How it All Began

     Abigail's love for music started like most 2000's babies with One Direction, Lady Gaga, and Rihanna, among other famous 2000's singers. However, as she grew older, she became connected with the classical music world. Even though the flute wasn't her first choice, it became her channel for everything she couldn't describe with words (and her absolutely unbiased favorite instrument). Now she looks forward to taking on the adventure of becoming a professional musician by studying music performance in college. Abigail's top composers and musicians are Ravel, Rautavaara, Debussy, Little Simz, and Jacob Collier.
   When she started flute in fifth grade, Abigail was lucky to be immediately afforded a private teacher. Each week, she would step out of class to take private lessons from Susan Porter, the school choir teacher. In eighth grade, Abigail exceeded Mrs. Porter's teaching abilities and was guided to local flute player, Yvonne Bentz. From there, Abigail moved to lessons with Aimee Toner, a Connecticut resident, over Google Meets. Then, she added on in-person lessons with Shannon Abels, a flute teacher in Sioux Falls, to better focus on tone production. As of now, Abigail is working towards her bachelors degree in Music Performance under the direction of Professor Nina Assimakopoulos.
   The summer before her senior year, Abigail produced a CD for her senior project. It consisted of seven tracks and spanned from Bach to Karg-Elert. To promote it, she put on a local recital and invited her teachers and friends to play with her. The profits made from donations went towards her trip to Europe through the Ambassadors of Music. Lastly, this summer she put on a second recital with mostly contemporary music (her favorite kind of classical music) and one piece by Hildegard von Bingen.
   So far, Abigail has won first place in the Northern State University Young Artist Competition and third place in the Bruce P. Carlson Young Artist Competition through Schubert Club in Minneapolis. Both prizes were 500 dollars and will be going towards her college education.