On Deck with Young Musicians
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On Deck with Minntah Haefker
Raúl Gómez-Rojas chats with Minntah Haefker, a 16 year old Junior enrolled at Lincoln High School in Portland, Oregon. Minntah often sings as a guest vocalist with the band “3 Leg Torso,” studies Opera with her voice coach Angela Niederloh, and competes in state/regional competitions singing in multiple languages. She…
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On Deck with Sophia Folawn
Sophia Folawn is a junior at St. Mary’s Academy. She’s been playing flute with the Metropolitan Youth Symphony for 3 years and enjoys it very much; she first started out in the Flute Ensemble led by Adam Eccleston and has recently joined one of the top orchestras in the organization.…
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On Deck with Aria Morgan
18-year old saxophonist Aria Morgan spent her first three years of high school at Portland’s Ida B. Wells-Barnett High School, then her senior year at the Interlochen Arts Academy. Now a freshman at USC’s Thornton School of Music, she speaks with Raul Gomez-Rojas about her love of music as well…
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On Deck with Chloe Zhang
17-year old pianist Chloe Zhang (“zang”) was a finalist in Portland Piano International’s Concerto Competition, and also was one of the winners in the Beaverton Symphony’s Young Artist Competition. She deeply adores music, but interestingly -given her successes- it’s not going to be the focus of her life. She engages…
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On Deck with Ben McHarris
Ben McHarris is a 17-year-old senior at Cleveland High School in Portland, and a clarinetist with Metropolitan Youth Symphony, where he has played since 2020. In this episode of On Deck, Ben speaks with Raúl Gómez-Rojas about his initial inspiration to choose the clarinet and his journey at MYS. Also,…
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On Deck with Alessandro Diaz Ayala
Alessandro Diaz Ayala is a cellist and conductor who hails from BRAVO Youth Orchestras. He’s a 9th grader at Jefferson high school and enjoys classical music very much. Lately, he’s been exploring other instruments like the flute and quickly realized how much air is needed for the instrument, but he…
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On Deck with Sarah Hohndel
Sarah Hohndel is an 18-year-old tuba player with the Metropolitan Youth Symphony. In this episode of On Deck, she chats with Raúl Gómez-Rojas about starting to learn the tuba when she was only in fifth grade, horseback riding and earning her third degree black belt in Taekwondo. In addition to…
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On Deck with Maya Hausman
Amy Faust gets to know Maya Hausman, a senior at Cleveland High school who plays flute and piccolo (plus a little bit of clarinet!) for various school ensembles as well as the Metropolitan Youth Symphony. Maya started playing the piano at age 5, but as a member of the Cherokee…
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On Deck with Sam Lines
Sam Lines is a 17-year-old junior at Lake Oswego High School. He has been a member of the top orchestra at the Metropolitan Youth Symphony since 2020, where he often plays principal horn. In this episode of On Deck, Sam chats with Raúl Gómez-Rojas about the joys and challenges of…
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On Deck with Aili Deibert
Aili Deibert is a Junior at PorRoosevelt High School. She’s been playing flute with BRAVO Youth Orchestras (an El Sistema inspired afternoon music program based in North Portland) since 2015. She has performed at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall and was selected to perform in the National Youth Orchestra of…