String Students Earn Spots in Distinguished Graduate and Summer Programs

Violinist Nicholas Whitley ’25 (Bachelor of Music in Performance) has been accepted as a teaching assistant at University of Miami’s Frost School of Music. He will receive a stipend and free tuition (worth $200k) to attend the school for his master’s degree in violin performance.

Whitley and Gabrielle Gans ’25 (Bachelor of Music in Performance) have been invited to attend the American Institute of Musical Studies (AIMS) Festival in Graz, Austria, this summer after successfully passing their auditions. The program prepares young artists for a professional career in music by offering instrumentalists the chance to perform under the baton of some of Europe’s most dynamic conductors.

A string quartet made up of Gans, Whitley, Steven Gestrich ’25 (Bachelor of Music in Performance – Viola) and Matthew Reffner ’25 (Bachelor of Music in Performance – Cello) has been invited to attend the DaPonte String Quartet Institute in Bath, Maine, after being accepted through their submitted performance recording.

“I’m truly happy to see so much positive momentum,” said Victor Brown Endowed Chair in Violin and Professor of Violin Akemi Takayama, D.M.A.