Season Artists
Blues Zhang
2025 AO Competition College Division Winner
20-year-old violinist Blues Zhang is currently pursuing his Bachelor’s degree at The Juilliard School under the tutelage of Catherine Cho. Born into a musical family, Zhang first studied violin with his mother Zhang Xi, 1st violinist of the Hong Kong Philharmonia Orchestra. He then went on to pursue his studies with Jeremy Williams and Martin Beaver at The Colburn Music Academy.
Zhang was the winner of the 2021 Colburn Music Academy Concerto Competition, as well as a finalist in the 2023 Juilliard Concerto Competition and the Musicus Society Young Artist Audition. He was also awarded first prize in the HKGNA International Music Competition, Concerto Class of Hong Kong Youth Catania Music Competition, and was the first runner-up in the Hong Kong Strings Scholarship for Stringed Instruments.
An active orchestral musician, Zhang has served as concertmaster of the Colburn Academy Virtuosi, Diocesan Boys’ School’s String Orchestra, and the Hong Kong Camerata Strings. He is also a substitute musician in the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra. His festival appearances include The Perlman Music Program@Chamber Music Workshop, Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, Starling-DeLay Symposium, Yellow Barn Young Artist Program, Kneisel Hall, Meadowmount School, New York String Orchestra, Heifetz International Music Institute, and the Asian Youth Orchestra.
Zhang has appeared as a soloist on NPR’s From the Top (Show #431) and with the Colburn Academy Virtuosi, Hope College Orchestra, and Hong Kong Youth Orchestra. He has also performed in various masterclasses with Michaela Martin, Joseph Lin, Laurie Smukler, Areta Zhulla, Paul Kantor, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Clive Greensmith, Frank Huang, Kirill Troussov, Pavlo Beznosiuk, Peter Ounjian, and Tatjana Masurenko. In chamber music settings, Zhang has worked and collaborated with members from the Brentano, Shanghai, Dover, Emerson, Tokyo, Juilliard, Orion, and Parker string quartets. His quartet was part of the Juilliard’s Honors Chamber Program (2024-2025) which recently made its debut at Alice Tully Hall.
Zhang is a proud recipient of the Hong Kong Jockey Club Music and Dance Fund, Greendale Scholarship, Dorothy Delay Scholarship, and Mai Family Scholarship. He currently plays a 1765 Joseph Gagliano violin on generous loan from Juilliard.
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Miranda Isbitts
2025 AO Competition Grand Prize Winner
Miranda is a 20-year-old violinist from Clearwater, Florida, and began playing at age 5. Throughout high school, she studied with world-renowned pedagogue Mimi Zweig and was a leading participant in the Jacobs School of Music Violin Virtuosi ensemble. With the Violin Virtuosi, she performed in various ensemble and solo concerts/masterclasses across several states. Miranda has won many competitions at the local, national, and international levels, including the Adelphi Orchestra Young Artist Competition, Maurer Young Musicians Competition, Justine LeBaron Young Artist Competition, Essential Music String Concerto Competition, Sherer International Violin and Piano Competition, and more. Additionally, she was the 2026 winner of the Mark Zinger Memorial Scholarship Competition and the 2025 New England Conservatory Bales Violin Competition. Miranda has performed as a soloist with The Florida Orchestra, the Bloomington Symphony Orchestra, the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Carmel Symphony Orchestra and the Indianapolis Youth Orchestra. In the summer of 2025, Miranda was a fellow of the Sarasota Music Festival, where she collaborated with distinguished violinists including Sandy Yamamoto and Jen Frautschi, and sat principal in the Sarasota Festival Orchestra. She also participated in the Virtuoso and Belcanto Strings Festival in Lucca, Italy, where she studied with Erik Schumann and Krzysztof Wegrzyn. Miranda has performed in masterclasses for prominent artists Vadim Gluzman, Kerson Leong, Robin Scott, Almita Vamos, Joel Smirnoff, Noah Bendix-Bagley, Nancy Zhou, Tessa Lark, and many others. She attends the New England Conservatory of Music on a dean’s scholarship and is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in violin performance under the tutelage of Ayano Ninomiya. In the fall, Miranda was seated principal in the NEC Symphony Orchestra. As a member of the NEC Pratt Early Music Program, she is a student of violinist Renee Hemsing, focusing primarily on the baroque style. Miranda is a member of the NEC Baroque Orchestra and teaches in the NEC high school preparatory baroque program. Miranda will perform on a Gand & Bernardel violin on loan from the Friedman family.
Lanny Paykin
Cellist LANNY PAYKIN was born in New York City, where he attended the High School of Music and Art. He received the Bachelor of Arts degree from Wesleyan University, and Master of Music from the Juilliard School. Mr. Paykin has enjoyed a diverse career in New York, appearing regularly with the New York City Ballet and Metropolitan Opera, in recording studios, and in solo and chamber music concerts. He is a member of the American Composers' Orchestra, the Adelphi Orchestra (principal) and the Westchester Philharmonic. He has performed as principal cellist of the New York City Opera, Brooklyn Philharmonic, Long Island Philharmonic, Westchester Philharmonic, American Composers' Orchestra, and American Symphony Orchestra. He toured Asia with the New York Philharmonic and performed with them at Avery Fisher Hall. Summer activities have included festivals at Aspen, Dartmouth College, Bard College, Lake Tahoe, and the island of Paros in Greece. He has served on the faculties of Manhattan School of Music (precollege), Wesleyan University, New Jersey City University, Ridgewood Conservatory and Montclair State University’s summer program at Stokes Forest, New Jersey.
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Francesa Silos
Violist Francesca Martin Silos, former member of the award winning Colorado Quartet from 1982 to 2000, has performed extensively throughout the U.S., Canada, and Europe. In 1983, within 10 days, the quartet won both the prestigious Naumburg Chamber Music Award and First Prize at the Banff International String Quartet Competition. Ms. Martin Silos has also appeared at numerous music festivals including the La Jolla Chamber Music Festival, SoundFest Summer Quartet Festival, Round Top Festival Institute, and Orford Music Festival in Canada. She has recorded works by Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, and several contemporary composers on CD's from Nonesuch, Delos, Fidelio, and Parnassus Records. Originally from Los Angeles, she has been a member of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra as well as principal violist of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute. She teaches privately and has been the featured writer of a pedagogy article in the Journal of the American Viola Society. Currently she resides in Bergen County where she performs often as a guest artist with a variety of ensembles.
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Kathleen Butler-Hopkins
Kathleen Butler-Hopkins is a violinist who has concertized in major forums in the United States and Europe. She is a veteran of the Tanglewood Festival, the Meadowmount School of Music, and the “Yale in Norfolk” summer music programs, and her many concert credits include performances in Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, Merkin Concert Hall, and the Kennedy Center as well European venues such as Vienna’s Musikverein and Salzburg’s Schloss Leopoldskron. In addition to her activities as soloist and chamber musician, she has served as assistant concertmaster of the Boston Civic Symphony, and as concertmaster of other regional orchestras along the east coast, including the Adelphi Orchestra. She is on the faculty at William Paterson University in Wayne, New Jersey as an adjunct professor of violin, viola, and chamber music, and is a member of the Hobart Piano Trio faculty ensemble. She is also a freelance violinist in the tri-state area and beyond.
Dr. Butler-Hopkins was awarded the rank of Professor Emerita of Violin, Viola, and Chamber Music from the University of Alaska Fairbanks. She holds Doctor of Musical Arts and Master of Musical Arts degrees from Yale University School of Music. She received both Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees from The Juilliard School and attended the Curtis Institute of Music. Dr. Butler-Hopkins received a summer stipend from the National Endowment for the Humanities to study the string quartets of Beethoven at Harvard University. Under the auspices of the Fulbright-Hays Fellowship Program, she completed a year of study at the Vienna State Academy in Austria.
At the University of Alaska Fairbanks, Dr. Butler-Hopkins served as concertmaster and soloist with the Fairbanks Symphony and the Arctic Chamber Orchestra and as a founding member of the Alaska Trio, the Alaska Chamber Ensemble, and the Alaska Chamber Players. Dr. Butler-Hopkins has also appeared as violin and viola soloist with the Fairbanks Youth Orchestra and as violin soloist with the UAF Jazz Band. She performed as concertmaster for orchestras with the Western Opera Theater, Opera Fairbanks, the Fairbanks Light Opera Theatre, and the Fairbanks Choral Arts Orchestra. Her distinguished students have furthered their studies at The Juilliard School, New England Conservatory, San Francisco Conservatory, Peabody, and Oberlin among others, and have attended Tanglewood, Meadowmount, Bowdoin, Encore, and the Indiana Summer String Academy. They have also won prizes in MTNA competitions, the National Foundation for the Advancement of the Arts, and National Suzuki conferences. Many are members of orchestras throughout the United States and Europe.
Dr. Butler-Hopkins is currently a regular faculty member at the Northeast Chamber Music Seminar (Avaloch Farm, Concord, NH), formerly the Lake Placid Institute for the Arts and Humanities Chamber Music Seminar, and was the founder of String Fling, a chamber music program for Alaskan pre-college students. Dr. Butler-Hopkins contributed to Strings magazine, was twice a Visiting Scholar at Harvard University, has numerous “Who’s Who” listings, and is a member of Phi Kappa Phi. She received several UAF College of Liberal Arts Excellence in Teaching Awards, was named String Teacher of the Year by the Alaska String Teachers Association and was a recipient of the prestigious Usibelli Distinguished Service Award at UAF.
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