Curtis Summerfest Young Artists Program, the Aspen Music Festival and School, Domaine Forget, as well as Virtuoso and Belcanto. Martin is a freshman at the Eastman School of Music, where he attends on a full tuition scholarship, under the instruction of Masumi Per Rostad. Martin has had recitals in Carnegie Hall, Peabody Institute, and abroad in Colombia. Over the recent years Martin has participated in masterclasses with internationally renowned violists like Bruno Giuranna, Roberto Diaz, Jennifer Stumm and Nobuko Imai. Martin currently plays on Capicchioni model viola made for him in Cremona Italy in 2018 by Giorgio Grisales.
Cheryl Zhang:
Cheryl Zhang is an incoming freshman at Carnegie Mellon University studying with Professor Alberto Almarza. She will be pursuing a Bachelor of Humanities and the Arts with an arts concentration in flute performance. She was previously principal flute in the Young Artists of America Orchestra, piccolo player for the Maryland Classic Youth Orchestras Philharmonic Orchestra, and piccolo player for the Maryland Senior All State Band. In the past she attended Brevard Summer Festival in the high school orchestra division, where she played principal flute and piccolo roles in the Brevard Concert Orchestra and Brevard Symphonic Winds, and was a semi-finalist in the Jan and Beattie Wood Concerto Competition. She has performed in several masterclasses at The Consummate Flutist at Carnegie Mellon University and she is a National Society of Arts & Letters Honor Recipient. She has been a part of the National Symphony Orchestra’s Young Associates Program, as well as the Strathmore Young Musicians Training Residency. She is a first place winner of the Gaithersburg Young Artist Award Competition as well as the YMIC Metropolitan Music Festival. In high school Cheryl studied with Ms. Amal Gochenour of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.