All Classical Radio | On Deck with Young Musicians

Amy Faust chats with Andy Shin, the youngest of this year’s Metro Arts Cognizart Young Artists Debut winners. He’s an 8th grader at Beaverton Academy of Science and Engineering. Andy has played the cello for 4 years after making the switch from piano. (It was a live performance of a Saint-Saens cello concerto that got him.) He currently plays with the Portland Youth Philharmonic and plans to continue doing so in high school. You can see Andy with his fellow winners at a special Cognizart Young Artists Debut performance on May 26th at the Reser Center in Beaverton.

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 also loves to perform gigs at the restaurant “Carruthers” in Astoria, Oregon and enjoys creating music with her friends. Minntah sang in the Lincoln HS Choir and Cardinal Choir her freshman and sophomore years and recently won the Soprano Soloist Category for District 1.

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. A proud student of Liberty Broillet, Sophia enjoys listening to mainstream flute sensation Lizzo, who also happens to be an inspiration of hers.

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 as the importance of activism in her life, saying “seeing musicians on stage that look like you is powerful.”

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 in music purely for the love of it. We’ll hear her story -and learn about her environmental non-profit (Next-Gen Innovators)- in this episode of On Deck with Young Musicians.

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 still enjoys playing it in the school band. Alessandro plans to attend college (Harvard is his #1 school) to major in medicine and minor in music with the dream of becoming a surgeon. Check him out at the next BRAVO Community Orchestra concert at the University of Portland. You'll see him in the cello section and conducting a piece on the program! You can learn more about BRAVO at www.oregonbravo.org.

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, Ben shares about his other musical explorations, including playing electric guitar in a band with his friends (named Miter Saw!), in the genres of screamo, hardcore and slowcore.

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 those passions and skills, Sarah enjoys reading, playing with her pets, and hanging out with her family. She is passionate about helping others, solving problems, drawing, and baking. In addition to playing with MYS, Sarah has been a member of the Oregon All-State Wind Ensemble.

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 Nation she was drawn early on to the native flute playing at the tribal gatherings her family would attend each summer. Her passion for classical music is matched by her drive to bring attention to indigenous history and justice. At Cleveland, she co-founded a native student union and is part of the campaign to change the school’s name due to Grover Cleveland’s anti-indigenous policies. For this segment, Maya plays a contemporary piece (Homeland, by Allison Loggins-Hull) that evokes her people’s history of displacement.

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 being a horn player, plus his passion for his other instruments: piano, guitar and trumpet. Sam is also a successful soccer player, currently on the roster of his school’s varsity team.