RYAN CIKU

Cary, NC

Ryan is 7 years old and lives in Cary, NC. Ryan expressed his love of music through playing tunes on electronic keyboard on his tablet since he was about 5 years old. To develop his music skills, Ryan joined Six Forks Studio 8 weeks ago where he is learning to play the key board and having fun as he learns.

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DOUGLAS PASCARELLA

Chapel Hill, NC

Douglas is a vibrant 8 year old 2nd grader at Triangle Day School in Durham.  Douglas enjoys playing video games, swimming, playing basketball and all things Pokémon. Douglas is a die hard UNC Tar Heel fan and hopes to play basketball at UNC when he’s older. 

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PJ JAMES

Durham, NC

Prince Jeremiah James (PJ) is 8 years old and a third grader at Excelsior Classical Academy in Durham, North Carolina.  His love of music stems from his family - his Great-Grandmother, Grandmother, Mother, Great-Aunts, Godmother, and Cousins are singers and have played musical instruments (piano, guitar, violin, cello, clarinet, bells, and harp) over the years.  PJ enjoys running and playing Roblox.

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REBECCA CONLEY

Piano

Rebecca is from Fuquay-Varina NC and has just completed her 1 st year playing the piano. Among being a triplet, Rebecca is 1 of 5 siblings: Adam, Jillian (triplet), Sarah (triplet), and her younger sister Ashlyn. The family also has 2 Labrador Retrievers (Bailey &

Bentley). Along with the piano, Rebecca loves playing with her friends, and (since quarantine) talking with them via Messenger Kids. In her spare time Rebecca enjoys crafts, reading, and baking. Rebecca is looking forward to quarantine being over so she

can play the piano in person for family and friends again.

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VIVIAN MCLAURIN

Raleigh, NC

Vivian is a 4th grader. Her favorite animal s chihuahua. She loves art, singing, and piano.

JACK HORNE

Los Lunas, NM

Jack Ortiz is from Los Lunas, New Mexico. He is 11 years old and in 6th grade. Jack has always been interested in music and started playing the ukelele a few years ago. In July of this year he started taking online piano lessons with TJ, and he is learning so much. Thank you for sharing Jack's progress! 

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NASIR NOEL

Chapel Hill, NC

Nasir, born and raised in Colorado, recently moved to Chapel Hill, NC with his parents, brother, and dog. Although his introduction to piano was under a parental dictatorship, he has embraced the art form and has not besmirched the family name. In addition to the piano, Nasir enjoys playing volleyball, tennis, and dominating video games. An Anime enthusiast and avid reader, he is inspired by stories of triumph. Nasir is a seasoned traveler who enjoys naps on the beach and exploring local foods. His aspires to be a video game designer. Nasir is passionate about the environment, has a big heart for animals, and is pretty awesome. We hope that you enjoy his selection.  

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CJ BELTON

Vacaville, CA

CJ Belton is 13 years old and was born in South Carolina.  He started playing the piano at the age of six. He has lived in multiple states to include Mississippi and now lives in California. CJ also plays the trumpet.  In his free time, he enjoys gaming, talking to friends, and going outside.

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 SIMON MCLAURIN

Raleigh, NC

Simon is a 6th grader at Brooks elementary.  He loves dogs, playing games, biking, hoverboarding, & rock climbing.  He wants to be an inventor when he grows up.  He also loves piano and chorus.

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TOM STOTZER

Raleigh, NC

Tom is originally from the Chicago area, and

he recently moved to Raleigh for work. He studied Mechanical Engineering at Purdue, and works as an engineer at 3M. He loves music. Tom started playing guitar in 2nd grade, and recently decided to pursue adding singing to guitar. He is a big fan of artists like John Mayer, Vulfpeck, and AC/DC.

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LISSA NEIRA

Raleigh, NC

Lissa began her singing career in August of last year and has since been so grateful for the opportunity to develop her voice in ways she never thought possible. Although she mostly sings in the car, she hopes to sing more frequently and often to larger crowds in the future.

JOEL BLANKENSHIP

Cary, NC

Although I’m a man of many interests, music is how I best relate to the world. This fascination began around the age of 3 or 4 when I first heard Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings coming out of my parents stereo. I would walk around with an old acoustic and pretend to play along. But I was exposed to so much more than country music growing up - from the Beach Boys to Marvin Gaye to Led Zeppelin, I heard it all. Plus, I was a child of the 80’s and grew up with rap playing on MTV.  At 14 I seriously started playing guitar. I did this mostly by ear and never really studied music theory, although I do have an rudimentary understanding of it. So now at the age of 40, I’ve decided to seriously develop my voice to accompany my skills on guitar. 

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PHILIP GRECO

Raleigh, NC

I grew up in Arlington, VA and came to North Carolina to study engineering at NC State. After graduating, I participated in a leadership program here in Raleigh for 9 months called the Raleigh Fellows program. I now work for a software company, 15Five, in the Revenue Operations department (basically we optimize systems and do data things). I took piano lessons as a kid, decided to stop, and picked up guitar in middle school. I’ve been playing guitar since but always wished I had kept going with piano as well, so here I am. Music has been a passion of mine for a while and I have no plans to change that.

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JACK HISHMEH

Topeka, KS

Jack Hishmeh is a 24 year old Worship Leader from Topeka, KS. Jack attended Washburn University for Communication studies and is now pursuing a Masters in Christian Education at Dallas Theological Seminary.  He has played the guitar for about 6 years and after being thrown on stage with a mic, he began singing at his church. Over the past few years there has been very little efforts spent refining his vocal skills. His hope is to continue improving his vocal skills with TJ. 

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DILLON CASSESSE

Cary, NC

I've been playing piano for about a year and a half. My playing is influenced by a lot of blues and pentatonic scaling. The majority of my piano experience came from playing with a basement rock band that had heavy focus on free form and improvisational playing. My main focus is to improve my compositions to better communicate emotion through sound.

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LUKE ADDO

Winston-Salem, NC

Luke Addo, 9 years old

Born in Atlanta, GA

Resides in Winston-Salem, NC

Interests: Travel, soccer, tennis, swimming, science, geography and history

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JENESIS SHAW

Wake Forest, NC

Jenesis has always been interested in music. She has been singing along to tunes since she was a baby. She has been taking voice lessons for about 2 1/2 months.She loves show tunes and writing her own music. 

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JILLIAN CONLEY

Piano

Jillian is from Fuquay-Varina NC and has just completed her 1 st year playing the piano. Among being a triplet, Jillian is 1 of 5 siblings: Adam, Rebecca (triplet), Sarah (triplet),

and her younger sister Ashlyn. The family also has 2 Labrador Retrievers  (Bailey & Bentley). Along with the piano, Jillian loves playing sports, playing with her friends,

reading, and expressing her creativity with Legos. Jillian is excited to continue her love of the piano and creating her own music.

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ADRIAN BURNS

Belleville, IL

Hello, My name is Adrian Burns II and I am fairly new to taking up piano lessons. I have learned so much, in so little time, from my instructor TJ. A little bit about myself, I am 8 years of age and my hobbies are musical instruments and TRAINS!!!! In my down time, I enjoy visits to the Museum of Transportation, various train hobby shops, and the K-10 train store, where I can control and run the model trains all on my own. I have also done some acting and singing in several stage plays, put on here in my local town. My biggest success was when I played a part in Disney's  musical stage play "Beauty and the Beast." My roles were the Foot Stool (that came to life), napkin, and one of the village kids. I absolutely enjoyed this stage play. I have also played in the stage play "A Very Disney Halloween," both plays put on by Take a Bow productions. I am really looking forward to working with TJ and I can't wait to see how I will progress along the way. 

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DYLAN GRAYSON

Cary, NC

Dylan Grayson is a third grader at Morrisville Elementary.  Dylan has been playing piano for one year and is excited to perform in his third recital.  In his free time, Dylan enjoys playing football, baseball, riding his bike and building Legos.  He can also be found cheering on the Wolfpack, Canes or Durham Bulls.

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CARLOS ORTIZ

Sanford, NC

Carlos Ortiz is from North Carolina and has a strong passion for music. He is pushing to become a great singer and a pianist. He has had experience with musical theatre and performances outside of school. He hopes to pursue a career in making music or performing on broadway. 

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LIAM DAVIS

Raleigh, NC

Liam Davis is a rising senior at the Trinity Academy of Raleigh, and a newcomer to Six Forks Music

Studio. He has been singing for three years, in either choir, theatre, or in solo work. He is a member of the

Trinity Academy Concert Choir, its male-only barbershop group, Cantus, as well as the Drama

department. He has undergone classical training for the last two years. He hopes that his performance shall please you.

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HANNAH MATIAS

Cary, NC

Hello! I’m Hannah Matias and I’m an 8th grader. I fell in love with singing when I was very little. I love broadway shows and their music so much! I started taking lessons in the Philippines when I was twelve. When I moved in America, my singing wasn’t really good. I decided I should probably take lessons here too. I started joining drama club In school when I was a 5th grader. Acting and singing are a very important aspect of my life. This school year, I auditioned for Moana for our school play and I got the part with the help of Mr. TJ. Sadly we didn’t perform it due to the coronavirus. But I was still happy that I was able to get the part. I’m hoping in the future, I would be able to pursue my dreams.

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ISAIAH BUNN

Fuquay-Varina, NC

Isaiah Bunn is 13 years old and attends Fuquay Varina Middle School.  He plays piano.  His favorite things are music, art, and video games.

JULIA THOMPSON

Cary, NC

Julia Thompson is currently a senior at Enloe Magnet High School. She primarily sings both Musical Theatre and Contemporary selections. She has been involved in a few musical productions, and plans to possibly pursue musical theatre at the collegiate level. 

HASSAN MOHAMED-NUR

Morrisville, NC

Hello i am hassan mohamed-nur and i have always enjoyed listening to music and i decided that making some might also be just as fun.

CALVIN GOAH

Raleigh, NC

Calvin is an aspiring vocalist from Indianapolis, Indiana. During the day he works as a Software Engineer in the finance industry, but at night trades in his computer keys for any of the various musical keys. He began his singing journey at Columbia University during the fall of his Senior year back in 2018; joining a Christian a cappella group on campus called Jubilation! In addition, he took courses in contemporary & classical vocal technique that opened the door into much of what musically fascinates him to this day. Since then, he has ventured into audio mixing, song writing and music composition in order to truly master his voice and find his vocal pocket. Upon moving to North Carolina a few months ago, Calvin discovered Six Forks Music Studio and has enjoyed and learned from every lesson

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ASHLEY ELI

Durham, NC

Born and raised in Dallas, TX, Eli has been living in North Caroline since attending undergrad at NC State University where she received her degree in Industrial & Systems engineering and competed on the Wolfpack Women's Basketball team. After graduating she began her career working in healthcare as a systems engineer and is currently pursuing her MBA from Johns Hopkins University. Eli started taking piano lessons in mid December of 2019. Learning how the to play the piano has always been a dream of hers and she figured why not start now. In her free time she enjoys practicing her skills, spending time with her dogs, Oliver & Fitzgerald, and embarking on new adventures. 

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MARIE MULLER

Raleigh, NC

My name is Marie. I am from France, and have lived in North Carolina for a few years now. I moved from Paris to take a faculty job at NC State, and because the Triangle area seemed like a great place to raise my two awes

ome kids. I have played the piano since I was 6, and I have always loved singing but never did it seriously. I only started working on my voice a few weeks ago with TJ, and it's making me very happy! Music is a very big part of my life.

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JIM ST. PIERRE

Lowell, MA

Hi I’m Jim. I’m 49 years old and I live in Lowell Massachusetts. I’ve loved and been inspired by music all my life. My earliest memories of music, are of my mom and dad listening to their favorites, Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett and Andy Williams. My Dad sang in church choir and in a few small local bands. And, he constantly sang while walking around the house, and driving in the car.  My brother who is four years older than me was also a big musical influence. Largely because of him, I grew up listening to classic rock artist like The Beatles, the who, Bruce Springsteen and Pink Floyd. This music is still some of my favorite, although I really listen to a bit of everything. Pop, rock, R&B, hip-hop, jazz, rhythm n blues, country, reggae, and Latin.   

I started playing guitar at about the age of 11, and then switched over to drums at 14 years old, when I became best friends with an incredible guitar player who needed a drummer to fill out his band line up. Since then I’ve been playing drums in bands, mostly cover bands, on and off all my life. Once in a while I still get up at a gig and and do a number on guitar. Singing, is a new challenge for me and I’m thankful for my family and friends who are supporting me through this and all life’s challenges.