Lolo Loves Cello

Lourdes has been blessed with amazing performance opportunities playing for celebrities, ambassadors, and on world-class stages. Most notably, in 2022 she was one of three cellists asked to play at the Kennedy Center for John Williams' 90th Birthday Party Dinner attended by Stephen Spielberg and David Rubenstein, Chairman of the National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) Board. In 2018, she played for the Aspen Institute's Project Play Summit's Private Dinner featuring Kobe Bryant. She has given concerts at the Embassies of Colombia, Argentina, and Brazil, played for private events for former Congresswoman Connie Morella, and at the US Senate to help promote the arts. Her more recent performances range from playing at Carnegie Hall to a Handel's Messiah Concert in Pennsylvania where she played alongside David Chan, the Concertmaster of the Metropolitan Opera and Violin Professor at Juilliard. While a student at Oberlin Conservatory, Lourdes's quartet performed for Latin American ambassadors and high ranking government officials at the Inter-American Defense Board. They performed at Central Union Mission homeless shelter in DC and her quartet hosted a fundraiser concert for the Children's Inn of the National Institute of Health. In high school, Lourdes was an NSO Youth Fellow at the Kennedy Center where she performed several times in the NSO's Concert Hall and on the Millennium Stage. On behalf of the Kennedy Center's NSO in your Neighborhood Community Outreach Program, she brought music to DC schools. Among other opportunities, she played in a master class for world-famous Cello Soloist Alban Gerhardt. As part of The Capitol Symphonic Youth Orchestra, Lourdes performed in front of 17,00 people as the Principal Cellist at the Microsoft Inspire International Convention. She has performed at many weddings and loves working with couples to make thier special day sound amazing.

Emera Gurath has performed in renowned concert halls around the world including Carnegie Hall, David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center, Severance Hall, and the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing. She has served as the concertmaster for the Cleveland Institute of Music Orchestra and has won numerous solo and chamber competitions. In November 2021, she appeared by invitation as a featured soloist with the Cleveland Pops Orchestra, performing in Severance Hall to a sold-out audience. In the summer of 2015, Emera went on a multi-week tour to China and Hong Kong with the National Youth Orchestra of the USA. In 2021, the Cleveland Institute of Music sponsored her string quartet on a multi-state tour with Si-Yan Li and Phil Setzer. Emera holds a Bachelor’s and a Master's Degree in Violin Performance from the Cleveland Institute of Music, where she studied with Stephen Rose, principal second violinist of the Cleveland Orchestra. Emera has performed for numerous weddings and cannot wait to be part of your specail day!

Valeria Serrano, violist, was born and raised in Anzoategui, Venezuela, where she began her music studies as part of “El Sistema” at 10 years old. In 2017, she immigrated with her mother to the United States. Continuing her musical path, Valeria joined various programs and institutions including D.C Youth Orchestra Program, American Youth Philharmonic Orchestra, and the National Symphony Orchestra Youth Fellowship Program. In 2021, she was accepted to Interlochen Arts Academy where she completed her high school diploma as well as a Post-Graduate diploma. Her former teachers include National Symphony Orchestra violist, Tsuna Sakamoto and Interlochen Arts Viola Professor, Renee Skerik. Valeria now pursues her Bachelor’s Degree in Viola Performance at the Colburn School, studying under Tatjana Masurenko. Valeria has won important awards including the From the Top Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Award, YoungArts Merit Award, Sphinx MPower Artist Grant, Interlochen Arts Young Artist Award. She has also been a semifinalist at the International Young Artist Concerto Competition, the Interlochen Arts Academy 2021-2022 Concerto Competition Runner-Up, and more recently, the National Symphony Orchestra Summer Music Institute Concerto Competition Winner, where she did her solo debut at the John F. Kennedy Center performing the first movement of York Bowen’s Viola Concerto. Her unique background and captivating sound has captured the attention of thousands on Instagram @valplaysviola. She can play music of all styles and guarantees excellence for every performance.

Described by The Baltimore Sun as “clearly gifted” and having “expressive talent,” violinist Evelyn Song is loved by audiences for her authenticity in music-making. She finds great joy inbringing the concert hall experience to diverse audiences, wherever they are. During her two years at the New England Conservatory of Music (NEC), she was twice awarded both theCommunity Fellowship and the Musical Storytelling Fellowship of the school’s Community Performances and Partnerships Program, through which she received rigorous training in community engagement work. After giving bedside performances for patients at Massachusetts General Hospital and witnessing firsthand the healing and restorative power of music, she committed to further exploring new ways of sharing music with audiences of allbackgrounds. She has given numerous themed recitals with original storytelling at retirement homes and interwoven music with the reading of children’s books at schools. Also an enthusiastic teacher, she coached chamber ensembles for NEC’s Preparatory School and works with young musicians in her home studio as well as at music camps. She has been on the faculties for StringTime’s summer camp and Summer String Week with Maryland Classic YouthOrchestras (MCYO). Most recently, Evelyn was a featured artist in the 2022 BelCanto Ensemble concert in San Diego and was invited to perform again in 2023. As an MCYO alumna, in 2022 she performed as a soloist in MCYO’s 75th-anniversary celebration concert at the Music Center at Strathmore. After her well-received performances of Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 5 and Vivaldi’s Concerto for Two Violins with the Orchestra at Montgomery College, Music Director Pablo Saelzer invited Evelyn to serve as the artist-in-residence and concertmaster of the newly-formed ensemble UNSTRUNG. There she was tasked with recruiting musicians, nurturing young players, and assisting with concert programming and logistics. She also had the honor of playing the Bruch Double

Enoch Lim, a native of South Korea, started playing piano at the age five and moved to the United States in 2010. He has performed at the John F. Kennedy Center of Performing Arts and has won several prizes and awards, including Honorable Mention at 2021 YMIC International Competition, first prizes at the Second Korea Times Music Competition, the Lions of Virginia Bland Music Competition, the INPASS Music Competition, and Mason Symphony Concerto Competition both in 2019 and 2023 where he performed the final movement of Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 and the first movement of Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with Mason Symphony Orchestra. Lim has performed across the United States, Japan, and South Korea with renowned musicians such as Seungwon Choi, the first Asian, the first disabled tenor to win the Metropolitan Opera Competition, and Jinwoo Lee, the concertmaster of Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. Lim has performed at the Defense, Diplomacy, and Development Bush-Cheney Alumni Reunion in Washington, D.C. He was also featured at numerous Honors Recitals, Arts by George! and OLLI series at Dewberry School of Music, and Epiphany Tuesday Concert series and Music with the Angels Concert series in Washington D.C. Lim has earned his Bachelor and Master’s Degrees in Piano Performance at George Mason University Dewberry School of Music, where he has studied piano and chamber music with his acclaimed professor Dr. Anna Balakerskaia as a grateful recipient of multiple music scholarship awards. He has appeared in masterclasses with artists such as George Li, Simone Dinnerstein, Claire Huangci, Carlos Marín Rayo, Edvinas Minkstimas, and Jeffrey Siegel. He is an active church musician and accompanist and has collaborated with numerous church choirs.

Lake Stiles is an accomplished guitarist and composer. He has performed at the Kennedy Center (Washington, DC), Veles e Vents (Valencia, ES), Epcot at Walt Disney World (Bay Lake, FL), and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (Cleveland, OH). He plays regularly in orchestra pits for musicals. His most recent shows are Head Over Heels, The Addams Family, Little Shop of Horrors, Shrek The Musical, The Wedding Singer, Bye Bye Birdie, Seussical, Newsies, and Zombie Prom. He holds a Bachelors of Music with a minor in Music Technology from Berklee College of Music and a Certificate in Audio Recording and Production from Sonoma State University.

Grace is currently pursuing her Master's Degree in Violin Performance from Stony Brook University, where she studies with renowned professor Phil Setzer of the Emerson String Quartet. She completed her undergraduate studies at Oberlin Conservatory on the Dean’s Scholarship. where she studied with Sibbi Bernhardsson. She was finalist in the Oberlin Conservatory Senior Concerto Competition, the school's most prestigious competition. At eleven years old, Grace was accepted into the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, a highly competitive high school conservatory, where she then studied until graduating high school. She won the Greater New Orleans Youth Orchestra Concerto Competition and the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts Chamber Festival Competition. Grace has spent her summers studying at Boston University Tanglewood Institute, Madeline Island Chamber Music Festival, Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival, Interlochen Music Festival, Interharmony International Music Festival, and Philadelphia Music International Festival. She has also performed in masterclasses for world-class violinists including Maurcio Fuks, Ronald Copes, and Rachel Barton Pine.

John Ryan, violist, enjoys a diverse and fulfilling musical life, versatile in both chamber and orchestral settings. He began his career in Chicago, Illinois, obtaining his Bachelor of Music from the Chicago College of Performing Arts. Before moving to Washington, D.C., he completed his Master of Music in Performance and Literature from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY. Recently, Ryan was a member of the Endless Mountain Music Festival in Corning, NY, playing chamber and orchestral music alongside players of the Indianapolis and Phoenix Symphonies. He was also a member of the Empire Film and Media Ensemble, recording and performing film music and contemporary multimedia. During his time in Chicago, Ryan was part of a program called “Music Can Tell a Story,” where he performed in underserved intercity public schools on Chicago’s South Side with the non-profit, Fifth House Ensemble. His most memorable musical performance was with this ensemble at Chicago's Ronald McDonald House, performing for sick children and their families. At the Chicago College of Performing Arts, Ryan received instruction from world-renowned artists, including, Lawrence Neuman, Li-Kuo Chang, Adam Neiman, Stefan and Julian Hersh, Roger Chase, and Camilla Kjøll. At the Eastman School of Music, Ryan studied with the Grammy Award-winning violist, Masumi Per Rostad.