34th Annual Young Artist Competition: Honors Recital

Ayra Karlin is a 16-year-old violinist from Miami, Florida who is part of the New World Symphony College Track program.  Ayra was born in Santiago, Chile, and started playing violin at the age of 7.  She studies at Coral Reef Senior High School, and is the concertmaster of the school’s Chamber and Symphony Orchestras. Ayra is in her second year of the New World Symphony College Track mentorship program, where she studies with professional orchestra musicians. She performed in the New World Symphony Side-by-Side Orchestra in 2023 and 2024, an experience that has deepened her passion for music. Ayra won first place in the Carmen Seepersad Memorial Scholarship competition, performed with the National Pathways Fellowship Orchestra in Nashville, and earned recognition in the Florida All-State FMEA Orchestra from 2022 to 2025.  She has participated in summer programs such as the Sphinx Performance Academy at the Cleveland Institute of Music, the Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival in Vermont, VIA Music Academy, and UM’s Frost School of Music.  In these intensive programs, she developed her skills in solo and chamber music. Ayra is deeply committed to sharing her love of music, aspiring to attend a top-level conservatory, where she can continue to grow as an artist and perform as a professional musician.

I am studying flute under Dr. Francesca Arnone. Since middle school, I have actively participated in ensembles, competitions, and other musical events that have shaped my development.  In eighth grade, I served as the principal flutist for the Florida Music Education Association (FMEA) All-State Middle School Band. By ninth grade, I earned a position in the FMEA All-State High School Concert Orchestra, and in tenth grade, I became the principal flutist for the FMEA All-State High School Concert Band. I have participated in Solo and Ensemble competitions annually since sixth grade and have been awarded Blue Lake’s Merit Scholarship. In the summer of 2022, I attended the Interlochen Flute Intensive Summer Camp, a transformative experience that deepened my understanding of the flute.  Since 2020, I have played with the Tampa Metropolitan Youth Orchestra (TMYO). In 2023, I won the Florida Flute Association Convention High School Masterclass.  In 2024, I was selected for the National Flute Association High School Flute Choir (San Antonio, TX, July 30-August 4, 2024) and won First Prize in the Young Artist Category of the 2024 Bach International Music Competition UK and of the Vivaldi International Music Competition. Additionally, I earned Third Place in the Do Re Mi International Music Competition and received an Honorable Mention from the London International Music Competition, where I was the only musician representing the United States.  In addition, I had the honor of being named the Florida Music Teachers National Association (MTNA) Senior Performance Woodwind Winner (Alternate).

Since 2021, I have volunteered as a recruitment director and tutor for the Do Re Mi Project (https://www.doremiproject.org), a platform providing free online music lessons to underserved communities worldwide. I have been teaching five students from low-income households in New York, Maryland, and Washington, D.C. Additionally, I mentor younger musicians in person in the Tampa metropolitan area, sharing guidance and encouragement to foster their growth. These efforts earned me the President’s Volunteer Service Award (Bronze) in 2024, recognizing my dedication with over 100 service hours annually.  

Madelyn Urbine is a 17 year old french horn player from Gainesville, Florida, attending F.W. Buchholz High School. She has been playing the french horn for six years under the guidance of her teacher, Margaret Dixon. In her high school career, Madelyn has been selected for the FMEA All-State Concert Orchestra, Concert Band, and Symphonic Band. As a sophomore and a junior, she was selected as a finalist in the US Navy Band’s Young Artist Solo Competition, performing with the band twice. Along with this, she was the 2024 winner of the First Coast Wind Symphony Concerto Competition in Jacksonville Florida. Outside of music, Madelyn enjoys doing CrossFit and weightlifting.

Ivan Kostornyi, a fifteen-year-old violinist, began his musical studies at the age of five  with Alla Zhitnitskaya in Sydney, Australia. At the age of nine, he gave his first solo concert  in Sydney. When he was ten years old, Ivan and his family moved to Orlando, Florida, where  he started studying with Olga Kolpakova at the St. Andrew‘s Conservatory of Music, located  in Sanford. Currently, Ivan studies with Rimma Bergeron-Langlois, who is the  concertmistress of the Orlando Philharmonic, and Olga Kolpakova. He has also studied  under Professor Julia Bushkova, Dr. Alvaro Gomez, and Dr. Lev Gurevich. Ivan has also  participated in masterclasses and received individual lessons from Antal Zalai, Evgeny  Bushkov, David Kim, and Professor Routa Kroumovitch. Ivan also has participated in and  received top prizes in various competitions including the MTNA National Competition and  the FSYO Concerto Competition. Besides violin, Ivan also studies organ (as a second  instrument) with Dr. Terry Yount, a former professor at the Rollins College.

Khalil Payne is a current Junior at the University of North Florida. Starting his journey on cello at the age of eleven, he played in the Honor Orchestra through his middle school years. In February of 2019 he made his first performance at the prestigious Carnegie hall with the Honors Performance Series Symphony orchestra. In 2020 Just right before covid, Khalil made his debut on television at the age of 16 for his second upcoming performance at Carnegie hall. He was interviewed on the shows Sister Circle, Atlanta and Company, and Fox 5 news. That summer he participated in the YOLA National Festival (Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles) and he was accepted into their National Institute where they talk about the culture of not only classical music, but all genres, and make discussions or panels based off of our topics we would want to cover or debate about. Khalil did his first residency with the YNI (YOLA National Institute) in the summer of 2021 at the Walnut Hill School of the Arts, which later led to his first National Symposium that he would be a part of. He was on a Youth Panel with YNI talking about the possible future with classical music. In April of that year he won 3rd prize of the District Omega Psi Phi Talent Hunt which consisted of contestants from Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, and Alabama. In the summer of 2022, Khalil attended and performed in YNF (YOLA National Festival) and competed in the National NAACP ACT-SO competition. Just after his freshman year of College, he also participated in the Ascent Cello Festival which had guest teachers Hans Jensen and Richard Aaron, and the Ascent Chamber Music Festival. The following year, he entered the UNF Orchestra Concerto Competition and became one out of two winners who later performed as a soloist with the UNF Orchestra. That year he has earned the Outstanding Musician Award, and that summer he Attended the Ascent Cello and Chamber Music Festival, along with The Complete Cellist, all taking place in Cincinatti, and Hudson Ohio.

Isabelle Scott is a first year doctoral student in harp at Florida State University where she studies with Dr. Noel Wan. Ms. Scott holds a BM in instrumental performance and a MM in harp performance from the University of Miami and Florida State University. A native Floridian, Ms. Scott has been an active harpist throughout Northeast Florida and South Georgia. As an orchestral harpist, she served during high school as harpist with the Jacksonville Symphony Youth Orchestra and Jacksonville University Orchestra and more recently has been a substitute harpist for the Tallahassee Symphony Orchestra and the Coastal Symphony Orchestra. She has also served in university orchestras and ensembles at University of Miami and FSU and as harpist for the First Coast Opera, and was a featured soloist with FSU’s University Philharmonia Orchestra. Ms. Scott has participated in summer programs at the Young Artists Harp Seminar, Brevard Music Center, and Bowdoin International Music Festival. Her current pursuits and interests as a doctoral student lie in opera orchestra as well as pediatric cancer advocacy and outreach.

Isabela Diaz is a 19-year-old violinist who lives in Miami, Florida, and has been studying the violin since she was six. For the past few years, she has been studying alongside Jose Guibert and Huifang Chen. She has participated in community orchestras such as the Greater Miami Youth Symphony and the Juilliard Orchestra, giving her the opportunity to play under the direction of renowned music directors such as Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Michael Tilson Thomas, Robert Spano, Carlos Miguel Prieto, Maximiliano Valdes, Stephane Deneve, James Judd and Gerard Schwartz, among others. Isabela has been awarded prizes for competitions such as the MMTA Concerto Competition, the Charleston International Concerto Competition, and the FSMTA State Violin Competition. She has played as a soloist with orchestras such as the Alhambra Orchestra, the NWSA Symphony orchestra and the Stamps quartet. She has also had the opportunity to work with violinists such as Itzhak Perlman, Hillary Hahn, Ida Kavafian, Robert Chen, Kerson Leong, Rachel Barton Pine, Roland Daugareil, Lara St. John, Alexander Kerr and Robert McDuffie. From 2017 to 2022, she was selected to participate in the Florida All-State Honors Orchestra, being appointed concertmaster in 2022. In 2019, she participated in the New World Symphony Side by Side and in 2021 as concertmaster. Isabela has had the pleasure of attending music festivals such as the Sphinx Performance Academy at the Curtis Institute of Music, the National Youth Orchestra (NYO2), the Aspen Music Festival, Domaine Forget de Charlevoix and the MusicAlp Academie. She has also been granted scholarships such as the Jerome L. Greene, Irene Muir Grant, the Katcher Family Scholarship and the Coral Gables Music Club Scholarship. Isabela is currently pursuing her Bachelors in Violin Performance at the Juilliard School under the guidance of Ronald Copes.

Soprano Madalyn Tomkins is currently pursuing her Master of Music in Vocal Performance at the University of Houston Moores School of Music under the tutelage of Melanie Sonnenberg. She joins the Moores Opera Center for her second season where she was featured as Alma March in Adamo’s Little Women and will cover internationally renowned soprano Christine Goerke as Princess Turandot in a concert performance of Puccini’s Turandot. During her 2023-2024 season, she performed the role of Fiordiligi in Mozart’s Così fan tutte. Additionally, Ms. Tomkins received the Honorable Mention in the 2023 Moores School of Music Concerto Competition and was a Finalist in the 2024 Grand Concours Vocal Competition.

She received her Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance from Webster University where she performed in select opera scenes as Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, Pamina in Die Zauberflöte, Suor Angelica in Suor Angelica, and won first prize in the Webster University Department of Music annual Concerto Competition (2022).