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2017 Graduates Honored

CMC showcased its high school graduates in a send-off recital June 9.  We are all inspired by their impressive accomplishments, and we wish them success in all their pursuits - musical and otherwise - in the future.  Each graduate received a copy of the CMC History book as a token of our support.

Carlos Avendaño has studied with Anthony Dyer at CMC since 2006, and been in the orchestra and chamber music programs as well, and earned the Dorothea Lensch Merit Scholarship Award. He is graduating from Cleveland High School, going on to study marine biology as an Oregon State University honors student in the fall. Carlos has enjoyed competing at a high level in speech and debate, playing trumpet, running, and traveling.

Boaz Hardy is a native of North Portland and comes from a musical family. Boaz was first taught violin by his older sister Alberta Hardy (now a CMC instructor) and has studied at CMC with Hong Chou for three years. He has also participated in summer chamber music at CMC, and earned the John L. Judge Merit Scholarship award. Boaz has played violin in the Oregon Pro Arte Youth Chamber Orchestra and the Metropolitan Youth Symphony. He is very interested in American and European folk music and this summer will attend Ti Ti Tábor Hungarian Folk Camp to study Hungarian violin music. In addition to music, Boaz enjoys literature, canoeing, art, and mathematics. Boaz also operates the sound system and plays violin at his church. He is graduating this year from Jefferson High School, and has been awarded a Pacesetter Scholarship at Pacific University, where he plans to attend this fall. Boaz is the recipient of the new Luis and Annette Kaufman Memorial Award for 2017.

Eleanor Horner (pictured, right) is a viola student of Anthony Dyer. She’s been at CMC since 2006, studying strings with Jacqueline Schmidt & Sara Hart, plus 3 years in orchestra and 1 year in rhythm class, and won the John L. Judge Merit Scholarship Award in 2016. She also plays electric bass on the side, in addition to drawing, writing, playing bridge & chess, making lace and knitting. Eleanor has been a student at Baker Early college and Portland Community College, and will be going to Lawrence University in the fall to study music and psychology.

James Walton has been taking lessons at CMC since 2014, first with Heather Blackburn, and currently with Hannah Hillebrand. He also has played piano for 9 years and sings. Outside of music he enjoys woodworking, track and field, and electronics, the latter interest leading him to start an electrical apprenticeship with IBEW (International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers) after he graduates this spring from Benson Polytechnic High School.