LOOKING INTO YOUR EYES

Cyrie L. Topete (She/Her/Hers)

Born and raised in Peoria, Arizona, Cyrie has been pursuing her dance career since the age of 12 and is now 19 years old. She’s currently attending the Juilliard School as a rising Junior. In addition to Cyrie’s training, she has performed works by Paul Taylor, Peter Chu, Aszure Barton, Marcus Jarrell Willis, Jae Man Joo, Didy Velman, Jamar Roberts and many others. Additionally, she has attended summer intensives and workshops including Hubbard Street Dance Chicago Spring Intensive, Axis Connect, Chuthis Movement Intensive, YoungArts LA, BODYTRAFFIC, Springboard Fall x, Jacob’s Pillow Contemporary Program and many more. Cyrie is NADIA’s Director of Culture and Community.

Aaron Choate (They/Them/Theirs)

Aaron is a dancer/choreographer, and a member of the Juilliard School Class of 2022. They are a 2018 Presidential Scholar in the Arts, and a Young Arts Gold Medalist. They were a part of the contemporary program at Jacob’s Pillow Dance festival 2019. In just their freshman year they were honored to have two of their choreographic works presented on the Peter Jay Sharp for 2019 Choreographic Honors. They are originally from Lexington, KY. Aaron is NADIA’s Project Director.

Devin Moore

Devin Moore, native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is a senior at the Juilliard School studying under the private instruction of Samuel Rhodes. He began his studies with Mr. Rhodes at the Manhattan School of Music in 2017.

In 2016, Devin participated as a violinist in the National Youth Orchestra of the USA, performing around the States and Europe. In 2018, Devin was awarded an Orchestral Viola Fellowship at the Aspen Music Festival and School, alongside an acceptance into the esteemed Finckel-Wu Han Chamber Music Studio. At Aspen, Devin performed as a chamber musician/soloist with Augustin Hadelich and Sarah Chang. In 2019, Devin attended the Sarasota Music Festival sitting principal violist and performing the Mendelssohn Octet with the Pacifica String Quartet. For Summer 2020, Devin was accepted to the Perlman Music Program Chamber Music Workshop and Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Program. Devin will be participating as a finalist in the 2020 Cecil Aronowitz International Viola Competition in Birmingham, England. Devin is also Co-Founder and Media and Communications Liaison for Opus Illuminate, an online concert series dedicated to performing and raising awareness for works by composers of underrepresented communities in order to expand the horizons of conventional programming. Devin is a proud recipient of a Kovner Fellowship at The Juilliard School.

Sean Juhl

A native of New York City, Sean Juhl began studying the violin with his mother at age four. After experimenting with the viola for the first time in 2014, he fell in love with the instrument and has since performed as a soloist, chamber musician and orchestral player in venues around the world such as Carnegie Hall in New York , the Royal Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, and the Royal Albert Hall in London. In December of 2019 Sean won first prize in the Juilliard School’s viola concerto competition, and received the honor of performing the John Harbison Viola Concerto with the Juilliard Orchestra in Alice Tully Hall. Later that year, he joined the New York String Orchestra Seminar, putting on two concerts in Carnegie Hall under the baton of maestro Jamie Laredo. He also took part in the Juilliard Orchestra’s tour to London that previous summer, performing alongside colleagues from the Royal Academy of Music in the 2019 BBC Proms. Previously, Sean has also served as a principal violist with the National Youth Orchestra - USA in two separate seasons. An avid and passionate chamber musician, Sean is an alum of the Perlman Music Program and also placed as a quarter-finalist at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition in 2017. Sean’s past teachers include Toby Appel, Bela Horvath, and Viktor Basis, and he currently studies at the Juilliard School with Carol Rodland.