Emily Cole 
2024-25 Artist in Residence

Violinist Emily Cole has been a member of the Oregon Symphony since 2011. An avid chamber musician, Emily has performed with several Portland-area ensembles including 45th Parallel Universe, Third Angle, fEARnoMUSIC, and Northwest New Music, as well as with Chatter ABQ in New Mexico. She has been fortunate to premiere chamber works of Caroline Shaw, Kenji Bunch, Pierre Jalbert and James Shields.   During the summer months, Emily has performed with the Oregon Bach Festival, Music in the Mountains, Seattle Opera, the Grant Park Festival Orchestra, and the Apollo Music Festival. Emily previously served on the faculty of Lewis & Clark College and has coached young chamber musicians with Portland Summer Ensembles and Seattle’s Music Northwest.  She received her B.M. from the University of Texas at Austin as a student of Brian Lewis and her M.M. from the University of North Texas as a student of Emanuel Borok.

James Shields
2024-25 Artist in Residence

Clarinetist James Shields joined the Oregon Symphony in 2016 after holding similar positions in the Canadian Opera Company and the New Mexico Philharmonic. A Juilliard graduate, he has appeared as soloist with the Oregon Symphony, New Mexico Philharmonic, and Music in the Mountains (CO). A committed and dynamic performer of chamber music, Shields appears regularly with organizations throughout North America. He is a member of 45th Parallel and Fear No Music and has performed with numerous renowned organizations including Third Angle, Chamber Music Northwest, Serenata of Santa Fe, Taos Chamber Music Group, and Gather NYC. James holds a Master’s degree in Composition and Music Theory from the University of New Mexico and composes regularly. For the past 16 years, Shields has served as Associate Artistic Director of Chatter, a popular series in New Mexico that performs over 125 chamber music concerts annually. In June of 2024, Shields joined forces with cellist Trevor Fitzpatrick to establish a branch of Chatter in Portland, OR.

Elaina Stuppler
2024 Young Artist in Residence

Elaina Stuppler is a multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, and award-winning composer who has performed at Carnegie Hall, Sydney Opera House, Grammy Museum, and the Hollywood Bowl with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. She is Co-Principal Trombonist of the Portland Youth Philharmonic (PYP) and was selected for All-State and All-Northwest Honor Bands for Jazz and Wind Ensemble. The Oregon Symphony named Elaina as their first Luna Composition Lab recipient, and her piece, “Anxious Alignment,” had its world premiere at the symphony’s 125th Gala Anniversary.
In 2024, she was a YoungArts award winner for both Voice/Singer-Songwriter and Classical Music/Composition. Her compositions have been performed by PYP, Third Angle, Metropolitan Youth Orchestra of New York, Chamber Music Northwest, Metropolitan Youth Symphony, and Palais Ehrbar Concert Hall in Vienna, Austria. One of Elaina’s pieces was chosen for the Seattle Symphony’s “Dear Humanity” Youth Art Concert. Elaina is a Young Composers Project member; she received the U.S. President’s Education Award and created Popera PDX, a musical, sing-a-long storytime program for young children at local libraries.

Anika Gupta
2024 Young Artist Ambassador

Anika Gupta is currently a sophomore at Sunset High School. She has always loved music and picked up the guitar during middle school. Since then, her passion for guitar has only grown! She currently studies under Travis Johnson and loves to spread music in various ways. She has won several music competitions, attended festivals and camps, and likes to play at retirement homes in her free time. She enjoys everything about the world of music and truly believes that learning an instrument is an opportunity that should be accessible to everyone. Outside of music, Anika loves STEM and always seeks new ways to combine her love of engineering and music.

Cyrus Ngan
2024 Young Artist Ambassador

Cyrus Ngan, a senior at Clackamas High School, was initially attracted to the drum set as a child. Fortunately, his parents managed to convince him to take up piano instead. He later picked up the cello in middle school because “it sounded cool, and he wanted to sit down.” Today, Cyrus studies piano with María García and cello with Erin Ratzlaf.

In 2024, Cyrus won the 30th Cognizart Young Artists Debut! Competition, alongside fellow ambassador Haruka Sakiyama. On piano, he was the co-winner of the 2023 Metropolitan Youth Symphony Concerto Competition. On cello, he had the privilege of serving as the principal cellist of the 2024 Oregon Music Education Association All-State Symphony Orchestra and currently holds the same position in the Metropolitan Youth Symphony. Cyrus co-founded the Pacific Rose Ensemble, a local organization that helps young artists to present their work to the community. Cyrus enjoys amateur photography and breadmaking, is a varsity & club swimmer, and often wonders if he has the lung capacity for a woodwind.

Haruka Sakiyama
2024 Young Artist Ambassador

Haruka Sakiyama is a junior at West Linn High School and plays the French horn (since 2019) and violin (since 2011). Haruka has been a part of the Portland Youth Philharmonic (PYP) for nine years, playing both instruments and currently plays first horn for both the Conservatory Orchestra and the Philharmonic Orchestra. She was a finalist for the 2024 Oregon Mozart Players Young Soloist Competition and the 2024 Young Metro Artists Competition and was a winner of the 2024 Jewish Community Orchestra Young Artist Competition. She was also a member of the 2022 and 2024 All-State Ensembles and the 2023 All-Northwest Orchestra. In addition to horn and violin, she enjoys composing and won the 2020 and 2021 OMEA State Composition Contest and the 2022 National Federation of Music Clubs Junior Composers Competition. Haruka is a member of the Young Composers Project. Her first work for the full symphony was premiered by the Oregon Symphony in 2018, with many of her other works being performed by groups of the PYP. Outside of music, Haruka enjoys reading and ski racing.

Katelyn Nguyen
2024 Young Artist Ambassador

Katelyn Nguyen, a bassoonist, is 17 and a senior at Parkrose High School. Katelyn first started playing the piano at 6 and then clarinet in the seventh grade. Later that year, she began playing the bassoon and currently studies with Carin Miller, Principal Bassoon of the Oregon Symphony. Katelyn has held the principal bassoon of the Portland Youth Philharmonic for two years and one year with the Metropolitan Youth Symphony. Over her high school years, Katelyn has consistently participated in OMEA All-State and NAfME All-Northwest, and placed 1st bassoon for OSAA’s State Solo Contest as a junior.

Her recent notable achievements include playing for the National Youth Orchestra of the United States in the summer of 2023 and receiving the selective Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Award from the music organization From The Top. Recently, Katelyn was accepted into the National Youth Orchestra of the United States for the second time and will tour South America in the summer of 2024, among other great musicians. When not practicing the bassoon, Katelyn enjoys spending time with cats, hanging out with family and friends, and exploring various places in Oregon.

María García
2022-23 Artist in Residence

María García began piano studies in her native Puerto Rico at the age of four. She received a Bachelor of Music with Distinction in Performance from the New England Conservatory of Music. Graduate studies followed at SUNY Stony Brook where she received a full merit scholarship and completed a master’s degree in Music. An active chamber musician and soloist, García has performed throughout the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, the Czech and Slovak Republics, Israel, Venezuela, Tunisia, Puerto Rico, and more. Locally, she is a sought after collaborator, and music teacher. María performs with groups like the Oregon Symphony, Third Angle Ensemble, 45th Parallel, and is part of the Award-winning highly praised 20 Digitus Piano Duo with Momoko Muramatsu.

Adam Eccleston
2020-2021 Artist in Residence

Adam Eccleston is an accomplished flutist of international renown dedicated to promoting diversity and equity in classical music. As a soloist, Adam Eccleston has appeared with several orchestras around the United States and Europe, and has performed in venues such as the Kurhaus Wiesbaden in Germany and Jordan Hall in Boston. Adam draws musical inspiration from his Caribbean and Panamanian heritage. He works extensively with MESDA group, a non-profit organization active in underdeveloped countries around Central and South America and the Caribbean Islands. Eccleston serves as the Director of Orchestras at BRAVO and is also co-founder of the duo From A to Z with Mexican-born guitarist Zaira Meneses.

Hunter Noack
2019 Artist in Residence

Internationally acclaimed concert pianist Hunter Noack integrates literature, visual art, dance, theater and design in his presentations of classical music. Through the IN A LANDSCAPE: Classical Music in the Wild outdoor concert series, he brings a 9-foot concert Steinway into the wild where state and national parks, historic sites, and other spectacular locations replace traditional concert halls. Listening to the live music through wireless headphones, the audience is free to wander through the landscape. Winner of the Los Angeles International Liszt competition in 2011, Noack holds degrees from Guild Hall (London), University of Southern California, and San Francisco Conservatory.

Amir Avsker
2023 Young Artist in Residence

Born in Israel in 2006, violinist, pianist, composer, and conductor Amir Avsker lived in Japan and Pennsylvania before moving to Oregon in 2015. Amir began studying music in Israel in 2014, playing piano and composing his own music very soon after, at the age of eight. He began playing violin in 2019. Amir has written over 40 compositions for solo instruments, chamber ensembles, and orchestral works. He is currently working on his first opera.

Amir won the 2019 Oregon Music Education Association Composition Competition. He was also the co-winner of the 2023 Metropolitan Youth Symphony Concerto Competition (piano) and one of the 29th Young Artist Debut Competition winners. In the summer of 2022, Amir participated as a violinist in the InterHarmony International Music Festival in Acqui Terme, Italy. He is now in his fourth year with Fear No Music’s Young Composers Project, and the Metropolitan Youth Symphony, where he plays the violin. When he is not preparing for concerts, Amir likes to play with his dog, Sammi, and his pet rabbit, Oren.

Maggie Carter
2022 Young Artist in Residence

Maggie Carter began double bass lessons at age nine with former Oregon Symphony bassist Nina DeCesare and currently studies with Jordan Anderson, Principal Bass of the Seattle Symphony. She is in her fourth year in the Portland Youth Philharmonic, where she is the Principal Bassist. Also a serious pianist, she in her eighth year of piano studies. In 2019 Maggie won the International Society of Bassists 14-and-under Solo Competition. She was the first prize winner of the 2020 Oregon Mozart Players Young Soloists Competition and the 2021 Oregon ASTA Solo Competition. In 2019 and 2021, Maggie was the runner-up in the PYP Concerto Competition and recently performed Bottesini’s Double Bass Concerto No. 2 with Camerata PYP. Maggie will attend Boston University Tanglewood Institute this summer. She has performed for double bassists such as Edgar Meyer, Paul Ellison, François Rabbath, and John Clayton, among many others.

Natalie Tan
2020 Young Artist in Residence

Natalie Tan is a senior student at Jesuit High School in Portland, Oregon. She has studied piano for eleven years and is currently a student of Linda Barker. Natalie is a two-time winner of MetroArts Inc.’s Young Artists Debut! Van Buren Concerto Concert (2017 & 2020), and winner of the 2017 PYP Biennial Piano Concerto Competition. Natalie serves on Jesuit High School’s mock trial team and is in her fourth year as an intern at OHSU. In addition to her passion for music, Natalie loves to travel, discuss science and policy, and analyze literature. Artist selected in partnership with Metro Arts Inc.

Taylor Yoon
2019 Young Artist in Residence

Taylor Yoon is a junior and a principal cellist at Lakeridge High School. Taylor and her older sisters perform as the “Yoontrio”, often raising funds to support local charitable causes. In 2017, Taylor helped establish a nonprofit organization called Olivenbaum in an effort to bring all people together in peace and harmony. Winner of Oregon Cello Society Scholarship Competition in 2010, and Trula Whelan Concerto Competition in 2011 & 2014, Taylor currently studies with Mr. Ken Finch. Artist selected in partnership with Metro Arts Inc.

Catherine Hartrim-Lowe
2023 Young Artist Ambassador

18-year-old Catherine Hartrim-Lowe is currently a homeschooled senior. She began playing piano at the age of five, singing in choirs at the age of seven, and playing cello at the age of nine. Currently, she serves as a principal cellist and soloist of the Metropolitan Youth Symphony and their string ensemble, MYSfits. With MYSfits, she has participated in masterclasses with members of the Kronos Quartet, Fear No Music, and A Far Cry.

Catherine sings with the Pacific Youth Choir, where she has had opportunities to perform and solo with the Oregon Symphony, Oregon Ballet Theatre, Capella Romana, Chanticleer, and Thomas Lauderdale. In the summer of 2022, she worked with Dr. Anton Armstrong and Kathy Romey at the Oregon Bach Festival. In her free time, Catherine enjoys long walks, knitting, outings with siblings, and spending time with the alpacas, goats, and cows on her family’s hobby farm.

Ellie Kim
2023 Young Artist Ambassador

A 16-year-old violinist from Portland, Oregon, Ellie Kim, started playing violin at the age of five. She currently studies with Carol Sindell. In 2020, she won first prize in the Young Artist of the Canadian International Music Competition and second prize in the senior division of the 2022 Oregon Mozart Players Young Artist Competition. She has also been awarded prizes by the Monday Musical Club, the Oregon Music Teachers Association Instrumental Scholarship, and the Jeannette Scott Briggs Scholarship.

A winner of the Cognizart Young Artists Debut! Competition, Ellie has soloed with members of the Oregon Symphony. She is also an ambassador for the Interlochen Arts Summer Academy and a member of the Portland Youth Philharmonic. Ellie loves expressing herself through music and enjoys exploring various styles as she learns to become a more artistic musician.

Timothy Lee
2023 Young Artist Ambassador

Timothy Lee is currently a senior at Aloha High School. He has been playing the violin for 12 years and currently studies with Carol Sindell. He has been a member of the Portland Youth Philharmonic for six years and has served as a co-concertmaster for the past three years. He won 1st place in the 2021 Oregon ASTA Solo Competition and the 2022 Oregon Music Education Association State Solo Contest.

In 2022, he performed a solo with the Central Oregon Symphony as the first-place winner of their Young Artist Competition and with members of the Oregon Symphony as a winner of the Cognizart Young Artists Debut! Competition. Through his music, Timothy has a personal mission to serve his community. He and his older brother frequently perform free concerts in local churches, nursing homes, and the Korean Society of Oregon. In Fall 2023, Timothy will study music and political science as a freshman at Yale University.

Noah Carr
2022 Young Artist Ambassador

Noah Carr’s interest in violin began when he was two years old. Now a sophomore at Grant High School in Portland, OR Noah is a part of the Metropolitan Youth Symphony (MYS) and its MYSfits Ensemble. He studies violin with Tomás Cotik, Professor of Violin at Portland State University. This past year, he won second place in the Oregon ASTA competition and first place in MYS’ Concerto Competition. Since 2018, he has attended Sphinx Performance Academy every summer at The Juilliard School and Curtis Institute of Music. He will be attending Meadowmount School of Music in New York this summer. A passionate supporter of diversity and inclusion in classical music, Noah wrote two spoken word and musical programs in 2018 and 2020 documenting his experiences as a classical musician of color. After he graduates from high school, he plans to attend a music school and pursue violin professionally.

Diego Fernandez
2022 Young Artist Ambassador

Diego Fernandez is a young flutist from Salem, OR, currently attending South Salem High School as a junior. He started playing the flute in 6th grade. In 2018, when he was in 8^th grade, he began to study with Dr. Abigail Sperling from Linfield College. Diego won 2nd place in the 2018 Greater Portland Flute Society, 1st chair in the 2018 Salem Keizer’s All-City Honor Band, and was the District Winner in the 2021 Solo and Ensemble festival. In 2021 Diego also began to study with Martha Long from the Oregon Symphony. He currently serves as the Second flute and piccolo of the Portland Youth Philharmonic, and Principal Flute in both the South Salem Wind Ensemble and South Salem Symphony. He was a featured soloist with the Central Oregon Symphony, and placed 2nd in the GPFS Young Artist Competition in 2022.

Ben Price
2022 Young Artist Ambassador

Ben Price, a senior at Grant High School, has studied oboe for 8 years with Karen Wagner and previously with Dagny Rask Regan. Currently the Principal Oboist of the Portland Youth Philharmonic and a section oboist with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra USA (VSO), Ben is a past winner of concerto competitions with the VSO, Metropolitan Youth Symphony (MYS), and Oregon Sinfonietta. Ben has performed as principal oboist with the MYSfits Chamber Orchestra, Orpheus Academy and Pink Martini. A four-time participant in the Northwest Oboe Seminar, Ben is also the current Oregon State Solo & Ensemble Champion for oboe. Ben has been selected to the National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America three times, and will study Oboe Performance with Katherine Needleman and Philippe Tondre at the Curtis Institute of Music beginning in fall 2022

Nate Strothkamp
2022 Young Artist Ambassador

Nate Strothkamp is an 18-year-old violinist from Portland, OR. A current student of Carol Sindell, Nate has appeared as a soloist with the Oregon Symphony and Beaverton Symphony Orchestra. Nate was one of seven national finalists in both the 2021 and 2022 iterations of the MTNA Senior String Performance competition, after winning first place at the State and Division rounds. He also won first place in the Teen Strings category of the Music International Grand Prix competition. Nate serves as co-concertmaster of the Portland Youth Philharmonic, and is dedicated to pursuing equitable music education through his work as executive director of Project Prelude, a student-led organization providing free violin instruction to elementary students from economically disadvantaged schools in Beaverton. Additionally, he co-founded Musicians for Equality, an organization that promotes inclusivity and representation in the classical music industry. Nate is a senior at the Oregon Episcopal School, and next year, Nate will continue academic and musical studies as a freshman at Yale University.

Lauren McCall
2021 Composer in Residence

Lauren McCall is a composer and educator from Atlanta, Georgia. She has had compositions performed around North America and in Europe, including her piece for piano, Shake the Earth, which was performed at the Morehead State University’s Contemporary Piano Festival, along with being performed in Eugene, Oregon at the Oregon Bach Festival Composers’ Symposium. Her arrangement of the spiritual I’m Troubled was performed in Lakeland, Florida at Florida Southern College for the Grady Rayam Prize in Sacred Music, and her graphic score composition The Fish Wife was performed in Montreal, Canada by the ensemble Amis Orgue Montreal. Artist selected in partnership with Bodecker Foundation.

Jasmine Barnes
2021 Composer in Residence

Jasmine Barnes is a Baltimore native and a multifaceted composer who embraces any writing style of music using a variety of instrumentation and specializes in writing for the voice. She has been commissioned by numerous organization, and her 10 minute opera, “The Late Walk,” has been archived in the Library of Congress. Jasmine is also an honored educator, and previously served as Head of Compositional Studies and Jazz Voice Studies at Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Dallas, TX. Now a full time composer, Barnes has held many residencies including a composer fellowship at Chautauqua Opera, and was recently commissioned by The Washington National Opera in celebration of the Kennedy Center’s 50th year anniversary. Upcoming, she will serve as a first year resident artist for American Lyric Theater’s Composer Librettist Development Program in New York City. Artist selected in partnership with Bodecker Foundation.

Keyla Orozco
2021 Composer in Residence

Cuban composer and educator Keyla Orozco’s international career has made her recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship, Fromm Music Foundation Composition Grant (Harvard University), Cintas Fellowship, and MacDowel Residency Fellowship, among other awards. Orozco has been commissioned multiple times in the Netherlands and the US, and her works have been performed by internationally acclaimed ensembles. Orozco graduated in Composition at the University of the Arts in Havana. Later, she followed advanced composition studies at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague and Conservatory of Amsterdam. Artist selected in partnership with Bodecker Foundation.