Ilyes ’24 and Keane ’23 Win Positions with Roanoke Symphony Orchestra

Violinist Emily Ilyes ’24 (Doctor of Musical Arts in Performance) and cellist John Keane ’23 (Bachelor of Music in Performance) were awarded positions as members of the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra for the upcoming performance season.

Keane was also recently featured in the Greensboro Daily Photo on Wednesday, July 27, in honor of being awarded the 2022 Dr. Kieth Wright Cello Scholarship at the Eastern Music Festival (EMF) in North Carolina. The scholarship is awarded to the top cello applicant every summer. It is not an award bestowed during the festival. He is pictured with Dr. Judie Davie Wright who arranged the scholarship in her husband’s honor after his death. Keane

Ilyes studies with Victor Brown Endowed Chair in Violin and Associate Professor of Violin Akemi Takayama, M.M., and Keane studies with Assistant Professor of Cello Julian Schwarz, M.M., who also served on the faculty at EMF this summer.