All Classical Radio | On Deck with Young Musicians

Emily Wen, a junior at Sherwood High School, plays in her school Wind Ensemble and marching band, and the Portland Youth Conservatory Orchestra. This is Emily’s 6th year playing the flute and 5th year studying under Denise Westby. She is the principal flute of the Sherwood High School Wind Ensemble and the Portland Youth Conservatory Orchestra and recently placed fourth at the OSAA state solo contest.

Charles Martin is an 18-year old composer, pianist, actor, entrepreneur and writer. In this episode of On Deck, Raul Gomez-Rojas talks with Charles about all of his interests, as well as his decision to perhaps skip college and make a living in the music world without a degree.

Charles began taking piano lessons when he was 4, and since then has discovered a passion for composing and performing. Charles has had his music performed by numerous groups around Portland including the Portland Youth Philharmonic, the Metropolitan Youth Symphony, Chamber Music Northwest’s “Young Artist Institute”, the Pacific Rose Ensemble, as part of an organization he has founded called “The Young Composer’s Concert Series”, Fear No Music’s “The Young Composers

Project” workshops, and others.

Beyond being an accomplished young composer, Charles has a passion for musical theater. Since he was 7 years old he has performed in Annie, Peter Pan and other premiere plays around Portland. He is also actively involved with a local theater group called Commission Impact Theater, for which he will be scoring their next play “Saul: Son of Kish”. In the meantime, he is an active composer, writing for Michael Allen Harrison’s “The Ten Grands”, Commission Impact Theater, Chamber Music Northwest’s Young Artist Institute, as well as his own concert series.

Anika Gupta is one of All Classical’s 2024 Young Artist Ambassadors. She is currently a sophomore at Sunset High School. She has always loved music and picked up the guitar during middle school. Since then, her passion for guitar has only grown! She currently studies under Travis Johnson and loves to spread music in various ways. She has won several music competitions, attended festivals and camps, and likes to play at retirement homes in her free time. She enjoys everything about the world of music and truly believes that learning an instrument is an opportunity that should be accessible to everyone. Outside of music, Anika loves STEM and always seeks new ways to combine her love of engineering and music

Miranda Newman is a third-year political science major and music minor at Reed College. Her first year of college she received the Kaufman Fellowship for violin performance and has been a part of many of Reed’s music local ensembles including orchestra and chamber music. She started violin at 4 years old and participated in countless musical endeavors throughout her life including solo and ensemble competitions, summer workshops, local youth symphonies, and professional gigs such as Eugene Ballet’s production of “The Nutcracker”. She wants to pursue law and tries to maintain a good school/practice/hobbies balance which can be challenging as a full-time liberal arts college student.

Haruka Sakiyama is a 17-year old junior at West Linn High School, and one of All Classical Radio’s 2024 Young Artist Ambassadors. Haruka is a French horn player, a violinist, a composer… and she also plays the koto. In this episode of On Deck, Raul Gomez-Rojas talks with Haruka about all of these talents, and what her plans for the future might be.

Ian Sage is a 21-year-old junior at Portland State University currently studying composition and percussion. In college, composing has become a natural extension of his love for playing and listening to music. In this episode hosted by Adam Eccleston, Ian talks about taking influences from classical, jazz, film, and video game music in his works as well as the pieces he performs.

Raul Gomez-Rojas talks with 18-year old cellist Pearl Liao, a cellist with the Portland Youth Philharmonic. Pearl has some wisdom to share about practicing, and she also tells us about her future goal to be a surgeon.

Christa Wessel chats with 17-year old pianist Nikita Istratov, a senior at Sunset High School and one of the winners of Cognizart’s Young Artist Debut Concert on May 17th.  In this episode of On Deck, Nikita talks about his love of classical music, his curiosity about how creative people became creative, and about getting his pilot’s license before he got his driver’s license.

Raul Gomez-Rojas chats with 17-year old bassoonist Katelyn Nguyen, one of All Classical Radio’s 2024 Young Artist Ambassadors. In this episode of On Deck, we’ll learn not only why she chose the bassoon, but why she has chosen to play in both the Metropolitan Youth Symphony AND the Portland Youth Philharmonic. As she heads to the Curtis Institute next year, she also shares some advice for her younger self.

Sophie Bergkvist is in the midst of her first season with the Metropolitan Youth Symphony (MYS), where she plays trumpet with the Concert Orchestra and Symphonic Wind Ensemble. She began playing trumpet at the age of 10 by joining her school band. She enjoyed it so much, that she decided to study under Jim Kvech, and currently with Gerald Webster. Musical honors include selection to the 2023 Oregon All-State Symphonic Band and the 2023 Western International Band Clinic.