Annual Youth Festival

2007 Winner Biographies

Soprano Emilyn Badgley, age thirteen, an eighth-grader at Valley Forge Middle School, has been accepted to the Philadelphia Creative and Performing Arts High School for the fall. She studies voice with Marian Powell.She has been involved in Select Choir as well as school, community, and professional musical theater productions since the age of eight.She currently performs in the NYC American Girl Place Theater’s musical Circle of Friends, and is a member of their elite Ambassadors acapella singing ensemble, which performs publicly at various New York venues.She also studies violin, piano, acting, and dance.

Cellist Bradley Forrest Berman is a twelve-year-old homeschooler.He has been studying the cello since the age of five, currently with Cassia Harvey.He is a member of a piano trio at Settlement Music School coached by Jean Shook and plays in a string quartet coached by Estelle Kerner.Bradley is a member of the Main Line Youth Chamber Orchestra.He received an Honorable Mention in the Tri-County Youth Festival competition in 2006.Since age ten, Bradley has also played piano and currently studies with Elizabeth Keller.

Singer James Butler is in the eighth grade Welsh Valley Middle School.He began acting in England at the age of eight and has performed in several musicals, including Fiddler on the Roof as Tevya and Les Miserables as Jean Valjean.He was also cast as the young Fenton in the movie The Cellar.He studies voice with Lisa Willson and has taken acting classes at the Walnut Street Theatre and the People’s Light Theatre Company.

Pianist Jennifer Campbell is a student of David Brown.She was the 2006 Delaware State winner in senior piano performance and composition for the Music Teachers National Association competition.Jennifer was the recipient of the Senior Athena Scholarship for piano at the Darlington Fine Arts Center in 2006, as well as the Amateur Chamber Music Players Scholarship. In 2006 Jennifer also won First Place in the Junior Piano Division of the Tri-County Youth Festival.This year she was the winner of the Wilmington Community Orchestra Concerto Competition, and as a result will perform as soloist with the orchestra in May.Jennifer also studies violin with Sylvia Ahramjian and is currently a member of the Delaware County Youth Orchestra.

Bassoonist Emeline Chong is in ninth grade at Pennbrook Middle School.She currently studies bassoon with Mark Gigliotti of the Philadelphia Orchestra, and has also studied with Michelle Rosen.Emeline is a member of the Philadelphia Youth Orchestra and studies chamber music at Settlement Music School.She won First Place in Tri-County's Junior Division Winds in 2005.

Harpist Cassie Cummings is a seventeen-year-old junior at the Academy of Notre Dame.She began studying the harp at the age of five with Ann Sullivan.Cassie has won Honorable Mention in the American Harp Society National Competition.She volunteers her harp playing at Bryn Mawr Terrace and is also a member of Musicians on Call.Besides playing harp, Cassie enjoys being captain of her school's cross country and track teams.

Pianist Michelle Guo, age fourteen, is an eighth-grader at Tredyffrin-Easttown Middle School. She began studying piano at the age of four and a half with Amy Chen. In 2002, while a student of Joy Miller Kiszely, she won a Silver Medal in the AMSA World Piano Competition and performed in the Winners' Recital in New York’s Carnegie Hall.Michelle is currently studying with Igor Resnianski at the Nelly Berman School of Music.In 2006, Michelle won First Prize in the West Chester Piano Competition and an Honorable Mention from Tri-County.She was also the Grand Prize winner of the 2006 Caretoon Contest, sponsored by the National Liberty Museum in Philadelphia. Michelle also plays two other instruments, tuba for her school’s concert band and viola in the orchestra.

Pianist Sarah Kim, age eleven, is in sixth grade at Strath Haven Middle School.Sarah started studying the piano with her mother when she was only three and a half.She currently studies with Irina Yurkovskaya.In addition to receiving high honors in the PMTA Festivals four years in a row from 2003 to 2006, Sarah was selected as a Gold Medal winner in the Golden Key Music Festival Competition and performed at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in 2006.Sarah is a recipient of the Johns Hopkins Talented Youth Award.She enjoys playing soccer on the travel team as well as playing the oboe in her school band.

Harpist Lindsey McQuiston, age fourteen, is an eighth grade honor student at Tredyffrin-Easttown Middle School.She began playing the harp at age six and is currently studying with Keetie Dolfe.In 2005, Lindsey performed in a masterclass given by harpist Linda Woods Rollo, and in 2006 she won Third Place in the Junior Pedal Harp Division of the American Harp Society Philadelphia Chapter's student competition.She has also performed in several local student recitals.She accompanied her middle school chorus during the 2006 Holiday Concert, as well as being a featured solo harpist.Along with playing harp, Lindsey enjoys reading, writing, and gardening.

Soprano Shoba Narayanan is a seventeen-year-old junior at Radnor High School, who studies voice with Lisa Willson DeNolfo.At the age of five, Shoba started studying violin with John Sergovic at the Bryn Mawr Conservatory of Music.At age seven, Shoba started performing in musicals, playing a royal child in The King and I and, a year later, appearing as Nellie in Annie Get Your Gun.She has since gone on to play Dorothy in Wizard of Oz, hotbox girl in Guys and Dolls, Maria in West Side Story, and Chava in Fiddler on the Roof.Shoba also has a keen interest in Indian classical music.Under the tutelage of T.N. Bala, Shoba regularly performs Carnatic music at Indian cultural events.Besides her passion for music, Shoba is accomplished in dance.As a student at the Pennsylvania Academy of Ballet, she appears in their annual production of The Nutcracker.Studying Indian classical dance under Shoba Sharma of Naatya Academy, she has performed at the Kimmel Center, Wilma Theater, and the Painted Bride.Last year, Shoba was awarded the prestigious Apprenticeship Award by the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, which allowed her and a master instructor to create a unique performance that integrates two of her artistic passions:ballet and Bharathanatyam, Indian Classical Dance.

Oboist David Rosenfeld is a ninth-grade student in the gifted program at Pennbrook Middle School.He has been playing oboe for three years; he studies with Rheta Smith and has occasional lessons with Peter Smith of the Philadelphia Orchestra.He is a member of the Philadelphia Young Artists Orchestra and the Young Musicians Community Orchestra.David also plays bassoon, studying with Leann Currie.Aside from music, he is an active member of the Boy Scouts.This summer, David will attend the New York Summer Music Festival.

Violist Hannah Selin is a student of Daniela Pierson.She has been a member of the Auger Contemporary Music Ensemble since 2005, and a participant in the chamber music program at Settlement Music School since 2004.This year at Settlement, she is working on Schoenberg's Verklarte Nacht with a string sextet.In 2006, she was the winner of the Philadelphia Viola Society's Viola Competition.Hannah will be a member of the Class of 2011 at Oberlin College.

Clarinetist Rebecca Selin, age fourteen, is a student of Rob Patterson.She plays in the Delaware County Youth Orchestra and also participates in the Settlement Music School chamber music program.This summer she plans to attend Kinhaven Summer Music School.She placed fourth in the National French Contest.Rebecca is a member of the Downingtown East High School Junior Varsity Academic Team, which placed first in Chester County.

Mezzo-soprano Kelly Slota, age seventeen, is a junior at The Country Day School of the Sacred Heart in Bryn Mawr.Kelly has been studying voice since she was in preschool, and has participated in numerous musicals and concerts.Favorite roles include Mary Lennox in The Secret Garden and Cosette in Les Miserables.A member of her school's Select Choir, Kelly has soloed at Carnegie Hall and The Kimmel Center, and cantors at her church each Sunday.Kelly currently studies with Cecilia Beatty and Heidi Hayes.

Cellist Samuel Soltoff is a fifteen-year-old freshman at Cheltenham High School, where he is principal cellist in the school orchestra.Samuel is a member of the Philadelphia Youth Orchestra and the Snitzer Advanced Study String Quartet at Settlement Music School.He won Second Place in the Junior Strings Division of the 2006 Tri-County Youth Festival, and has won the Lansdowne Symphony Orchestra’s Young Artist Auditions.He was a winner of the Warminster Symphony Orchestra’s Young Artist Competition and has soloed with the Lansdowne and Warminster Symphonies, as well as with the Bux-Mont Chamber Orchestra.Samuel spent the summer of 2006 studying with Owen Carman at Meadowmount Music School and has been invited to attend Boston University’s Tanglewood Institute this upcoming summer.He has played the cello for four years and studies with Cassia Harvey.

Pianist Elise Sun is a senior at Conestoga High School.In 1994 she began studying piano with Joy Kiszely and theory and musicianship with Andor Kiszely.At the age of ten Elise received Honorable Mention (second place) in the 2000 Albert M. Greenfield Competition of the Philadelphia Orchestra for her performance of the Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 3.In 2002 Elise was one of four students selected to participate in a Philadelphia Music Teachers Association master class with Nelita True.She won Gold medals in 1998 and 2001 at the World Piano Competitions and, as a result, performed both years at Carnegie Hall.In addition to other PMTA recitals, she performed in UNICEF's Peace Piano Recital at The Kimmel Center in 2004. In 2006, she was awarded a scholarship to attend the Pennsylvania's Governor's School for the Performing Arts, where she took part in a five week program playing solo music as well as accompanying and playing chamber music.She hopes to have a double major in college in piano performance and history.

Pianist Ary Swaminathan, age eleven, is in sixth grade at Valley Forge Middle School.He started playing the piano four years ago and has been a student of Mrs. Maria Bucco.Including this year, he will have performed three straight years at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall as part of the Winners' Recital for the Golden Key Music Festival.He has also received a Gold Medal at the PMTA Festival.In addition to being the pianist for his school’s jazz band, he is a brown belt in Tae-kwon-do and plays soccer for the Tredyffrin-Easttown School District travel team.

Violinist Ryan Jin Touhill is a sophomore honors student at Harriton High School.He has been studying the violin since age four, and for eleven years was a member of the Main Line Youth Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia.As a sixth grader, he won First Place in the Junior Strings Division of the 2003 Tri-County Youth Festival.In 2004, Ryan Jin toured with the Philadelphia Youth Orchestra in Eastern Europe.Ryan Jin is an avid soccer player, and earned a varsity letter with the Harriton Rams soccer team this season, which won the district championship and advanced to the PA State Quarterfinals.Outside of school and music, Ryan Jin enjoys painting, sketching, and snowboarding.This summer, he will join the Philadelphia Youth Orchestra on its tour of Brazil.

Violinist Thomas Vernier is a sixth-grader at Bala Cynwyd Middle School.He began playing the violin at the age of five in Louisville.After three years, he moved to France and studied with Christophe Bossuat at the Suzuki School in Lyon.Last summer, he returned to the U.S.A. and is currently studying with Leah Kim at Temple Music Prep.He was a finalist in the Pottstown Symphony Young Artists Competition in 2007.He loves playing tennis, soccer and skiing (he qualified for the French national junior alpine ski championship in 2006) and speaks French, Japanese, and English fluently.

Pianist Matthew Young is a junior at West Chester East High School.He has won prizes from the Tri-County Youth Music Festival and the West Chester University Piano Competition.He currently studies piano with Irina Yurkovskaya at the Nelly Berman School of Music.Matthew attributes his love of music to his parents and teachers, having studied with Elaine Friedlander, Ori Steinberg, and Marcantonio Barone.He says that he attributes his success to 'hard work and guts'.