Three Student Violinists Selected to Make Solo Debut with Seattle Symphony

Winners Announced
Concerto Competition Winners

From Left to Right: Back row-Noah Geller (Concertmaster of Seattle Symphony & Key to Change violin instructor), Jeremy Jolley (Director of Education at Seattle Symphony), Eden Pawlos (Key to Change competition winner) and Raff Wilson (Vice-President of Artistic Planning at Seattle Symphony). Middle and front rows - Sunny Xia (Assistant Conductor of Seattle Symphony), Avi Spillers (Key to Change competition winner), Madison Cole (Key to Change competition winner), Dr. Quinton Morris (Violin Instructor & Founder of Key to Change), Geoffrey Liu (Music Instructor of Key to Change).

Three students – Madison Cole, Eden Pawlos, and Avi Spillers were selected as winners in the Key to Change Concerto Competition, sponsored by the Seattle Symphony. As a result, these three students will make their professional debuts, each performing a solo concerto with the renowned Seattle Symphony. 

Madison is an 11th grader at Garfield High School and has studied violin at Key to Change since she was in the 7th grade. She desires to either major or minor in music upon graduation next year. 

Eden is a 10th grader at Kentridge High School and has studied violin at Key to Change since she was in 8th grade. She also won the Jessie Montgomery Competitive Division during the Solo String Festival and was awarded a $1,000 college scholarship. In addition to her upcoming Seattle Symphony debut, she will also solo debut with the Federal Way Symphony Orchestra and return as a soloist with the Northwest Symphony Orchestra next season.

Avi is an 8th grader at Sylvester Middle School and has studied violin at Key to Change for the past two years. She is a previous winner of the Debut Competitive Division, where she won a $500 college scholarship and an opportunity to perform live on Northwest Focus Live on Classical King. 

All three students study violin with Dr. Quinton Morris and Noah Geller, with Geoffrey Liu as their piano collaborator. 

The three students will make their professional debuts on Tuesday, October 24th in the IKEA Performing Arts Center in Renton.

Share the Post:

Related Posts

Harvard dean kicks off new college and career speaker series

On July 24, we launched Inspiring Possibilities, Key to Change’s new college and career speaker series, for a packed house of students, families, and community ...
Read More

Symphony South summer intensive created rare opportunities

This summer we offered students in South King County an extraordinary opportunity: Symphony South, a new four-week intensive music program created in partnership with Federal ...
Read More

New speaker series supports college and career exploration

At Key to Change, we believe that every student deserves access to the resources, encouragement, and opportunities needed to pursue higher education and fulfilling careers, ...
Read More