Peabody Harmony Project(PHP) is a Peabody preparatory student-run 501(c)(3)non-profit organization to use the transformative power of music to open up life-changing experience to students and local communities free of charge. We have two wonderful program: educational program and community outreach program, completely free of charge.
The mission of Peabody Harmony Project is to uplift community with music by offering free online music lessons to elementary and middle schoolers who might not have access to music otherwise and providing community enrichment through performing music at senior living centers, hospitals, community festivals and alike for free.
Board of Directors
Michael Shi, co-founder/President of Peabody Harmony Project, is a Junior at Glenelg High School in Maryland. Michael has played Clarinet for 8 years and is currently a rotating principal clarinetist at Peabody Youth Orchestra(PYO). Prior to PYO, he played clarinet in Baltimore Symphony Youth Orchestra, Howard County GT Bands, School Symphony Band/Marching Band and All State Junior Band. Michael was accepted by Julliard Winds Summer Camp in 2021 and 2022. Michael has won multiple music competitions national and international including but not limited to Crescendo International Music Competition(2020), Winner of Golden Key Festival Vienna(2021), Winner of International Music Competition 34th Salzburg and 35th Amsterdam(2022), Grand Prize Virtuoso, and Winner of Golden Classical Musical Award(2022 and 2023). As a result he has been invited to perform at the Gala Concert at Bosendorfer Hall in Vienna, Elgar Room Royal Albert Hall in London, and Carnegie Hall in New York City. Besides music, Michael is a competitive tennis player and serves on school varsity tennis team and a local tennis club as the captain. He is also a big advocate for uplifting community and contributes hundreds of hours to community services each year at both musical and non-musical organizations including Clarksville Youth Care Group, a multi-award winning student-led non profit Organization where he serves as an Asst. Outreach Manager and Doremi Project where he is featured Clarinet tutor. Michael has excellent leadership. He is the co-founder and president of his school Young Investors Society club and the co-founder and head coach at Howard County Chinese School Summer Tennis Camp.
Emily Shi, co-founder/Vice President of Peabody Harmony Project Inc., is a sophomore at Glenelg High School in Maryland. She studies at Pre-Conservatory Violin Program, which supports and challenges the most advanced, serious, and gifted violinists at the Preparatory. Young artists in this program are playing at the advanced level and display the artistic potential to pursue a performance career in music. Currently, Emily is a co-concertmaster at Peabody Youth Orchestra and a lead violinist in Academy Chamber under the guide of Dr. Christian Tremblay. Chair of Peabody Preparatory String Department. She played solos in Carnegie Hall twice as winners of music competitions. Her private teacher is Ms. Rebecca Henry, former Chair of Peabody Preparatory String Department. Prior to Peabody Prep, Emily had successfully led school GT orchestras and county GT orchestras as concertmaster. She was 3rd chair out of 63 students in violin I section for 2023 All State Junior Orchestra and Asst. Concertmaster in five concerts during Baltimore Symphony Youth Orchestra European trip. Emily has won multiple music competitions national and international including but not limited to Crescendo International Music Competition(2019,2020), Winner of Golden Key Festival Vienna(2021), Winner of International Music Competition 34th Salzburg and 35th Amsterdam(2022), Grand Prize Virtuoso, and Winner of Golden Classical Musical Award(2022 and 2023) and has been invited to perform at the Gala Concert at Bosendorfer Hall in Vienna, Elgar Room Royal Albert Hall in London, and Carnegie Hall in New York City. She studied at National Philharmonic Orchestra Summer String Institute every year before the pandemic. Emily also had piano learning for 5 years and had won numerous awards in piano competitions. She composes music pieces when she is inspired and had won three national/international composition competitions in 2020 and 2021. Emily loves to spread music via her volunteer tutoring and performances in local communities. She is the co-founder and president of her school Young Investors Society club and the co-founder and head coach at Howard County Chinese School Summer Tennis Camp with Michael Shi. She likes positively influence others with her vision and hard working attitude.
Jiles Defosse Jiles Defosse is a 13 years old violinist from Annapolis. He took interest in the violin at age 4.5, and is currently studying with Prof. Judith Ingolfsson. Jiles is a member of the Peabody pre-conservatory violin program and the Peabody youth orchestra, for which he is serving as concertmaster for one of the programs in 2023-2024 session. Jiles also was a part of the 2022/2023 Maryland All-State Junior Orchestra. After winning the Chesapeake Youth Orchestra concerto competition, Jiles made his first solo orchestra debut at age 11 playing Mozart violin concerto No 3. He also was a featured soloist with Roxborough Orchestra. Jiles is grateful for the opportunities to be coached by Christian Tremlay, Rebecca Henry, Qing Li, Stephan Jackiw, Cho-Liang Lin and Stanley Cornett in masterclasses. In the past summers, Jiles has participated in the Heifetz institute summer program 22' and 23' and Ascent music festival 23'. Jiles also plays violin along with youth church choir in Sunday Masses, where he finds great satisfaction to be able to bring joy through his violin to people of all ages, He is honored and excited to be part of the Harmony project and will treasure the experience for life. Currently an 8th grader at Bates Middle School, his favorite subject is Math. When not playing music, he loves reading books, and watching two-set videos.
David Wang is 16 years old, a junior at the Bullis School. David started his violin journey 8 years ago and is currently studying with Dr. Christian Tremblay, Chair of the Performance Academy for Strings at Johns Hopkins Peabody Preparatory. David is a lead violinist at the Peabody Pre-Conservatory Violin Program, Peabody Academy Chamber Music, and Peabody Youth Orchestra where he has served as a co-concertmaster for the past several years. Prior to Peabody, David served as concertmaster for several different orchestras at Maryland Classical Youth Orchestra (MCYO) and is currently concertmaster at Bullis Upper School orchestra as well. David is a multi-award winner and has achieved many musical accomplishments in regional, national, and international competitions. This includes: First Place at the 2023 & 2021 Elite International Music Competition (performed at Carnegie Hall in April 2022 for the Winner’s Recital); First Place at the 2021 National Philharmonic Solo Bach Competition; First Place at the 2022 City of Gaithersburg’s 19th Annual Young Artist Competition (also received 2nd Annual Carrie McMahon Dietz Award for Excellence as the top scoring Gaithersburg resident); First Place at the 2021 and 2022 Crescendo International Youth Music Competition; and First Place at the Young Musicians Inspiring Change (YMIC) Metropolitan Classical Music Festival from 2021 to 2023. David has also achieved many other awards such as Second Place at the 2021 American Protégé International Piano & Strings Competition. Third Place at the 2023 Jack Weaver Memorial Competition; 2021 Asian American Music Society (AAMC) Piano and String Competition; American Music Talent Competition both 2021 & 2022; and Honorable Mention at the U.S. Army Orchestra Young Artist Competition both 2022 &2023.David’s self-created String Quartet group has won First Place at the Washington Performing Arts and Levine Music 2020 Misbin Chamber Music Competition; 2019 Young Musicians Inspiring Change (YMIC) Metropolitan Solo & Chamber Festival; and the PlayIn with the Pros Workshop 2020. This past summer, David was accepted by the prestigious National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) Summer Music Institute at the Kennedy Center to further his music education. He’s also been selected to participate in the Heifetz International Music Summer Institute during the summer of 2022, the Maryland All-State Junior Orchestra from 2020 to 2022, and the National Philharmonic Summer String Institute Senior Group in 2021. Besides playing violin, David has a strong interest in music composition and currently has a piece published with the Tacy Foundation. David has also played piano for 9 years, he enjoys conducting a lot too. Amelia Baisden is twelve years old and attends Deal Middle School in Washington, DC. She studies cello with Dr. Daniel Levitov at Peabody Preparatory where she is also a member of the Performance Academy for Strings. A member of Peabody Youth Orchestra, she has held principal positions for the past six years within various regional youth orchestras and ensembles, including the Peabody Youth Orchestra, DC Youth Orchestra Program, and American Youth Philharmonic Orchestras—with whom she competed at the 2020 American String Teachers Association National Orchestra Festival and was awarded the Middle School Grand Champion. In 2021, Amelia was awarded “Most Promising Talent” in Amit Peled’s Inaugural Mount Vernon Virtuosi Online Cello Competition was also a winner of the 5th Annual DC Strings Workshop Concerto Audition, which led to an invitation to perform as a soloist with the Accord Symphony Orchestra in June 2022. She has won several regional, national, and international solo competitions, including the National Philharmonic’s Virtual Solo Bach Competition, the Joseph and Goldie Feder Memorial String Competition, the Metropolitan Music Festival, and the 2021 American Protégé International Concerto Competition—where she was also awarded the Judges’ Distinction Award with an invitation to perform at Carnegie Hall in November 2022. In April 2023, she accepted an invitation from the Secretary of Education, Mr. Miguel Cardona, to open for Herbie Hancock as part of a gala for the U.S. Department of Education’s International Summit on the Teaching Profession at Renwick Gallery of Arts at the Smithsonian. She has participated in several selective summer music programs, including the Philadelphia International Music Festival (2020), Ascent Music festival (2020 and 2021, formerly Cincinnati Young Artists), the International Cello Institute (2021), the Heifetz International Music Institute (2021 and 2022), and most recently the prestigious Music@Menlo's Young Performers Program, which she attended on a full fellowship in Summer 2023.
Ava Angeles is 15 years old and is a sophomore attending Stanford Online High School. She began her musical studies on the violin at the age of 4 and currently studies with Dr. Christian Tremblay at Peabody Preparatory where she is also a member of the Pre-conservatory Violin Program. Over the years she has won numerous awards at violin competitions, including the DePaul Concerto Festival, Music Festival in Honor of Confucius, and Se jong Violin Competition in Chicago, IL. She was a Fellow of the Chicago Musical Pathways Initiative, a merit scholarship program for underrepresented youths in classical music, from 2019-2022 and was a recipient of the Music Institute of Chicago’s Artists of Tomorrow violin scholarship from 2021-2022. She is an alumna of The Juilliard School Sphinx
Performance Academy summer program, which she attended on full scholarship in 2019. She has performed regularly at community concerts, public school education events, and public and private functions in Chicago since she was 5 years old. Aside from violin, she is also proficient in playing the piano, dagu(Chinese drums), and guzheng (Chinese zither) for which she won the silver medal in the Youth International Chinese Musical Instrument Competition in 2022. She has a particular interest in music composition and has had her original works performed by professional musicians as part of the John Adams Young Composers Program. In terms of academics, her major interests lie in mathematics and astrophysics. She was awarded the Honor Roll in the American Mathematics Competition 8 in 2022. She has written two astrophysics research papers as first author, one of which has been peer-reviewed and published in the Journal of Double Star Observations while the other is currently undergoing final peer review for publication in the Journal of the American Association of Variable Star Observers. In April 2023, she accepted an invitation to present her research paper and speak at a workshop at the Northeast Astro-imaging Conference held in New York, and in May 2023, she was invited to present her research paper as a poster in the Astronomy Education Conference held in the Dunlap Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics in the University of Toronto. |