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Rose Coomes

2,525

Bold Points

1x

Nominee

3x

Finalist

2x

Winner

Bio

Rose Barranco is an aspiring christian professional classical violinist and composer. She is currently studying at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee for a Bachelor of Music in Violin Performance. Rose is an alumni of Baltimore School for the Arts, one of the top five public arts high schools in the US. Rose is the child of a single mother. She has been inspired by the sacrifices her mother makes in order to support her education. This bold inspiration has led her to maintain a 4.0 GPA in college and be a well recommended violinist and Named Scholar. She works hard because she knows just how valuable the opportunity that she has been given is- the cost of education in classical music often limits students from reaching their full potential. Due to her hard-work, she has received institutional merit/performance based scholarships. Unfortunately, due to inflation and rising tuition she is still struggling to afford her education without considerable student loans. "The world needs music, we need musicians, they are the ones who bring everyone together, especially in a troubled world like today's. It calms nerves, lifts depression, retells people's stories, and celebrates life." -Rose Over the past eleven years, Rose has performed in chamber ensembles, choral performances, solo recitals, festivals, concertmaster of the Baltimore School for the Arts Orchestra, and performed in masterclasses for Tai Murray and Yevgeny Kutik. Rose is invited yearly to perform for her local community churches. A link to her RESUME and PERFORMANCES: https://tinyurl.com/u39a7e7b

Education

The Boston Conservatory

Bachelor's degree program
2022 - 2026
  • Majors:
    • Music
  • GPA:
    4

Baltimore School For The Arts

High School
2018 - 2022
  • GPA:
    3.9

Miscellaneous

  • Desired degree level:

    Doctoral degree program (PhD, MD, JD, etc.)

  • Graduate schools of interest:

  • Transfer schools of interest:

  • Majors of interest:

    • Music
  • Not planning to go to medical school
  • Career

    • Dream career field:

      Music

    • Dream career goals:

      Independent performer or director of a group

    • Solo violinist

      Independent
      2013 – 2013

    Sports

    Track & Field

    Club
    2016 – 20171 year

    Awards

    • Second Place in Grade-wide race

    Table Tennis

    Club
    2014 – 20151 year

    Research

    • Baltimore School for the Arts — Researcher/writer
      2020 – 2021

    Arts

    • FiveSparks Harvard Music Festival

      Performance Art
      2024 – 2024
    • Viola - Boston Conservatory Class

      Performance Art
      2024 – 2024
    • Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival 2024

      Performance Art
      2024 – 2024
    • Boston Conservatory Conductors Orchestra

      Music
      Concert
      2023 – Present
    • Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival

      Music
      2023 – 2023
    • Boston Conservatory Orchestra

      Music
      2022 – Present
    • Berklee College of Music Film Scoring Recording Studio Orchestra

      Music
      2022 – 2023
    • Baltimore School for the Arts chorus

      Music
      Two concerts per school year
      2018 – Present
    • Baltimore School for the Arts Chamber music program

      Music
      Two per semester
      2018 – Present
    • Peabody Preparatory Chamber Program

      Music
      One concert per semester
      2021 – Present
    • Baltimore School for the Arts

      Music
      Two major concerts every year, Expressions fundraiser yearly, Chamber ensemble performances
      2018 – Present
    • Harford String and Youth Orchestra

      Music
      Two concerts a year
      2014 – 2018

    Public services

    • Volunteering

      Massachusetts General Hospital Environmental Music Program — Weekly performer
      2024 – Present
    • Volunteering

      Mount Zion Methodist Church — Violinist
      2018 – 2019
    • Volunteering

      St. Cecilia Parish, Boston — Violinist
      2023 – 2023
    • Volunteering

      Slate Ridge Presbyterian Church — Violinist
      2020 – Present
    • Volunteering

      Slateville Presbyterian Church — Violinist
      2021 – Present
    • Volunteering

      Highland Presbyterian Church — Soloist
      2012 – Present
    • Volunteering

      Passport Mission Camps — Participant
      2018 – 2019

    Future Interests

    Advocacy

    Politics

    Volunteering

    Philanthropy

    Entrepreneurship

    Devin Chase Vancil Art and Music Scholarship
    I have loved music my entire life. Even at just eleven months old. Once, when my mom put on the classical music station in the car, she looked back to check on me, and to her surprise, I was dancing and banging my hands like I was playing an imaginary piano! I started playing my church piano when I was seven. Then my mother got me an electric keyboard, to which I promptly stuck numbered stickers and began to write short songs in numbered code. I only learned to read music when I turned 8 and had my first violin lesson. Apparently, a violin was cheaper than a grand piano. Regardless, I soon enjoyed playing violin even more than the piano. Within ten years, I went from studying the Suzuki method to performing Dvorak’s violin concerto. During those years, I was accepted by the Baltimore School for the Arts, an arts high school that included the study of music history, literature, and theory in its schedule. The curriculum also included publicly performing in the orchestra, chamber ensembles, solo recitals, and the chorus, and taking private lessons with Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s violinist, Ivan Stefanovic. It was the pure joy I got out of rehearsing with my peers and performing works of music that hold such soul-moving beauty that made me realize I could not live happily without playing the violin. Every summer, I am invited to perform for several churches in my hometown. There was one Sunday when I remember asking God for a sign if the violin was the right career path for me. After I finished performing, the pastor mentioned my performance in his sermon. He explained that music is a gift that can provide the mental rest we all need. This confirmed my choice. My life's mission is to use my love of music to provide people with joy and rest through music. Performing for me is less about the technical aspects of my performance than it is about providing music that will emotionally move the audience in an engaging or restful way. Although I love the thrill of performing on a stage in a large concert hall, my most fulfilling performances have been for small audiences in my local churches or in a nursing home. It is there that I get to truly make a difference and provide an experience that is many times out of reach. Classical music is a genre that has been increasingly restricted to only those who can afford to attend. Even more so in the educational field, where many are forced to choose a more affordable educational path over their passion for music. I am now studying at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee with violinist and professor Lynn Chang. I plan to finish my Bachelor of Music in Violin Performance, attend graduate school, and consider further postgraduate education. After my education, I intend to join an orchestra, form a chamber group, and join or create a program that will make classical music training accessible to young people. As the child of a single mother, I have faced struggles with affording such training: the cost of my instrument and its repairs, private lessons, summer programs, and now my college tuition. It is because I understand the extreme costs of classical training and my inspiration drawn from my hard-working and number-one fan, who is my mother, that I am driven to share classical music and its healing benefits. Especially for those who, like me, have struggled to access it.
    Sunni E. Fagan Memorial Music Scholarship
    I have loved music my entire life. Even at just eleven months old. Once, when my mom put on the classical music station in the car, she looked back to check on me, and to her surprise, I was dancing and banging my hands like I was playing an imaginary piano! I started playing my church piano when I was seven. Then my mother got me an electric keyboard, to which I promptly stuck numbered stickers and began to write short songs in numbered code. I only learned to read music when I turned 8 and had my first violin lesson. Apparently, a violin was cheaper than a grand piano. Regardless, I soon enjoyed playing violin even more than the piano. Within ten years, I went from studying the Suzuki method to performing Dvorak’s violin concerto. During those years, I was accepted by the Baltimore School for the Arts, an arts high school that included the study of music history, literature, and theory in its schedule. The curriculum also included publicly performing in the orchestra, chamber ensembles, solo recitals, and the chorus, and taking private lessons with Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s violinist, Ivan Stefanovic. It was the pure joy I got out of rehearsing with my peers and performing works of music that hold such soul-moving beauty that made me realize I could not live happily without playing the violin. Every summer, I am invited to perform for several churches in my hometown. There was one Sunday when I remember asking God for a sign if the violin was the right career path for me. After I finished performing, the pastor mentioned my performance in his sermon. He explained that music is a gift that can provide the mental rest we all need. This confirmed my choice. My life's mission is to use my love of music to provide people with joy and rest through music. Performing for me is less about the technical aspects of my performance than it is about providing music that will emotionally move the audience in an engaging or restful way. Although I love the thrill of performing on a stage in a large concert hall, my most fulfilling performances have been for small audiences in my local churches or in a nursing home. It is there that I get to truly make a difference and provide an experience that is many times out of reach. Classical music is a genre that has been increasingly restricted to only those who can afford to attend. Even more so in the educational field, where many are forced to choose a more affordable educational path over their passion for music. I am now studying at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee with violinist and professor Lynn Chang. I plan to finish my Bachelor of Music in Violin Performance, attend graduate school, and consider further postgraduate education. After my education, I intend to join an orchestra, form a chamber group, and join or create a program that will make classical music training accessible to young people. As the child of a single mother, I have faced struggles with affording such training: the cost of my instrument and its repairs, private lessons, summer programs, and now my college tuition. It is because I understand the extreme costs of classical training and my inspiration drawn from my hard-working and number-one fan, who is my mother, that I am driven to share classical music and its healing benefits. Especially for those who, like me, have struggled to access it.
    TEAM ROX Scholarship
    I have loved music my entire life. Even at just eleven months old. Once, when my mom put on the classical music station in the car, she looked back to check on me, and to her surprise, I was dancing and banging my hands like I was playing an imaginary piano! I started playing my church piano when I was seven. Then my mother got me an electric keyboard, to which I promptly stuck numbered stickers and began to write short songs in numbered code. I only learned to read music when I turned 8 and had my first violin lesson. Apparently, a violin was cheaper than a grand piano. Regardless, I soon enjoyed playing violin even more than the piano. Within ten years, I went from studying the Suzuki method to performing Dvorak’s violin concerto. During those years, I was accepted by the Baltimore School for the Arts, an arts high school that included the study of music history, literature, and theory in its schedule. The curriculum also included publicly performing in the orchestra, chamber ensembles, solo recitals, and the chorus, and taking private lessons with Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s violinist, Ivan Stefanovic. It was the pure joy I got out of rehearsing with my peers and performing works of music that hold such soul-moving beauty that made me realize I could not live happily without playing the violin. Every summer, I am invited to perform for several churches in my hometown. There was one Sunday when I remember asking God for a sign if the violin was the right career path for me. After I finished performing, the pastor mentioned my performance in his sermon. He explained that music is a gift that can provide the mental rest we all need. This confirmed my choice. My life's mission is to use my love of music to provide people with joy and rest through music. Performing for me is less about the technical aspects of my performance than it is about providing music that will emotionally move the audience in an engaging or restful way. Although I love the thrill of performing on a stage in a large concert hall, my most fulfilling performances have been for small audiences in my local churches or in a nursing home. It is there that I get to truly make a difference and provide an experience that is many times out of reach. Classical music is a genre that has been increasingly restricted to only those who can afford to attend. Even more so in the educational field, where many are forced to choose a more affordable educational path over their passion for music. I am now studying at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee with violinist and professor Lynn Chang. I plan to finish my Bachelor of Music in Violin Performance, attend graduate school, and consider further postgraduate education. After my education, I intend to join an orchestra, form a chamber group, and join or create a program that will make classical music training accessible to young people. As the child of a single mother, I have faced struggles with affording such training: the cost of my instrument and its repairs, private lessons, summer programs, and now my college tuition. It is because I understand the extreme costs of classical training and my inspiration drawn from my hard-working and number-one fan, who is my mother, that I am driven to share classical music and its healing benefits. Especially for those who, like me, have struggled to access it.
    Kalia D. Davis Memorial Scholarship
    I have loved music my entire life. Even at just eleven months old. Once, when my mom put on the classical music station in the car, she looked back to check on me, and to her surprise, I was dancing and banging my hands like I was playing an imaginary piano! I started playing my church piano when I was seven. Then my mother got me an electric keyboard, to which I promptly stuck numbered stickers and began to write short songs in numbered code. I only learned to read music when I turned 8 and had my first violin lesson. Apparently, a violin was cheaper than a grand piano. Regardless, I soon enjoyed playing violin even more than the piano. Within ten years, I went from studying the Suzuki method to performing Dvorak’s violin concerto. During those years, I was accepted by the Baltimore School for the Arts, an arts high school that included the study of music history, literature, and theory in its schedule. The curriculum also included publicly performing in the orchestra, chamber ensembles, solo recitals, and the chorus, and taking private lessons with Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s violinist, Ivan Stefanovic. It was the pure joy I got out of rehearsing with my peers and performing works of music that hold such soul-moving beauty that made me realize I could not live happily without playing the violin. Every summer, I am invited to perform for several churches in my hometown. There was one Sunday when I remember asking God for a sign if the violin was the right career path for me. After I finished performing, the pastor mentioned my performance in his sermon. He explained that music is a gift that can provide the mental rest we all need. This confirmed my choice. My life's mission is to use my love of music to provide people with joy and rest through music. Performing for me is less about the technical aspects of my performance than it is about providing music that will emotionally move the audience in an engaging or restful way. Although I love the thrill of performing on a stage in a large concert hall, my most fulfilling performances have been for small audiences in my local churches or in a nursing home. It is there that I get to truly make a difference and provide an experience that is many times out of reach. Classical music is a genre that has been increasingly restricted to only those who can afford to attend. Even more so in the educational field, where many are forced to choose a more affordable educational path over their passion for music. I am now studying at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee with violinist and professor Lynn Chang. I plan to finish my Bachelor of Music in Violin Performance, attend graduate school, and consider further postgraduate education. After my education, I intend to join an orchestra, form a chamber group, and join or create a program that will make classical music training accessible to young people. As the child of a single mother, I have faced struggles with affording such training: the cost of my instrument and its repairs, private lessons, summer programs, and now my college tuition. It is because I understand the extreme costs of classical training and my inspiration drawn from my hard-working and number-one fan, who is my mother, that I am driven to share classical music and its healing benefits. Especially for those who, like me, have struggled to access it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGgSaYPoF2k
    Larry Darnell Green Scholarship
    I have loved music my entire life. Even at just eleven months old. Once, when my mom put on the classical music station in the car, she looked back to check on me, and to her surprise, I was dancing and banging my hands like I was playing an imaginary piano! I started playing my church piano when I was seven. Then my mother got me an electric keyboard, to which I promptly stuck numbered stickers and began to write short songs in numbered code. I only learned to read music when I turned 8 and had my first violin lesson. Apparently, a violin was cheaper than a grand piano. Regardless, I soon enjoyed playing violin even more than the piano. Within ten years, I went from studying the Suzuki method to performing Dvorak’s violin concerto. During those years, I was accepted by the Baltimore School for the Arts, an arts high school that included the study of music history, literature, and theory in its schedule. The curriculum also included publicly performing in the orchestra, chamber ensembles, solo recitals, and the chorus, and taking private lessons with Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s violinist, Ivan Stefanovic. It was the pure joy I got out of rehearsing with my peers and performing works of music that hold such soul-moving beauty that made me realize I could not live happily without playing the violin. Every summer, I am invited to perform for several churches in my hometown. There was one Sunday when I remember asking God for a sign if the violin was the right career path for me. After I finished performing, the pastor mentioned my performance in his sermon. He explained that music is a gift that can provide the mental rest we all need. This confirmed my choice. My life's mission is to use my love of music to provide people with joy and rest through music. Performing for me is less about the technical aspects of my performance than it is about providing music that will emotionally move the audience in an engaging or restful way. Although I love the thrill of performing on a stage in a large concert hall, my most fulfilling performances have been for small audiences in my local churches or in a nursing home. It is there that I get to truly make a difference and provide an experience that is many times out of reach. Classical music is a genre that has been increasingly restricted to only those who can afford to attend. Even more so in the educational field, where many are forced to choose a more affordable educational path over their passion for music. I am now studying at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee with violinist and professor Lynn Chang. I plan to finish my Bachelor of Music in Violin Performance, attend graduate school, and consider further postgraduate education. After my education, I intend to join an orchestra, form a chamber group, and join or create a program that will make classical music training accessible to young people. As the child of a single mother, I have faced struggles with affording such training: the cost of my instrument and its repairs, private lessons, summer programs, and now my college tuition. It is because I understand the extreme costs of classical training and my inspiration drawn from my hard-working and number-one fan, who is my mother, that I am driven to share classical music and its healing benefits. Especially for those who, like me, have struggled to access it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGgSaYPoF2k
    Ken Larson Memorial Scholarship
    I have loved music my entire life. Even at just eleven months old. Once, when my mom put on the classical music station in the car, she looked back to check on me, and to her surprise, I was dancing and banging my hands like I was playing an imaginary piano! I started playing my church piano when I was seven. Then my mother got me an electric keyboard, to which I promptly stuck numbered stickers and began to write short songs in numbered code. I only learned to read music when I turned 8 and had my first violin lesson. Apparently, a violin was cheaper than a grand piano. Regardless, I soon enjoyed playing violin even more than the piano. Within ten years, I went from studying the Suzuki method to performing Dvorak’s violin concerto. During those years, I was accepted by the Baltimore School for the Arts, an arts high school that included the study of music history, literature, and theory in its schedule. The curriculum also included publicly performing in the orchestra, chamber ensembles, solo recitals, and the chorus, and taking private lessons with Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s violinist, Ivan Stefanovic. It was the pure joy I got out of rehearsing with my peers and performing works of music that hold such soul-moving beauty that made me realize I could not live happily without playing the violin. Every summer, I am invited to perform for several churches in my hometown. There was one Sunday when I remember asking God for a sign if the violin was the right career path for me. After I finished performing, the pastor mentioned my performance in his sermon. He explained that music is a gift that can provide the mental rest we all need. This confirmed my choice. My life's mission is to use my love of music to provide people with joy and rest through music. Performing for me is less about the technical aspects of my performance than it is about providing music that will emotionally move the audience in an engaging or restful way. Although I love the thrill of performing on a stage in a large concert hall, my most fulfilling performances have been for small audiences in my local churches or in a nursing home. It is there that I get to truly make a difference and provide an experience that is many times out of reach. Classical music is a genre that has been increasingly restricted to only those who can afford to attend. Even more so in the educational field, where many are forced to choose a more affordable educational path over their passion for music. I am now studying at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee with violinist and professor Lynn Chang. I plan to finish my Bachelor of Music in Violin Performance, attend graduate school, and consider further postgraduate education. After my education, I intend to join an orchestra, form a chamber group, and join or create a program that will make classical music training accessible to young people. As the child of a single mother, I have faced struggles with affording such training: the cost of my instrument and its repairs, private lessons, summer programs, and now my college tuition. It is because I understand the extreme costs of classical training and my inspiration drawn from my hard-working and number-one fan, who is my mother, that I am driven to share classical music and its healing benefits. Especially for those who, like me, have struggled to access it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGgSaYPoF2k
    Diane Amendt Memorial Scholarship for the Arts
    I have loved music my entire life. Even at just eleven months old. Once, when my mom put on the classical music station in the car, she looked back to check on me, and to her surprise, I was dancing and banging my hands like I was playing an imaginary piano! I started playing my church piano when I was seven. Then my mother got me an electric keyboard, to which I promptly stuck numbered stickers and began to write short songs in numbered code. I only learned to read music when I turned 8 and had my first violin lesson. Apparently, a violin was cheaper than a grand piano. Regardless, I soon enjoyed playing violin even more than the piano. Within ten years, I went from studying the Suzuki method to performing Dvorak’s violin concerto. During those years, I was accepted by the Baltimore School for the Arts, an arts high school that included the study of music history, literature, and theory in its schedule. The curriculum also included publicly performing in the orchestra, chamber ensembles, solo recitals, and the chorus, and taking private lessons with Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s violinist, Ivan Stefanovic. It was the pure joy I got out of rehearsing with my peers and performing works of music that hold such soul-moving beauty that made me realize I could not live happily without playing the violin. Every summer, I am invited to perform for several churches in my hometown. There was one Sunday when I remember asking God for a sign if the violin was the right career path for me. After I finished performing, the pastor mentioned my performance in his sermon. He explained that music is a gift that can provide the mental rest we all need. This confirmed my choice. My life's mission is to use my love of music to provide people with joy and rest through music. Performing for me is less about the technical aspects of my performance than it is about providing music that will emotionally move the audience in an engaging or restful way. Although I love the thrill of performing on a stage in a large concert hall, my most fulfilling performances have been for small audiences in my local churches or in a nursing home. It is there that I get to truly make a difference and provide an experience that is many times out of reach. Classical music is a genre that has been increasingly restricted to only those who can afford to attend. Even more so in the educational field, where many are forced to choose a more affordable educational path over their passion for music. I am now studying at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee with violinist and professor Lynn Chang. I plan to finish my Bachelor of Music in Violin Performance, attend graduate school, and consider further postgraduate education. After my education, I intend to join an orchestra, form a chamber group, and join or create a program that will make classical music training accessible to young people. As the child of a single mother, I have faced struggles with affording such training: the cost of my instrument and its repairs, private lessons, summer programs, and now my college tuition. It is because I understand the extreme costs of classical training and my inspiration drawn from my hard-working and number-one fan, who is my mother, that I am driven to share classical music and its healing benefits. Especially for those who, like me, have struggled to access it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGgSaYPoF2k
    Froggycrossing's Creativity Scholarship
    Everett J. Collins, Jr. Music Scholarship
    I have loved music my entire life. Even at just eleven months old. Once, when my mom put on the classical music station in the car, she looked back to check on me, and to her surprise, I was dancing and banging my hands like I was playing an imaginary piano! I started playing my church piano when I was seven. Then my mother got me an electric keyboard, to which I promptly stuck numbered stickers and began to write short songs in numbered code. I only learned to read music when I turned 8 and had my first violin lesson. Apparently, a violin was cheaper than a grand piano. Regardless, I soon enjoyed playing violin even more than the piano. Within ten years, I went from studying the Suzuki method to performing Dvorak’s violin concerto. During those years, I was accepted by the Baltimore School for the Arts, an arts high school that included the study of music history, literature, and theory in its schedule. The curriculum also included publicly performing in the orchestra, chamber ensembles, solo recitals, and the chorus, and taking private lessons with Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s violinist, Ivan Stefanovic. It was the pure joy I got out of rehearsing with my peers and performing works of music that hold such soul-moving beauty that made me realize I could not live happily without playing the violin. Every summer, I am invited to perform for several churches in my hometown. There was one Sunday when I remember asking God for a sign if the violin was the right career path for me. After I finished performing, the pastor mentioned my performance in his sermon. He explained that music is a gift that can provide the mental rest we all need. This confirmed my choice. My life's mission is to use my love of music to provide people with joy and rest through music. Performing for me is less about the technical aspects of my performance than it is about providing music that will emotionally move the audience in an engaging or restful way. Although I love the thrill of performing on a stage in a large concert hall, my most fulfilling performances have been for small audiences in my local churches or in a nursing home. It is there that I get to truly make a difference and provide an experience that is many times out of reach. Classical music is a genre that has been increasingly restricted to only those who can afford to attend. Even more so in the educational field, where many are forced to choose a more affordable educational path over their passion for music. I am now studying at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee with violinist and professor Lynn Chang. I plan to finish my Bachelor of Music in Violin Performance, attend graduate school, and consider further postgraduate education. After my education, I intend to join an orchestra, form a chamber group, and join or create a program that will make classical music training accessible to young people. As the child of a single mother, I have faced struggles with affording such training: the cost of my instrument and its repairs, private lessons, summer programs, and now my college tuition. It is because I understand the extreme costs of classical training and my inspiration drawn from my hard-working and number-one fan, who is my mother, that I am driven to share classical music and its healing benefits. Especially for those who, like me, have struggled to access it.
    Marshall and Dorothy Smith Music Scholarship
    I have loved music my entire life. Even at just eleven months old. Once, when my mom put on the classical music station in the car, she looked back to check on me, and to her surprise, I was dancing and banging my hands like I was playing an imaginary piano! I started playing my church piano when I was seven. Then my mother got me an electric keyboard, to which I promptly stuck numbered stickers and began to write short songs in numbered code. I only learned to read music when I turned 8 and had my first violin lesson. Apparently, a violin was cheaper than a grand piano. Regardless, I soon enjoyed playing violin even more than the piano. Within ten years, I went from studying the Suzuki method to performing Dvorak’s violin concerto. During those years, I was accepted by the Baltimore School for the Arts, an arts high school that included the study of music history, literature, and theory in its schedule. The curriculum also included publicly performing in the orchestra, chamber ensembles, solo recitals, and the chorus, and taking private lessons with Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s violinist, Ivan Stefanovic. It was the pure joy I got out of rehearsing with my peers and performing works of music that hold such soul-moving beauty that made me realize I could not live happily without playing the violin. Every summer, I am invited to perform for several churches in my hometown. There was one Sunday when I remember asking God for a sign if the violin was the right career path for me. After I finished performing, the pastor mentioned my performance in his sermon. He explained that music is a gift that can provide the mental rest we all need. This confirmed my choice. My life's mission is to use my love of music to provide people with joy and rest through music. Performing for me is less about the technical aspects of my performance than it is about providing music that will emotionally move the audience in an engaging or restful way. Although I love the thrill of performing on a stage in a large concert hall, my most fulfilling performances have been for small audiences in my local churches or in a nursing home. It is there that I get to truly make a difference and provide an experience that is many times out of reach. Classical music is a genre that has been increasingly restricted to only those who can afford to attend. Even more so in the educational field, where many are forced to choose a more affordable educational path over their passion for music. I am now studying at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee with violinist and professor Lynn Chang. I plan to finish my Bachelor of Music in Violin Performance, attend graduate school, and consider further postgraduate education. After my education, I intend to join an orchestra, form a chamber group, and join or create a program that will make classical music training accessible to young people. As the child of a single mother, I have faced struggles with affording such training: the cost of my instrument and its repairs, private lessons, summer programs, and now my college tuition. It is because I understand the extreme costs of classical training and my inspiration drawn from my hard-working and number-one fan, who is my mother, that I am driven to share classical music and its healing benefits. Especially for those who, like me, have struggled to access it.
    Priscilla Shireen Luke Scholarship
    I have loved music my entire life. Even at just eleven months old. Once, when my mom put on the classical music station in the car, she looked back to check on me, and to her surprise, I was dancing and banging my hands like I was playing an imaginary piano! I started playing my church piano when I was seven. Then my mother got me an electric keyboard, to which I promptly stuck numbered stickers and began to write short songs in numbered code. I only learned to read music when I turned 8 and had my first violin lesson. Apparently, a violin was cheaper than a grand piano. Regardless, I soon enjoyed playing violin even more than the piano. Within ten years, I went from studying the Suzuki method to performing Dvorak’s violin concerto. During those years, I was accepted by the Baltimore School for the Arts, an arts high school that included the study of music history, literature, and theory in its schedule. The curriculum also included publicly performing in the orchestra, chamber ensembles, solo recitals, and the chorus, and taking private lessons with Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s violinist, Ivan Stefanovic. It was the pure joy I got out of rehearsing with my peers and performing works of music that hold such soul-moving beauty that made me realize I could not live happily without playing the violin. Every summer, I am invited to perform for several churches in my hometown. There was one Sunday when I remember asking God for a sign if the violin was the right career path for me. After I finished performing, the pastor mentioned my performance in his sermon. He explained that music is a gift that can provide the mental rest we all need. This confirmed my choice. My life's mission is to use my love of music to provide people with joy and rest through music. Performing for me is less about the technical aspects of my performance than it is about providing music that will emotionally move the audience in an engaging or restful way. Although I love the thrill of performing on a stage in a large concert hall, my most fulfilling performances have been for small audiences in my local churches or in a nursing home. It is there that I get to truly make a difference and provide an experience that is many times out of reach. Classical music is a genre that has been increasingly restricted to only those who can afford to attend. Even more so in the educational field, where many are forced to choose a more affordable educational path over their passion for music. I am now studying at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee with violinist and professor Lynn Chang. I plan to finish my Bachelor of Music in Violin Performance, attend graduate school, and consider further postgraduate education. After my education, I intend to join an orchestra, form a chamber group, and join or create a program that will make classical music training accessible to young people. As the child of a single mother, I have faced struggles with affording such training: the cost of my instrument and its repairs, private lessons, summer programs, and now my college tuition. It is because I understand the extreme costs of classical training and my inspiration drawn from my hard-working and number-one fan, who is my mother, that I am driven to share classical music and its healing benefits. Especially for those who, like me, have struggled to access it. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SZamYABq4Kg&feature=youtu.be https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JXcJ030N3uA&feature=youtu.be https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JXcJ030N3uA&feature=youtu.be
    Let Your Light Shine Scholarship
    I have loved music my entire life. Even at just eleven months old. Once, when my mom put on the classical music station in the car, she looked back to check on me, and to her surprise, I was dancing and banging my hands like I was playing an imaginary piano! I started playing my church piano when I was seven. Then my mother got me an electric keyboard, to which I promptly stuck numbered stickers and began to write short songs in numbered code. I only learned to read music when I turned 8 and had my first violin lesson. Apparently, a violin was cheaper than a grand piano. Regardless, I soon enjoyed playing violin even more than the piano. Within ten years, I went from studying the Suzuki method to performing Dvorak’s violin concerto. During those years, I was accepted by the Baltimore School for the Arts, an arts high school that included the study of music history, literature, and theory in its schedule. The curriculum also included publicly performing in the orchestra, chamber ensembles, solo recitals, and the chorus, and taking private lessons with Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s violinist, Ivan Stefanovic. It was the pure joy I got out of rehearsing with my peers and performing works of music that hold such soul-moving beauty that made me realize I could not live happily without playing the violin. Every summer, I am invited to perform for several churches in my hometown. There was one Sunday when I remember asking God for a sign if the violin was the right career path for me. After I finished performing, the pastor mentioned my performance in his sermon. He explained that music is a gift that can provide the mental rest we all need. This confirmed my choice. My life's mission is to use my love of music to provide people with joy and rest through music. Performing for me is less about the technical aspects of my performance than it is about providing music that will emotionally move the audience in an engaging or restful way. Although I love the thrill of performing on a stage in a large concert hall, my most fulfilling performances have been for small audiences in my local churches or in a nursing home. It is there that I get to truly make a difference and provide an experience that is many times out of reach. Classical music is a genre that has been increasingly restricted to only those who can afford to attend. Even more so in the educational field, where many are forced to choose a more affordable educational path over their passion for music. I am now studying at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee with violinist and professor Lynn Chang. I plan to finish my Bachelor of Music in Violin Performance, attend graduate school, and consider further postgraduate education. After my education, I intend to join an orchestra, form a chamber group, and join or create a program that will make classical music training accessible to young people. As the child of a single mother, I have faced struggles with affording such training: the cost of my instrument and its repairs, private lessons, summer programs, and now my college tuition. It is because I understand the extreme costs of classical training and my inspiration drawn from my hard-working and number-one fan, who is my mother, that I am driven to share classical music and its healing benefits. Especially for those who, like me, have struggled to access it. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SZamYABq4Kg&feature=youtu.be https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JXcJ030N3uA&feature=youtu.be https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JXcJ030N3uA&feature=youtu.be
    John Traxler Theatre Scholarship
    I have loved music my entire life. Even at just eleven months old. Once, when my mom put on the classical music station in the car, she looked back to check on me, and to her surprise, I was dancing and banging my hands like I was playing an imaginary piano! I started playing my church piano when I was seven. Then my mother got me an electric keyboard, to which I promptly stuck numbered stickers and began to write short songs in numbered code. I only learned to read music when I turned 8 and had my first violin lesson. Apparently, a violin was cheaper than a grand piano. Regardless, I soon enjoyed playing violin even more than the piano. Within ten years, I went from studying the Suzuki method to performing Dvorak’s violin concerto. During those years, I was accepted by the Baltimore School for the Arts, an arts high school that included the study of music history, literature, and theory in its schedule. The curriculum also included publicly performing in the orchestra, chamber ensembles, solo recitals, and the chorus, and taking private lessons with Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s violinist, Ivan Stefanovic. It was the pure joy I got out of rehearsing with my peers and performing works of music that hold such soul-moving beauty that made me realize I could not live happily without playing the violin. Every summer, I am invited to perform for several churches in my hometown. There was one Sunday when I remember asking God for a sign if the violin was the right career path for me. After I finished performing, the pastor mentioned my performance in his sermon. He explained that music is a gift that can provide the mental rest we all need. This confirmed my choice. My life's mission is to use my love of music to provide people with joy and rest through music. Performing for me is less about the technical aspects of my performance than it is about providing music that will emotionally move the audience in an engaging or restful way. Although I love the thrill of performing on a stage in a large concert hall, my most fulfilling performances have been for small audiences in my local churches or in a nursing home. It is there that I get to truly make a difference and provide an experience that is many times out of reach. Classical music is a genre that has been increasingly restricted to only those who can afford to attend. Even more so in the educational field, where many are forced to choose a more affordable educational path over their passion for music. I am now studying at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee with violinist and professor Lynn Chang. I plan to finish my Bachelor of Music in Violin Performance, attend graduate school, and consider further postgraduate education. After my education, I intend to join an orchestra, form a chamber group, and join or create a program that will make classical music training accessible to young people. As the child of a single mother, I have faced struggles with affording such training: the cost of my instrument and its repairs, private lessons, summer programs, and now my college tuition. It is because I understand the extreme costs of classical training and my inspiration drawn from my hard-working and number-one fan, who is my mother, that I am driven to share classical music and its healing benefits. Especially for those who, like me, have struggled to access it. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SZamYABq4Kg&feature=youtu.be https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JXcJ030N3uA&feature=youtu.be https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JXcJ030N3uA&feature=youtu.be
    Carolyn Talbert Performing Arts Scholarship
    I have loved music my entire life. Even at just eleven months old. Once, when my mom put on the classical music station in the car, she looked back to check on me, and to her surprise, I was dancing and banging my hands like I was playing an imaginary piano! I started playing my church piano when I was seven. Then my mother got me an electric keyboard, to which I promptly stuck numbered stickers and began to write short songs in numbered code. I only learned to read music when I turned 8 and had my first violin lesson. Apparently, a violin was cheaper than a grand piano. Regardless, I soon enjoyed playing violin even more than the piano. Within ten years, I went from studying the Suzuki method to performing Dvorak’s violin concerto. During those years, I was accepted by the Baltimore School for the Arts, an arts high school that included the study of music history, literature, and theory in its schedule. The curriculum also included publicly performing in the orchestra, chamber ensembles, solo recitals, and the chorus, and taking private lessons with Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s violinist, Ivan Stefanovic. It was the pure joy I got out of rehearsing with my peers and performing works of music that hold such soul-moving beauty that made me realize I could not live happily without playing the violin. Every summer, I am invited to perform for several churches in my hometown. There was one Sunday when I remember asking God for a sign if the violin was the right career path for me. After I finished performing, the pastor mentioned my performance in his sermon. He explained that music is a gift that can provide the mental rest we all need. This confirmed my choice. My life's mission is to use my love of music to provide people with joy and rest through music. Performing for me is less about the technical aspects of my performance than it is about providing music that will emotionally move the audience in an engaging or restful way. Although I love the thrill of performing on a stage in a large concert hall, my most fulfilling performances have been for small audiences in my local churches or in a nursing home. It is there that I get to truly make a difference and provide an experience that is many times out of reach. Classical music is a genre that has been increasingly restricted to only those who can afford to attend. Even more so in the educational field, where many are forced to choose a more affordable educational path over their passion for music. I am now studying at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee with violinist and professor Lynn Chang. I plan to finish my Bachelor of Music in Violin Performance, attend graduate school, and consider further postgraduate education. After my education, I intend to join an orchestra, form a chamber group, and join or create a program that will make classical music training accessible to young people. As the child of a single mother, I have faced struggles with affording such training: the cost of my instrument and its repairs, private lessons, summer programs, and now my college tuition. It is because I understand the extreme costs of classical training and my inspiration drawn from my hard-working and number-one fan, who is my mother, that I am driven to share classical music and its healing benefits. Especially for those who, like me, have struggled to access it. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SZamYABq4Kg&feature=youtu.be https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JXcJ030N3uA&feature=youtu.be https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JXcJ030N3uA&feature=youtu.be
    Elena Johnston Memorial Scholarship
    Attending the Baltimore School for the Arts has been the most inspiring journey of my life. I always knew I wanted to be a violinist, but it wasn't until I came to BSA that I truly fell in love with music. My teachers completely transformed my outlook and motivation towards the future. When my father left, my emotional health and motivation to practice my violin suffered. After just my first year of lessons with a BSA teacher and Baltimore Symphony violinist, I learned that in the real world, there are no excuses. If I want to succeed in the music industry, I must work hard and stay motivated. No matter what goes wrong in my life, I should never stop making music because it is a healing expression for both me and those around me. The peers I met in orchestra rehearsals, chamber ensembles, and inter-department performances, gave me amazing life-long friends and taught me some of the most important skills for real-world collaborations. Most importantly, my teachers instilled a forward-thinking direction in me. I didn't know how important college was until I came to BSA. I learned to invest in my education and chase opportunities to perform. I am currently going into my junior year at the Boston Conservatory. I have excelled, earning a 4.0 GPA and many performance opportunities. I have no doubt it is due to the amazing teachers and inspiring friends I met at BSA, who prepared me for both college and life as an artist.
    WCEJ Thornton Foundation Music & Art Scholarship
    I have loved music my entire life. Even at just eleven months old. Once, my mom put on the classical station in the car, she looked back to check on me, and to her surprise, I was dancing and banging my hands like I was playing an imaginary piano! I started playing my church piano when I was seven. Then my mother got me an electric keyboard, to which I promptly stuck numbered stickers and began to write songs in numbered code. I only learned to read music when I turned 8 and had my first violin lesson. I soon enjoyed playing violin even more than piano. Every summer, I am invited to perform for several churches in my hometown. There was one Sunday when I remember asking God for a sign if the violin was the right career path for me. After I finished performing, the pastor mentioned my performance in his sermon. He explained that music is a gift that can provide the mental rest we all need. This confirmed my choice. My life's mission is to use my love of music to provide people with joy and rest through music. Although I love the thrill of performing on a stage in a large concert hall, my most fulfilling performances have been for small audiences in my local churches or in a nursing home. It's there that I get to truly make a difference and provide an experience that is many times out of reach. Classical music is a genre that has been increasingly restricted to only those who can afford to attend. Even more so in the educational field, where many are forced to choose a more affordable educational path over their passion for music. I am now studying at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee with violinist and professor Lynn Chang. After my education, I intend to join or create a program that will make classical music training accessible to young people. As the child of a single mother, I have faced struggles with affording such training: the cost of my instrument, lessons, summer programs, and now my college tuition. It's because I understand the extreme costs of classical training and my inspiration drawn from my hard-working and number-one fan, who is my mother, that I am driven to share classical music and its healing benefits. Especially with those who, like me, have struggled to access it.
    Norton Scholarship
    There is only one truth – God’s truth. We will never fully understand our existence until we are with Jesus, that is why we must depend on and trust in Him and not in our own understanding. Proverbs 3:5-6: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to Him, and He will make your paths straight.” Before I knew Jesus, I had my own truth. I had my own perspective on right and wrong, success and failure, good and evil. I have always been very independent and strong-minded. When things go wrong, I can’t imagine asking for help; I want to fix it myself. Through trial-and-error, I have learned that it is quite foolish to think I know better than the God of the universe. God’s wisdom is all-knowing; He knows what is best for me in the long run. Even if it doesn’t bring me exactly where I wanted, for example, when I ask for something worldly and not in His will. When we think we know better, we place ourselves above almighty God. Proverbs 3:6 says to submit to Him in all your ways. This means I have to let go of all my truths – my fears, habits, selfish-desires – and allow Jesus alone to guide me. It is God’s will that we become Christ-like. John 2:6 says, “He who says he abides in Christ ought to walk in the same way as He walked.” This means that Christ’s truth should be our truth. In order to be used by Jesus, we have to be refined to represent Jesus’s truth. If we teach people our own truth, or worse, a mix, we risk misrepresenting God, leading ourselves and others astray. It is not to say that we don’t all have individual experiences and skills that can be used by God. In fact, God allows things in our lives to happen so that He can use us to help others going through similar challenges. However, when we think that our short-lived and limited perspective is more important than others or God’s, we dangerously make our decisions based on selfish and rebellious impulses. In today’s world, there is an enormous amount of pressure to conform to a worldly image of success. We are looked down upon if we don’t have a successful career, money, friends, etc. But His ways are not our ways, so I know I won’t always have an easy life or friends, but I will have everything I need. Jesus knows that it is not easy to follow Him and His truth. Luke 9:23 says, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow Me.” In Matthew 8:21, a disciple told Jesus that he needed to bury his father first before he could follow Jesus; Jesus did not accept this and told him to let the dead bury the dead. Although it is culturally expected that the disciple would wait until his father had died to leave, this story teaches us that we cannot be governed by cultural expectations or emotional attachments (that we might consider truths), we must abandon them and follow Jesus. The world’s pressure and my own limited perspective on truth makes it extremely difficult to give all of myself to Jesus. But Jesus wants all of me, not just on Sunday or when I need help, he wants me to love him enough to leave everything else behind. To take up His truth daily and abandon my own.
    Heather Rylie Memorial Scholarship
    I have loved music my entire life. Even at just eleven months old. Once, when my mom put on the classical music station in the car, she looked back to check on me, and to her surprise, I was dancing and banging my hands like I was playing an imaginary piano! I started playing my church piano when I was seven. Then my mother got me an electric keyboard, to which I promptly stuck numbered stickers and began to write short songs in numbered code. I only learned to read music when I turned 8 and had my first violin lesson. Apparently, a violin was cheaper than a grand piano. Regardless, I soon enjoyed playing violin even more than the piano. Within ten years, I went from studying the Suzuki method to performing Dvorak’s violin concerto. During those years, I was accepted by the Baltimore School for the Arts, an arts high school that included the study of music history, literature, and theory in its schedule. The curriculum also included publicly performing in the orchestra, chamber ensembles, solo recitals, and the chorus, and taking private lessons with Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s violinist, Ivan Stefanovic. It was the pure joy I got out of rehearsing with my peers and performing works of music that hold such soul-moving beauty that made me realize I could not live happily without playing the violin. Every summer, I am invited to perform for several churches in my hometown. There was one Sunday when I remember asking God for a sign if the violin was the right career path for me. After I finished performing, the pastor mentioned my performance in his sermon. He explained that music is a gift that can provide the mental rest we all need. This confirmed my choice. My life's mission is to use my love of music to provide people with joy and rest through music. Performing for me is less about the technical aspects of my performance than it is about providing music that will emotionally move the audience in an engaging or restful way. Although I love the thrill of performing on a stage in a large concert hall, my most fulfilling performances have been for small audiences in my local churches or in a nursing home. It is there that I get to truly make a difference and provide an experience that is many times out of reach. Classical music is a genre that has been increasingly restricted to only those who can afford to attend. Even more so in the educational field, where many are forced to choose a more affordable educational path over their passion for music. I am now studying at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee with violinist and professor Lynn Chang. I plan to finish my Bachelor of Music in Violin Performance, attend graduate school, and consider further postgraduate education. After my education, I intend to join an orchestra, form a chamber group, and join or create a program that will make classical music training accessible to young people. As the child of a single mother, I have faced struggles with affording such training: the cost of my instrument and its repairs, private lessons, summer programs, and now my college tuition. It is because I understand the extreme costs of classical training and my inspiration drawn from my hard-working and number-one fan, who is my mother, that I am driven to share classical music and its healing benefits. Especially for those who, like me, have struggled to access it.
    Girls Ready to Empower Girls
    I have loved music my entire life. Even at just eleven months old. Once, when my mom put on the classical music station in the car, she looked back to check on me, and to her surprise, I was dancing and banging my hands like I was playing an imaginary piano! I started playing my church piano when I was seven. Then my mother got me an electric keyboard, to which I promptly stuck numbered stickers and began to write short songs in numbered code. I only learned to read music when I turned 8 and had my first violin lesson. Apparently, a violin was cheaper than a grand piano. Regardless, I soon enjoyed playing violin even more than the piano. Within ten years, I went from studying the Suzuki method to performing Dvorak’s violin concerto. During those years, I was accepted by the Baltimore School for the Arts, an arts high school that included the study of music history, literature, and theory in its schedule. The curriculum also included publicly performing in the orchestra, chamber ensembles, solo recitals, and the chorus, and taking private lessons with Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s violinist, Ivan Stefanovic. It was the pure joy I got out of rehearsing with my peers and performing works of music that hold such soul-moving beauty that made me realize I could not live happily without playing the violin. Every summer, I am invited to perform for several churches in my hometown. There was one Sunday when I remember asking God for a sign if the violin was the right career path for me. After I finished performing, the pastor mentioned my performance in his sermon. He explained that music is a gift that can provide the mental rest we all need. This confirmed my choice. My life's mission is to use my love of music to provide people with joy and rest through music. Performing for me is less about the technical aspects of my performance than it is about providing music that will emotionally move the audience in an engaging or restful way. Although I love the thrill of performing on a stage in a large concert hall, my most fulfilling performances have been for small audiences in my local churches or in a nursing home. It is there that I get to truly make a difference and provide an experience that is many times out of reach. Classical music is a genre that has been increasingly restricted to only those who can afford to attend. Even more so in the educational field, where many are forced to choose a more affordable educational path over their passion for music. I am now studying at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee with violinist and professor Lynn Chang. I plan to finish my Bachelor of Music in Violin Performance, attend graduate school, and consider further postgraduate education. After my education, I intend to join an orchestra, form a chamber group, and join or create a program that will make classical music training accessible to young people. As the child of a single mother, I have faced struggles with affording such training: the cost of my instrument and its repairs, private lessons, summer programs, and now my college tuition. It is because I understand the extreme costs of classical training and my inspiration drawn from my hard-working and number-one fan, who is my mother, that I am driven to share classical music and its healing benefits. Especially for those who, like me, have struggled to access it.
    A Man Helping Women Helping Women Scholarship
    I have loved music my entire life. Even at just eleven months old. Once, when my mom put on the classical music station in the car, she looked back to check on me, and to her surprise, I was dancing and banging my hands like I was playing an imaginary piano! I started playing my church piano when I was seven. Then my mother got me an electric keyboard, to which I promptly stuck numbered stickers and began to write short songs in numbered code. I only learned to read music when I turned 8 and had my first violin lesson. Apparently, a violin was cheaper than a grand piano. Regardless, I soon enjoyed playing violin even more than the piano. Within ten years, I went from studying the Suzuki method to performing Dvorak’s violin concerto. During those years, I was accepted by the Baltimore School for the Arts, an arts high school that included the study of music history, literature, and theory in its schedule. The curriculum also included publicly performing in the orchestra, chamber ensembles, solo recitals, and the chorus, and taking private lessons with Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s violinist, Ivan Stefanovic. It was the pure joy I got out of rehearsing with my peers and performing works of music that hold such soul-moving beauty that made me realize I could not live happily without playing the violin. Every summer, I am invited to perform for several churches in my hometown. There was one Sunday when I remember asking God for a sign if the violin was the right career path for me. After I finished performing, the pastor mentioned my performance in his sermon. He explained that music is a gift that can provide the mental rest we all need. This confirmed my choice. My life's mission is to use my love of music to provide people with joy and rest through music. Performing for me is less about the technical aspects of my performance than it is about providing music that will emotionally move the audience in an engaging or restful way. Although I love the thrill of performing on a stage in a large concert hall, my most fulfilling performances have been for small audiences in my local churches or in a nursing home. It is there that I get to truly make a difference and provide an experience that is many times out of reach. Classical music is a genre that has been increasingly restricted to only those who can afford to attend. Even more so in the educational field, where many are forced to choose a more affordable educational path over their passion for music. I am now studying at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee with violinist and professor Lynn Chang. I plan to finish my Bachelor of Music in Violin Performance, attend graduate school, and consider further postgraduate education. After my education, I intend to join an orchestra, form a chamber group, and join or create a program that will make classical music training accessible to young people. As the child of a single mother, I have faced struggles with affording such training: the cost of my instrument and its repairs, private lessons, summer programs, and now my college tuition. It is because I understand the extreme costs of classical training and my inspiration drawn from my hard-working and number-one fan, who is my mother, that I am driven to share classical music and its healing benefits. Especially for those who, like me, have struggled to access it.
    Walking In Authority International Ministry Scholarship
    I have loved music my entire life. Even at just eleven months old. Once, when my mom put on the classical music station in the car, she looked back to check on me, and to her surprise, I was dancing and banging my hands like I was playing an imaginary piano! I started playing my church piano when I was seven. Then my mother got me an electric keyboard, to which I promptly stuck numbered stickers and began to write short songs in numbered code. I only learned to read music when I turned 8 and had my first violin lesson. Apparently, a violin was cheaper than a grand piano. Regardless, I soon enjoyed playing violin even more than the piano. Within ten years, I went from studying the Suzuki method to performing Dvorak’s violin concerto. During those years, I was accepted by the Baltimore School for the Arts, an arts high school that included the study of music history, literature, and theory in its schedule. The curriculum also included publicly performing in the orchestra, chamber ensembles, solo recitals, and the chorus, and taking private lessons with Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s violinist, Ivan Stefanovic. It was the pure joy I got out of rehearsing with my peers and performing works of music that hold such soul-moving beauty that made me realize I could not live happily without playing the violin. Every summer, I am invited to perform for several churches in my hometown. There was one Sunday when I remember asking God for a sign if the violin was the right career path for me. After I finished performing, the pastor mentioned my performance in his sermon. He explained that music is a gift that can provide the mental rest we all need. This confirmed my choice. My life's mission is to use my love of music to provide people with joy and rest through music. Performing for me is less about the technical aspects of my performance than it is about providing music that will emotionally move the audience in an engaging or restful way. Although I love the thrill of performing on a stage in a large concert hall, my most fulfilling performances have been for small audiences in my local churches or in a nursing home. It is there that I get to truly make a difference and provide an experience that is many times out of reach. Classical music is a genre that has been increasingly restricted to only those who can afford to attend. Even more so in the educational field, where many are forced to choose a more affordable educational path over their passion for music. I am now studying at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee with violinist and professor Lynn Chang. I plan to finish my Bachelor of Music in Violin Performance, attend graduate school, and consider further postgraduate education. After my education, I intend to join an orchestra, form a chamber group, and join or create a program that will make classical music training accessible to young people. As the child of a single mother, I have faced struggles with affording such training: the cost of my instrument and its repairs, private lessons, summer programs, and now my college tuition. It is because I understand the extreme costs of classical training and my inspiration drawn from my hard-working and number-one fan, who is my mother, that I am driven to share classical music and its healing benefits. Especially for those who, like me, have struggled to access it.
    Bright Lights Scholarship
    I have loved music my entire life. Even at just eleven months old. Once, when my mom put on the classical music station in the car, she looked back to check on me, and to her surprise, I was dancing and banging my hands like I was playing an imaginary piano! I started playing my church piano when I was seven. Then my mother got me an electric keyboard, to which I promptly stuck numbered stickers and began to write short songs in numbered code. I only learned to read music when I turned 8 and had my first violin lesson. Apparently, a violin was cheaper than a grand piano. Regardless, I soon enjoyed playing violin even more than the piano. Within ten years, I went from studying the Suzuki method to performing Dvorak’s violin concerto. During those years, I was accepted by the Baltimore School for the Arts, an arts high school that included the study of music history, literature, and theory in its schedule. The curriculum also included publicly performing in the orchestra, chamber ensembles, solo recitals, and the chorus, and taking private lessons with Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s violinist, Ivan Stefanovic. It was the pure joy I got out of rehearsing with my peers and performing works of music that hold such soul-moving beauty that made me realize I could not live happily without playing the violin. Every summer, I am invited to perform for several churches in my hometown. There was one Sunday when I remember asking God for a sign if the violin was the right career path for me. After I finished performing, the pastor mentioned my performance in his sermon. He explained that music is a gift that can provide the mental rest we all need. This confirmed my choice. My life's mission is to use my love of music to provide people with joy and rest through music. Performing for me is less about the technical aspects of my performance than it is about providing music that will emotionally move the audience in an engaging or restful way. Although I love the thrill of performing on a stage in a large concert hall, my most fulfilling performances have been for small audiences in my local churches or in a nursing home. It is there that I get to truly make a difference and provide an experience that is many times out of reach. Classical music is a genre that has been increasingly restricted to only those who can afford to attend. Even more so in the educational field, where many are forced to choose a more affordable educational path over their passion for music. I am now studying at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee with violinist and professor Lynn Chang. I plan to finish my Bachelor of Music in Violin Performance, attend graduate school, and consider further postgraduate education. After my education, I intend to join an orchestra, form a chamber group, and join or create a program that will make classical music training accessible to young people. As the child of a single mother, I have faced struggles with affording such training: the cost of my instrument and its repairs, private lessons, summer programs, and now my college tuition. It is because I understand the extreme costs of classical training and my inspiration drawn from my hard-working and number-one fan, who is my mother, that I am driven to share classical music and its healing benefits. Especially for those who, like me, have struggled to access it.
    Servant Ships Scholarship
    I have loved music my entire life. Even at just eleven months old. Once, when my mom put on the classical music station in the car, she looked back to check on me, and to her surprise, I was dancing and banging my hands like I was playing an imaginary piano! I started playing my church piano when I was seven. Then my mother got me an electric keyboard, to which I promptly stuck numbered stickers and began to write short songs in numbered code. I only learned to read music when I turned 8 and had my first violin lesson. Apparently, a violin was cheaper than a grand piano. Regardless, I soon enjoyed playing violin even more than the piano. Within ten years, I went from studying the Suzuki method to performing Dvorak’s violin concerto. During those years, I was accepted by the Baltimore School for the Arts, an arts high school that included the study of music history, literature, and theory in its schedule. The curriculum also included publicly performing in the orchestra, chamber ensembles, solo recitals, and the chorus, and taking private lessons with Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s violinist, Ivan Stefanovic. It was the pure joy I got out of rehearsing with my peers and performing works of music that hold such soul-moving beauty that made me realize I could not live happily without playing the violin. Every summer, I am invited to perform for several churches in my hometown. There was one Sunday when I remember asking God for a sign if the violin was the right career path for me. After I finished performing, the pastor mentioned my performance in his sermon. He explained that music is a gift that can provide the mental rest we all need. This confirmed my choice. My life's mission is to use my love of music to provide people with joy and rest through music. Performing for me is less about the technical aspects of my performance than it is about providing music that will emotionally move the audience in an engaging or restful way. Although I love the thrill of performing on a stage in a large concert hall, my most fulfilling performances have been for small audiences in my local churches or in a nursing home. It is there that I get to truly make a difference and provide an experience that is many times out of reach. Classical music is a genre that has been increasingly restricted to only those who can afford to attend. Even more so in the educational field, where many are forced to choose a more affordable educational path over their passion for music. I am now studying at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee with violinist and professor Lynn Chang. I plan to finish my Bachelor of Music in Violin Performance, attend graduate school, and consider further postgraduate education. After my education, I intend to join an orchestra, form a chamber group, and join or create a program that will make classical music training accessible to young people. As the child of a single mother, I have faced struggles with affording such training: the cost of my instrument and its repairs, private lessons, summer programs, and now my college tuition. It is because I understand the extreme costs of classical training and my inspiration drawn from my hard-working and number-one fan, who is my mother, that I am driven to share classical music and its healing benefits. Especially for those who, like me, have struggled to access it.
    Holli Safley Memorial Music Scholarship
    I have loved music my entire life. Even at just eleven months old. Once, when my mom put on the classical music station in the car, she looked back to check on me, and to her surprise, I was dancing and banging my hands like I was playing an imaginary piano! I started playing my church piano when I was seven. Then my mother got me an electric keyboard, to which I promptly stuck numbered stickers and began to write short songs in numbered code. I only learned to read music when I turned 8 and had my first violin lesson. Apparently, a violin was cheaper than a grand piano. Regardless, I soon enjoyed playing violin even more than the piano. Within ten years, I went from studying the Suzuki method to performing Dvorak’s violin concerto. During those years, I was accepted by the Baltimore School for the Arts, an arts high school that included the study of music history, literature, and theory in its schedule. The curriculum also included publicly performing in the orchestra, chamber ensembles, solo recitals, and the chorus, and taking private lessons with Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s violinist, Ivan Stefanovic. It was the pure joy I got out of rehearsing with my peers and performing works of music that hold such soul-moving beauty that made me realize I could not live happily without playing the violin. Every summer, I am invited to perform for several churches in my hometown. There was one Sunday when I remember asking God for a sign if the violin was the right career path for me. After I finished performing, the pastor mentioned my performance in his sermon. He explained that music is a gift that can provide the mental rest we all need. This confirmed my choice. My life's mission is to use my love of music to provide people with joy and rest through music. Performing for me is less about the technical aspects of my performance than it is about providing music that will emotionally move the audience in an engaging or restful way. Although I love the thrill of performing on a stage in a large concert hall, my most fulfilling performances have been for small audiences in my local churches or in a nursing home. It is there that I get to truly make a difference and provide an experience that is many times out of reach. Classical music is a genre that has been increasingly restricted to only those who can afford to attend. Even more so in the educational field, where many are forced to choose a more affordable educational path over their passion for music. I am now studying at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee with violinist and professor Lynn Chang. I plan to finish my Bachelor of Music in Violin Performance, attend graduate school, and consider further postgraduate education. After my education, I intend to join an orchestra, form a chamber group, and join or create a program that will make classical music training accessible to young people. As the child of a single mother, I have faced struggles with affording such training: the cost of my instrument and its repairs, private lessons, summer programs, and now my college tuition. It is because I understand the extreme costs of classical training and my inspiration drawn from my hard-working and number-one fan, who is my mother, that I am driven to share classical music and its healing benefits. Especially for those who, like me, have struggled to access it.
    John J Costonis Scholarship
    Winner
    I have loved music my entire life. Even at just eleven months old. Once, when my mom put on the classical music station in the car, she looked back to check on me, and to her surprise, I was dancing and banging my hands like I was playing an imaginary piano! I started playing my church piano when I was seven. Then my mother got me an electric keyboard, to which I promptly stuck numbered stickers and began to write short songs in numbered code. I only learned to read music when I turned 8 and had my first violin lesson. Apparently, a violin was cheaper than a grand piano. Regardless, I soon enjoyed playing violin even more than the piano. Within ten years, I went from studying the Suzuki method to performing Dvorak’s violin concerto. During those years, I was accepted by the Baltimore School for the Arts, an arts high school that included the study of music history, literature, and theory in its schedule. The curriculum also included publicly performing in the orchestra, chamber ensembles, solo recitals, and the chorus, and taking private lessons with Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s violinist, Ivan Stefanovic. It was the pure joy I got out of rehearsing with my peers and performing works of music that hold such soul-moving beauty that made me realize I could not live happily without playing the violin. Every summer, I am invited to perform for several churches in my hometown. There was one Sunday when I remember asking God for a sign if the violin was the right career path for me. After I finished performing, the pastor mentioned my performance in his sermon. He explained that music is a gift that can provide the mental rest we all need. This confirmed my choice. My life's mission is to use my love of music to provide people with joy and rest through music. Performing for me is less about the technical aspects of my performance than it is about providing music that will emotionally move the audience in an engaging or restful way. Although I love the thrill of performing on a stage in a large concert hall, my most fulfilling performances have been for small audiences in my local churches or in a nursing home. It is there that I get to truly make a difference and provide an experience that is many times out of reach. Classical music is a genre that has been increasingly restricted to only those who can afford to attend. Even more so in the educational field, where many are forced to choose a more affordable educational path over their passion for music. I am now studying at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee with violinist and professor Lynn Chang. I plan to finish my Bachelor of Music in Violin Performance, attend graduate school, and consider further postgraduate education. After my education, I intend to join an orchestra, form a chamber group, and join or create a program that will make classical music training accessible to young people. As the child of a single mother, I have faced struggles with affording such training: the cost of my instrument and its repairs, private lessons, summer programs, and now my college tuition. It is because I understand the extreme costs of classical training and my inspiration drawn from my hard-working and number-one fan, who is my mother, that I am driven to share classical music and its healing benefits. Especially for those who, like me, have struggled to access it.
    Kalia D. Davis Memorial Scholarship
    I have loved music my entire life. Even at just eleven months old. Once, when my mom put on the classical music station in the car, she looked back to check on me, and to her surprise, I was dancing and banging my hands like I was playing an imaginary piano! I started playing my church piano when I was seven. Then my mother got me an electric keyboard, to which I promptly stuck numbered stickers and began to write short songs in numbered code. I only learned to read music when I turned 8 and had my first violin lesson. Apparently, a violin was cheaper than a grand piano. Regardless, I soon enjoyed playing violin even more than the piano. Within ten years, I went from studying the Suzuki method to performing Dvorak’s violin concerto. During those years, I was accepted by the Baltimore School for the Arts, an arts high school that included the study of music history, literature, and theory in its schedule. The curriculum also included publicly performing in the orchestra, chamber ensembles, solo recitals, and the chorus, and taking private lessons with Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s violinist, Ivan Stefanovic. It was the pure joy I got out of rehearsing with my peers and performing works of music that hold such soul-moving beauty that made me realize I could not live happily without playing the violin. Every summer, I am invited to perform for several churches in my hometown. There was one Sunday when I remember asking God for a sign if the violin was the right career path for me. After I finished performing, the pastor mentioned my performance in his sermon. He explained that music is a gift that can provide the mental rest we all need. This confirmed my choice. My life's mission is to use my love of music to provide people with joy and rest through music. Performing for me is less about the technical aspects of my performance than it is about providing music that will emotionally move the audience in an engaging or restful way. Although I love the thrill of performing on a stage in a large concert hall, my most fulfilling performances have been for small audiences in my local churches or in a nursing home. It is there that I get to truly make a difference and provide an experience that is many times out of reach. Classical music is a genre that has been increasingly restricted to only those who can afford to attend. Even more so in the educational field, where many are forced to choose a more affordable educational path over their passion for music. I am now studying at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee with violinist and professor Lynn Chang. I plan to finish my Bachelor of Music in Violin Performance, attend graduate school, and consider further postgraduate education. After my education, I intend to join an orchestra, form a chamber group, and join or create a program that will make classical music training accessible to young people. As the child of a single mother, I have faced struggles with affording such training: the cost of my instrument and its repairs, private lessons, summer programs, and now my college tuition. It is because I understand the extreme costs of classical training and my inspiration drawn from my hard-working and number-one fan, who is my mother, that I am driven to share classical music and its healing benefits. Especially for those who, like me, have struggled to access it.
    TEAM ROX Scholarship
    I have loved music my entire life. Even at just eleven months old. Once, when my mom put on the classical music station in the car, she looked back to check on me, and to her surprise, I was dancing and banging my hands like I was playing an imaginary piano! I started playing my church piano when I was seven. Then my mother got me an electric keyboard, to which I promptly stuck numbered stickers and began to write short songs in numbered code. I only learned to read music when I turned 8 and had my first violin lesson. Apparently, a violin was cheaper than a grand piano. Regardless, I soon enjoyed playing violin even more than the piano. Within ten years, I went from studying the Suzuki method to performing Dvorak’s violin concerto. During those years, I was accepted by the Baltimore School for the Arts, an arts high school that included the study of music history, literature, and theory in its schedule. The curriculum also included publicly performing in the orchestra, chamber ensembles, solo recitals, and the chorus, and taking private lessons with Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s violinist, Ivan Stefanovic. It was the pure joy I got out of rehearsing with my peers and performing works of music that hold such soul-moving beauty that made me realize I could not live happily without playing the violin. Every summer, I am invited to perform for several churches in my hometown. There was one Sunday when I remember asking God for a sign if the violin was the right career path for me. After I finished performing, the pastor mentioned my performance in his sermon. He explained that music is a gift that can provide the mental rest we all need. This confirmed my choice. My life's mission is to use my love of music to provide people with joy and rest through music. Performing for me is less about the technical aspects of my performance than it is about providing music that will emotionally move the audience in an engaging or restful way. Although I love the thrill of performing on a stage in a large concert hall, my most fulfilling performances have been for small audiences in my local churches or in a nursing home. It is there that I get to truly make a difference and provide an experience that is many times out of reach. Classical music is a genre that has been increasingly restricted to only those who can afford to attend. Even more so in the educational field, where many are forced to choose a more affordable educational path over their passion for music. I am now studying at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee with violinist and professor Lynn Chang. I plan to finish my Bachelor of Music in Violin Performance, attend graduate school, and consider further postgraduate education. After my education, I intend to join an orchestra, form a chamber group, and join or create a program that will make classical music training accessible to young people. As the child of a single mother, I have faced struggles with affording such training: the cost of my instrument and its repairs, private lessons, summer programs, and now my college tuition. It is because I understand the extreme costs of classical training and my inspiration drawn from my hard-working and number-one fan, who is my mother, that I am driven to share classical music and its healing benefits. Especially for those who, like me, have struggled to access it.
    Fans of 70's Popstars Scholarship
    I have loved music my entire life. Even at just eleven months old. Once, when my mom put on the classical music station in the car, she looked back to check on me, and to her surprise, I was dancing and banging my hands like I was playing an imaginary piano! I started playing my church piano when I was seven. Then my mother got me an electric keyboard, to which I promptly stuck numbered stickers and began to write short songs in numbered code. I only learned to read music when I turned 8 and had my first violin lesson. Apparently, a violin was cheaper than a grand piano. Regardless, I soon enjoyed playing violin even more than the piano. Within ten years, I went from studying the Suzuki method to performing Dvorak’s violin concerto. During those years, I was accepted by the Baltimore School for the Arts, an arts high school that included the study of music history, literature, and theory in its schedule. The curriculum also included publicly performing in the orchestra, chamber ensembles, solo recitals, and the chorus, and taking private lessons with Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s violinist, Ivan Stefanovic. It was the pure joy I got out of rehearsing with my peers and performing works of music that hold such soul-moving beauty that made me realize I could not live happily without playing the violin. Every summer, I am invited to perform for several churches in my hometown. There was one Sunday when I remember asking God for a sign if the violin was the right career path for me. After I finished performing, the pastor mentioned my performance in his sermon. He explained that music is a gift that can provide the mental rest we all need. This confirmed my choice. My life's mission is to use my love of music to provide people with joy and rest through music. Performing for me is less about the technical aspects of my performance than it is about providing music that will emotionally move the audience in an engaging or restful way. Although I love the thrill of performing on a stage in a large concert hall, my most fulfilling performances have been for small audiences in my local churches or in a nursing home. It is there that I get to truly make a difference and provide an experience that is many times out of reach. Classical music is a genre that has been increasingly restricted to only those who can afford to attend. Even more so in the educational field, where many are forced to choose a more affordable educational path over their passion for music. I am now studying at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee with violinist and professor Lynn Chang. I plan to finish my Bachelor of Music in Violin Performance, attend graduate school, and consider further postgraduate education. After my education, I intend to join an orchestra, form a chamber group, and join or create a program that will make classical music training accessible to young people. As the child of a single mother, I have faced struggles with affording such training: the cost of my instrument and its repairs, private lessons, summer programs, and now my college tuition. It is because I understand the extreme costs of classical training and my inspiration drawn from my hard-working and number-one fan, who is my mother, that I am driven to share classical music and its healing benefits. Especially for those who, like me, have struggled to access it.
    WCEJ Thornton Foundation Music & Art Scholarship
    I have loved music my entire life. I started playing my church piano when I was seven. Then my mother got me an electric keyboard, to which I promptly stuck numbered stickers and began to write short songs in numbered code. I only learned to read music when I turned 8 and had my first violin lesson. I soon enjoyed playing violin even more than the piano. Within ten years, I went from studying the Suzuki method to performing Dvorak’s violin concerto. Every summer, I am invited to perform for several churches in my hometown. There was one Sunday when I remember asking God for a sign if the violin was the right career path for me. After I finished performing, the pastor mentioned my performance in his sermon. He explained that music is a gift that can provide the mental rest we all need. This confirmed my choice. My life's mission is to use my love of music to provide people with joy and rest through music. Although I love the thrill of performing on a stage in a large concert hall, my most fulfilling performances have been for small audiences in my local churches or in a nursing home. It is there that I get to truly make a difference and provide an experience that is many times out of reach. Classical music is a genre that has been increasingly restricted to only those who can afford to attend. Even more so in the educational field, where many are forced to choose a more affordable educational path over their passion for music. I am now studying at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee with violinist and professor Lynn Chang. After I complete my education, I intend to create a program that will make classical music training accessible to young people. As the child of a single mother, I have faced struggles with affording such training: the cost of my instrument and its repairs, private lessons, summer programs, and now my college tuition. It is because I understand the extreme costs of classical training and my inspiration drawn from my hard-working and number-one fan, who is my mother, that I am driven to share classical music and its healing benefits. Especially for those who, like me, have struggled to access it.
    Valiyah Young Scholarship
    I have loved music my entire life. Even at just eleven months old. Once, when my mom put on the classical music station in the car, she looked back to check on me, and to her surprise, I was dancing and banging my hands like I was playing an imaginary piano! I started playing my church piano when I was seven. Then my mother got me an electric keyboard, to which I promptly stuck numbered stickers and began to write short songs in numbered code. I only learned to read music when I turned 8 and had my first violin lesson. Apparently, a violin was cheaper than a grand piano. Regardless, I soon enjoyed playing violin even more than the piano. Within ten years, I went from studying the Suzuki method to performing Dvorak’s violin concerto. During those years, I was accepted by the Baltimore School for the Arts, an arts high school that included the study of music history, literature, and theory in its schedule. The curriculum also included publicly performing in the orchestra, chamber ensembles, solo recitals, and the chorus, and taking private lessons with Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s violinist, Ivan Stefanovic. It was the pure joy I got out of rehearsing with my peers and performing works of music that hold such soul-moving beauty that made me realize I could not live happily without playing the violin. Every summer, I am invited to perform for several churches in my hometown. There was one Sunday when I remember asking God for a sign if the violin was the right career path for me. After I finished performing, the pastor mentioned my performance in his sermon. He explained that music is a gift that can provide the mental rest we all need. This confirmed my choice. My life's mission is to use my love of music to provide people with joy and rest through music. Performing for me is less about the technical aspects of my performance than it is about providing music that will emotionally move the audience in an engaging or restful way. Although I love the thrill of performing on a stage in a large concert hall, my most fulfilling performances have been for small audiences in my local churches or in a nursing home. It is there that I get to truly make a difference and provide an experience that is many times out of reach. Classical music is a genre that has been increasingly restricted to only those who can afford to attend. Even more so in the educational field, where many are forced to choose a more affordable educational path over their passion for music. I am now studying at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee with violinist and professor Lynn Chang. I plan to finish my Bachelor of Music in Violin Performance, attend graduate school, and consider further postgraduate education. After my education, I intend to join an orchestra, form a chamber group, and join or create a program that will make classical music training accessible to young people. As the child of a single mother, I have faced struggles with affording such training: the cost of my instrument and its repairs, private lessons, summer programs, and now my college tuition. It is because I understand the extreme costs of classical training and my inspiration drawn from my hard-working and number-one fan, who is my mother, that I am driven to share classical music and its healing benefits. Especially for those who, like me, have struggled to access it.
    Julie Madison Memorial Art Scholarship
    I have loved music my entire life. Even at just eleven months old. Once, when my mom put on the classical music station in the car, she looked back to check on me, and to her surprise, I was dancing and banging my hands like I was playing an imaginary piano! I started playing my church piano when I was seven. Then my mother got me an electric keyboard, to which I promptly stuck numbered stickers and began to write short songs in numbered code. I only learned to read music when I turned 8 and had my first violin lesson. Apparently, a violin was cheaper than a grand piano. Regardless, I soon enjoyed playing violin even more than the piano. Within ten years, I went from studying the Suzuki method to performing Dvorak’s violin concerto. During those years, I was accepted by the Baltimore School for the Arts, an arts high school that included the study of music history, literature, and theory in its schedule. The curriculum also included publicly performing in the orchestra, chamber ensembles, solo recitals, the chorus, and taking private lessons with Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s violinist, Ivan Stefanovic. It was the pure joy I got out of rehearsing with my peers and performing works of music that hold such soul-moving beauty that made me realize I could not live happily without playing the violin. Every summer, I am invited to perform for several churches in my hometown. There was one Sunday when I remember asking God for a sign if the violin was the right career path for me. After I finished performing, the pastor mentioned my performance in his sermon. He explained that music is a gift that can provide the mental rest we all need. This confirmed my choice. My life's mission is to use my love of music to provide people with joy and rest through music. Performing for me is less about the technical aspects of my performance than it is about providing music that will emotionally move the audience in an engaging or restful way. Although I love the thrill of performing on a stage in a large concert hall, my most fulfilling performances have been for small audiences like in local churches. It is there that I get to truly make a difference and provide an experience that is many times out of reach for many. Classical music is a genre that has been increasingly restricted to only those who can afford to attend. Even more so in the educational field, where many are forced to choose a more affordable educational path over their passion for music. I am now studying at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee with violinist and professor Lynn Chang. I plan to finish my Bachelor of Music in Violin Performance, attend graduate school, and consider further postgraduate education. After my education, I intend to join an orchestra, form a chamber group, and join or create a program that will make classical music training accessible to young people. As the child of a single mother, I have faced struggles with affording such training: the cost of my instrument and its repairs, private lessons, summer programs, and now my college tuition. It is because I understand the extreme costs of classical training and my inspiration drawn from my hard-working and number-one fan, who is my mother, that I am driven to share classical music and its healing benefits. Especially for those who, like me, have struggled to access it.
    Diane Amendt Memorial Scholarship for the Arts
    I have loved music my entire life. Even at just eleven months old. Once, when my mom put on the classical music station in the car, she looked back to check on me, and to her surprise, I was dancing and banging my hands like I was playing an imaginary piano! I started playing my church piano when I was seven. Then my mother got me an electric keyboard, to which I promptly stuck numbered stickers and began to write short songs in numbered code. I only learned to read music when I turned 8 and had my first violin lesson. Apparently, a violin was cheaper than a grand piano. Regardless, I soon enjoyed playing violin even more than the piano. Within ten years, I went from studying the Suzuki method to performing Dvorak’s violin concerto. During those years, I was accepted by the Baltimore School for the Arts, an arts high school that included the study of music history, literature, and theory in its schedule. The curriculum also included publicly performing in the orchestra, chamber ensembles, solo recitals, the chorus, and taking private lessons with Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s violinist, Ivan Stefanovic. It was the pure joy I got out of rehearsing with my peers and performing works of music that hold such soul-moving beauty that made me realize I could not live happily without playing the violin. Every summer, I am invited to perform for several churches in my hometown. There was one Sunday when I remember asking God for a sign if the violin was the right career path for me. After I finished performing, the pastor mentioned my performance in his sermon. He explained that music is a gift that can provide the mental rest we all need. This confirmed my choice. My life's mission is to use my love of music to provide people with joy and rest through music. Performing for me is less about the technical aspects of my performance than it is about providing music that will emotionally move the audience in an engaging or restful way. Although I love the thrill of performing on a stage in a large concert hall, my most fulfilling performances have been for small audiences in my local churches or in a nursing home. It is there that I get to truly make a difference and provide an experience that is many times out of reach. Classical music is a genre that has been increasingly restricted to only those who can afford to attend. Even more so in the educational field, where many are forced to choose a more affordable educational path over their passion for music. I am now studying at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee with violinist and professor Lynn Chang. I plan to finish my Bachelor of Music in Violin Performance, attend graduate school, and consider further postgraduate education. After my education, I intend to join an orchestra, form a chamber group, and join or create a program that will make classical music training accessible to young people. As the child of a single mother, I have faced struggles with affording such training: the cost of my instrument and its repairs, private lessons, summer programs, and now my college tuition. It is because I understand the extreme costs of classical training and my inspiration drawn from my hard-working and number-one fan, who is my mother, that I am driven to share classical music and its healing benefits. Especially for those who, like me, have struggled to access it.
    Godi Arts Scholarship
    I have loved music my entire life. Even at just eleven months old. Once, when my mom put on the classical music station in the car, she looked back to check on me, and to her surprise, I was dancing and banging my hands like I was playing an imaginary piano! I started playing my church piano when I was seven. Then my mother got me an electric keyboard, to which I promptly stuck numbered stickers and began to write short songs in numbered code. I only learned to read music when I turned 8 and had my first violin lesson. Apparently, a violin was cheaper than a grand piano. Regardless, I soon enjoyed playing violin even more than the piano. Within ten years, I went from studying the Suzuki method to performing Dvorak’s violin concerto. During those years, I was accepted by the Baltimore School for the Arts, an arts high school that included the study of music history, literature, and theory in its schedule. The curriculum also included publicly performing in the orchestra, chamber ensembles, solo recitals, the chorus, and taking private lessons with Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s violinist, Ivan Stefanovic. It was the pure joy I got out of rehearsing with my peers and performing works of music that hold such soul-moving beauty that made me realize I could not live happily without playing the violin. Every summer, I am invited to perform for several churches in my hometown. There was one Sunday when I remember asking God for a sign if the violin was the right career path for me. After I finished performing, the pastor mentioned my performance in his sermon. He explained that music is a gift that can provide the mental rest we all need. This confirmed my choice. My life's mission is to use my love of music to provide people with joy and rest through music. Performing for me is less about the technical aspects of my performance than it is about providing music that will emotionally move the audience in an engaging or restful way. Although I love the thrill of performing on a stage in a large concert hall, my most fulfilling performances have been for small audiences in my local churches or in a nursing home. It is there that I get to truly make a difference and provide an experience that is many times out of reach. Classical music is a genre that has been increasingly restricted to only those who can afford to attend. Even more so in the educational field, where many are forced to choose a more affordable educational path over their passion for music. I am now studying at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee with violinist and professor Lynn Chang. I plan to finish my Bachelor of Music in Violin Performance, attend graduate school, and consider further postgraduate education. After my education, I intend to join an orchestra, form a chamber group, and join or create a program that will make classical music training accessible to young people. As the child of a single mother, I have faced struggles with affording such training: the cost of my instrument and its repairs, private lessons, summer programs, and now my college tuition. It is because I understand the extreme costs of classical training and my inspiration drawn from my hard-working and number-one fan, who is my mother, that I am driven to share classical music and its healing benefits. Especially for those who, like me, have struggled to access it.
    John Traxler Theatre Scholarship
    I have loved music my entire life. Even at just eleven months old. Once, when my mom put on the classical music station in the car, she looked back to check on me, and to her surprise, I was dancing and banging my hands like I was playing an imaginary piano! I started playing my church piano when I was seven. Then my mother got me an electric keyboard, to which I promptly stuck numbered stickers and began to write short songs in numbered code. I only learned to read music when I turned 8 and had my first violin lesson. Apparently, a violin was cheaper than a grand piano. Regardless, I soon enjoyed playing violin even more than the piano. Within ten years, I went from studying the Suzuki method to performing Dvorak’s violin concerto. During those years, I was accepted by the Baltimore School for the Arts, an arts high school that included the study of music history, literature, and theory in its schedule. The curriculum also included publicly performing in the orchestra, chamber ensembles, solo recitals, the chorus, and taking private lessons with Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s violinist, Ivan Stefanovic. It was the pure joy I got out of rehearsing with my peers and performing works of music that hold such soul-moving beauty that made me realize I could not live happily without playing the violin. Every summer, I am invited to perform for several churches in my hometown. There was one Sunday when I remember asking God for a sign if the violin was the right career path for me. After I finished performing, the pastor mentioned my performance in his sermon. He explained that music is a gift that can provide the mental rest we all need. This confirmed my choice. My life's mission is to use my love of music to provide people with joy and rest through music. Performing for me is less about the technical aspects of my performance than it is about providing music that will emotionally move the audience in an engaging or restful way. Although I love the thrill of performing on a stage in a large concert hall, my most fulfilling performances have been for small audiences in my local churches or in a nursing home. It is there that I get to truly make a difference and provide an experience that is many times out of reach. Classical music is a genre that has been increasingly restricted to only those who can afford to attend. Even more so in the educational field, where many are forced to choose a more affordable educational path over their passion for music. I am now studying at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee with violinist and professor Lynn Chang. I plan to finish my Bachelor of Music in Violin Performance, attend graduate school, and consider further postgraduate education. After my education, I intend to join an orchestra, form a chamber group, and join or create a program that will make classical music training accessible to young people. As the child of a single mother, I have faced struggles with affording such training: the cost of my instrument and its repairs, private lessons, summer programs, and now my college tuition. It is because I understand the extreme costs of classical training and my inspiration drawn from my hard-working and number-one fan, who is my mother, that I am driven to share classical music and its healing benefits. Especially for those who, like me, have struggled to access it.
    Maverick Grill and Saloon Scholarship
    I have loved music my entire life. Even at just eleven months old. Once, when my mom put on the classical music station in the car, she looked back to check on me, and to her surprise, I was dancing and banging my hands like I was playing an imaginary piano! I started playing my church piano when I was seven. Then my mother got me an electric keyboard, to which I promptly stuck numbered stickers and began to write short songs in numbered code. I only learned to read music when I turned 8 and had my first violin lesson. Apparently, a violin was cheaper than a grand piano. Regardless, I soon enjoyed playing violin even more than the piano. Within ten years, I went from studying the Suzuki method to performing Dvorak’s violin concerto. During those years, I was accepted by the Baltimore School for the Arts, an arts high school that included the study of music history, literature, and theory in its schedule. The curriculum also included publicly performing in the orchestra, chamber ensembles, solo recitals, the chorus, and taking private lessons with Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s violinist, Ivan Stefanovic. It was the pure joy I got out of rehearsing with my peers and performing works of music that hold such soul-moving beauty that made me realize I could not live happily without playing the violin. Every summer, I am invited to perform for several churches in my hometown. There was one Sunday when I remember asking God for a sign if the violin was the right career path for me. After I finished performing, the pastor mentioned my performance in his sermon. He explained that music is a gift that can provide the mental rest we all need. This confirmed my choice. My life's mission is to use my love of music to provide people with joy and rest through music. Performing for me is less about the technical aspects of my performance than it is about providing music that will emotionally move the audience in an engaging or restful way. Although I love the thrill of performing on a stage in a large concert hall, my most fulfilling performances have been for small audiences in my local churches or in a nursing home. It is there that I get to truly make a difference and provide an experience that is many times out of reach. Classical music is a genre that has been increasingly restricted to only those who can afford to attend. Even more so in the educational field, where many are forced to choose a more affordable educational path over their passion for music. I am now studying at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee with violinist and professor Lynn Chang. I plan to finish my Bachelor of Music in Violin Performance, attend graduate school, and consider further postgraduate education. After my education, I intend to join an orchestra, form a chamber group, and join or create a program that will make classical music training accessible to young people. As the child of a single mother, I have faced struggles with affording such training: the cost of my instrument and its repairs, private lessons, summer programs, and now my college tuition. It is because I understand the extreme costs of classical training and my inspiration drawn from my hard-working and number-one fan, who is my mother, that I am driven to share classical music and its healing benefits. Especially for those who, like me, have struggled to access it.
    Audrey Sherrill & Michael D'Ambrisi Music Scholarship
    Winner
    I have loved music my entire life. Even at just eleven months old. Once, when my mom put on the classical music station in the car, she looked back to check on me, and to her surprise, I was dancing and banging my hands like I was playing an imaginary piano! I started playing my church piano when I was seven. Then my mother got me an electric keyboard, to which I promptly stuck numbered stickers and began to write short songs in numbered code. I only learned to read music when I turned 8 and had my first violin lesson. Apparently, a violin was cheaper than a grand piano. Regardless, I soon enjoyed playing violin even more than the piano. Within ten years, I went from studying the Suzuki method to performing Dvorak’s violin concerto. During those years, I was accepted by the Baltimore School for the Arts, an arts high school that included the study of music history, literature, and theory in its schedule. The curriculum also included publicly performing in the orchestra, chamber ensembles, solo recitals, and the chorus, and taking private lessons with Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s violinist, Ivan Stefanovic. It was the pure joy I got out of rehearsing with my peers and performing works of music that hold such soul-moving beauty that made me realize I could not live happily without playing the violin. Every summer, I am invited to perform for several churches in my hometown. There was one Sunday when I remember asking God for a sign if the violin was the right career path for me. After I finished performing, the pastor mentioned my performance in his sermon. He explained that music is a gift that can provide the mental rest we all need. This confirmed my choice. My life's mission is to use my love of music to provide people with joy and rest through music. Performing for me is less about the technical aspects of my performance than it is about providing music that will emotionally move the audience in an engaging or restful way. Although I love the thrill of performing on a stage in a large concert hall, my most fulfilling performances have been for small audiences in my local churches or in a nursing home. It is there that I get to truly make a difference and provide an experience that is many times out of reach. Classical music is a genre that has been increasingly restricted to only those who can afford to attend. Even more so in the educational field, where many are forced to choose a more affordable educational path over their passion for music. I am now studying at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee with violinist and professor Lynn Chang. I plan to finish my Bachelor of Music in Violin Performance, attend graduate school, and consider further postgraduate education. After my education, I intend to join an orchestra, form a chamber group, and join or create a program that will make classical music training accessible to young people. As the child of a single mother, I have faced struggles with affording such training: the cost of my instrument and its repairs, private lessons, summer programs, and now my college tuition. It is because I understand the extreme costs of classical training and my inspiration drawn from my hard-working and number-one fan, who is my mother, that I am driven to share classical music and its healing benefits. Especially for those who, like me, have struggled to access it.
    Robert F. Lawson Fund for Careers that Care
    I have loved music my entire life. Even at just eleven months old. Once, when my mom put on the classical music station in the car, she looked back to check on me, and to her surprise, I was dancing and banging my hands like I was playing an imaginary piano! I started playing my church piano when I was seven. Then my mother got me an electric keyboard, to which I promptly stuck numbered stickers and began to write short songs in numbered code. I only learned to read music when I turned 8 and had my first violin lesson. Apparently, a violin was cheaper than a grand piano. Regardless, I soon enjoyed playing violin even more than the piano. Within ten years, I went from studying the Suzuki method to performing Dvorak’s violin concerto. During those years, I was accepted by the Baltimore School for the Arts, an arts high school that included the study of music history, literature, and theory in its schedule. The curriculum also included publicly performing in the orchestra, chamber ensembles, solo recitals, the chorus, and taking private lessons with Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s violinist, Ivan Stefanovic. It was the pure joy I got out of rehearsing with my peers and performing works of music that hold such soul-moving beauty that made me realize I could not live happily without playing the violin. Every summer, I am invited to perform for several churches in my hometown. There was one Sunday when I remember asking God for a sign if the violin was the right career path for me. After I finished performing, the pastor mentioned my performance in his sermon. He explained that music is a gift that can provide the mental rest we all need. This confirmed my choice. My life's mission is to use my love of music to provide people with joy and rest through music. Performing for me is less about the technical aspects of my performance than it is about providing music that will emotionally move the audience in an engaging or restful way. Although I love the thrill of performing on a stage in a large concert hall, my most fulfilling performances have been for small audiences in my local churches or a nursing home. It is there that I get to truly make a difference and provide an experience that is many times out of reach. Classical music is a genre that has been increasingly restricted to only those who can afford to attend. Even more so in the educational field, where many are forced to choose a more affordable educational path over their passion for music. I am now studying at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee with violinist and professor Lynn Chang. I plan to finish my Bachelor of Music in Violin Performance, attend graduate school, and consider further postgraduate education. After my education, I intend to join an orchestra, form a chamber group, and join or create a program that will make classical music training accessible to young people. As the child of a single mother, I have faced struggles with affording such training: the cost of my instrument and its repairs, private lessons, summer programs, and now my college tuition. It is because I understand the extreme costs of classical training and my inspiration drawn from my hard-working and number-one fan, who is my mother, that I am driven to share classical music and its healing benefits. Especially for those who, like me, have struggled to access it.