How my journey began

Luke, 20 years old, from Raleigh, North Carolina, began playing violin at the age of three. He currently studies with Mr. Li Lin at The Juilliard School as a member of the Class of 2025. Prior to Juilliard, Luke studied throughout high school with Mr. Paul Biss at the New England Conservatory. Previous teachers include Paul Kantor, The Shepherd School of Music, Robert Chen, CSO Concertmaster, Dr. Ann Setzer, Juilliard Precollege & Meadowmount School of Music, Mr. Dovid Friedlander, Associate Concertmaster of the North Carolina Symphony, Mr. Yoram Youngerman at the University of North Carolina, and Ms. Margaret Garriss at Meredith College. Luke made his solo debut as Laurette of the Samuel Fordis Young Artist Competition with the Georgia Philharmonic at age 12, performing Mozart’s 4th violin concerto. Luke is pursuing his Bachelor of Music degree as a member of The Juilliard School’s Class of 2025. Throughout high school, Luke worked with school-age children as a volunteer in Phillips Academy’s Andover Lawrence Strings program and also was on the teaching faculty of the Boston-based Through The Staff program. Luke was a member of the Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra throughout high school, conducted by Maestro Benjamin Zander, and performed internationally in Berlin, Salzburg, Budapest, Pecs, Vienna, Amsterdam, and Jihlava. Luke began studying and performing chamber music at the age of 9 with the Mallarme Youth Chamber Orchestra and continued in the Chamber Music Intensive Performance Seminar at the New England Conservatory Preparatory School led by Ms. Merry Peckham. Luke is featured on National Public Radio’s From The Top (Show 392), celebrating the top young classically-trained musicians.

In 2021 Luke won The American Prize in Instrumental Performance and the Grand Prize at the World Classical Music Awards. He was Named a YAP Artist in Hilton Head and was awarded The New England Conservatory Preparatory School Eugene Lehrer Chamber Music Award. In 2020, Luke’s piano trio won the Gold Medal at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition and his string quartet won first prize at the Coltman National Chamber Music Competition. Luke was the North Carolina State Winner in the 2020 Music Teachers National Senior Performance Competition and the first place winner in the Great Composers International Competition Series, The Art of Strings Performance. In 2018 Luke was the first place winner in the Peter Perret Youth Talent Search Concerto Competition and performed in concert with the Winston-Salem Symphony. He also was the first place winner in the 2018 Young Artist Concerto Competition of the New England Philharmonic and soloed with the orchestra at Boston University’s Tsai Performance Center. Luke was the North Carolina State Winner in the 2018 Music Teachers National Solo Performance Competition and winner of the southern regional, and a national finalist in the MTNA Finals Competition in Lake Buena Vista Florida. He also won 1st place in North Carolina and 1st place in the Southeast Region in the Stillman-Kelley Competition of the National Federation of Music Clubs. Luke won the 2018 Chapel Hill Philharmonia Young Artist Concerto Competition, was the 1st place winner of the Great Composers Best Saint Saens Performance Competition and the winner of the Elfrida Halbig Memorial Award for most beautiful performance in the North Carolina Bach Festival.

Luke is a violinist of The Dolphins, a string quartet he and colleagues from Juilliard founded in Blue Hill, Maine at the 2022 Kneisel Hall Music Festival. Since, they have performed nationwide, frequenting Alice Tully and Paul Hall at Juilliard and Rikers Island. The Dolphins have studied with Joel Krosnick, Natasha Brofsky, Fred Sherry, Nicholas Mann, Laurie Smukler, Joseph Lin, Molly Carr, John Corigliano, and the Juilliard String Quartet. The Dolphins premiered their very own Dolphin Miniatures at Juilliard’s 2022 Winter ChamberFest. The Dolphins were awarded Juilliard’s Gluck Community Service Fellowship to promote their musical outreach performances in New York City. The Dolphins were invited to represent The Juilliard School at the 2023 Music from Angel Fire Festival in which they presented numerous public performances throughout northern New Mexico. While in Angel Fire, they collaborated with Grammy-nominated composer, Andy Akiho and performed with percussionist Ian Rosenbaum. Upcoming performances and events slated for 2023-24 include Los Angeles, New York, Virginia, North Carolina, and US Virgin Islands. Luke's musical interests extend beyond European classical repertoire – namely Bluegrass, Jazz, R&B, and South Indian Classical. Luke was featured in the Juilliard Jazz Orchestra during their residency at Dizzy’s Club at Jazz at Lincoln Center, performing the music of Duke Ellington. Luke is dedicated to the study and performance of contemporary classical music. In 2023, he was featured in celebration performances for contemporary composers John Corigliano, Samuel Adler, and Reena Esmail

What I’m doing right now

I’m a junior at The Juilliard School in New York City! My summer began as an alumni mentor in the MYCO summer music festival at the University of North Carolina. I then spent seven weeks in Blue Hill, Maine at the Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival with my string quartet, The Dolphins where we studied and performed Arnold Schoenberg’s String Quartet No. 1 in D minor and Beethoven’s first (Op.18, No.1) and final (Op. 131) string quartets! Following Kneisel, The Dolphins headed to New Mexico to represent Juilliard at Music from Angel Fire with numerous performances in Northern New Mexico. I am now back at Juilliard in NYC and have some big performances and outreach events planned, among them The Dolphins will be piloting a music education prison initiative in Los Angeles with Project Music Heals Us. Check out my Events page to keep track of my upcoming events and public performances.

Besides school, I love to spend time hanging out with my friends and visiting cool places in the city! When I’m not playing violin around New York City, I enjoy reading, hiking and spending time with friends.