The Escape2Create Ensemble

The Escape Ensemble Residency was inaugurated in 2018 as a music performance and educational outreach residency dedicated to advancing the next generation of international performers and educators. In their own words, the mission of the 2019 Escape Ensemble is “to bring music of the highest quality to our audiences, to foster community through participation and education in the arts, and to connect more intimately as musicians and as people.” This unique residency is under the direction of distinguished E2C Alum, composer Dr. Dorothy Hindman, Associate Director of Music Composition at the University of Miami Frost School of Music.  The Ensemble’s appearances include performance during Sunday services at The Chapel in Seaside, a full concert of classical music at The REP Theatre, a solo piano concert celebrating the works of American composers including Escape To Create Alum composers, and pop-up performances throughout Seaside. The Ensemble will bring music into classrooms throughout Walton and Okaloosa County public schools and will conduct Master Classes for area students:

Hannah Culbreth, a native of Atlanta, is currently in her third year of undergraduate studies at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, MA as a student of Jason Snider (Boston Symphony Orchestra). Ms. Culbreth spent this summer touring Canada and Asia with the Orchestre de la Francophonie based in Montreal, Quebec. She has spent previous summers at the Brevard Music Festival and on tours with orchestras around the United States and South America. Awards include first prizes in the Atlanta Horn Clinic Concerto Competition (2016) and the LaGrange Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition (2015). Ms. Culbreth performs on the French horn.

In 2013 at the age of fourteen, pianist Jacob Mason won the New World Symphony National Concerto Competition, the Alhambra Orchestra Concerto Competition and the Ars Flores Concerto Competition with the Prokofiev Piano Concerto No. 1.  He debuted as soloist with the New World Symphony on April 13, 2013. Since then, he has participated in numerous festivals, including the Interlochen Arts Camp and the Miami International Piano Festival Academy, performed at halls including Jordan Hall and Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, and played with illustrious musicians such as Norman Bolter, Robert Black, and Charles Peltz. He studied for two years at the New England Conservatory in Boston, MA where he worked with countless world-class musicians. He currently studies at the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music in Miami, FL with pianist Kevin Kenner, winner of the International Chopin Piano Competition.

Sebastian Ortega is a Venezuelan-American cellist who currently resides in Boston. Among his past mentors are Marion Feldman, Hans Jørgen-Jensen, Julia Lichten, and William Molina. He is the recipient of the Presidential Distinction Award at the New England Conservatory, and has been a semi-finalist at the Sphinx Junior Competition. Sebastian is a Junior at the New England Conservatory, where he studies with Professor Paul Katz.

Andrew Samarasekara (UK) studied with Lutsia Ibragimova at the Yehudi Menuhin School in Surrey, England. He currently studies at the New England Conservatory of Music, under the tuition of Paul Biss and Miriam Fried. Andrew is a prize winner at the Eastbourne Young Soloist Competition, the New York Summit Festival 'Mary Smart' International Concerto Competition and the Royal College of Music ‘Hugh Bean’ and ‘Margery Humby’ competitions. Andrew has performed as a soloist and chamber musician across England, Germany, Spain, the United States and France at prestigious venues that include Wigmore Hall, Cadogan Hall, Berlin Konzerthaus, Schloss Nymphenburg Palace and NEC Jordan Hall. Andrew performs on an 1820 J.B. Vuillaume generously loaned by the Benslow Trust and Mary Gelhorn.