Youth, Tricksters, and Metamorphosis

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.

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.