Meet Ella

Ella (’24) is a Mother Caroline Scholar and Nonna Dunphy Scholarship recipient who is dedicated to her studies of music and biochemistry. This year, she is participating in Englewood Surgical Science Program, which allows selected Holy Angels seniors to develop medical research skills and in vivo surgical methods. During the summer, Ella took intensive seminars in modern chemistry through the Columbia University Pre-College Summer Immersion Program.

She also explored various medical careers at the 2022 National Youth Leadership Forum in Advanced Medicine & Health Care. This two-week summer session, which is hosted by Johns Hopkins University, is part of the Envision program.

At AHA, Ella participates in Angels in Anatomy, and shares her insider’s view of the Academy with visiting families through her role as an Angel Ambassador. She studies music at AHA and plays violin for the Academy Orchestra.

In 2019, when she was still in eighth grade, Ella began refining her musical talents at Juilliard’s Pre-College Program. She also spent three summers at the Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival, a summer music camp held in Vermont.

Ella has earned numerous awards for fine musicianship. In 2021, she received the Gold Prize in the Bravura Concerto Competition, and performed with Bravura Philharmonic Orchestra. The following year, she placed second in the Coltman Chamber Music Competition in the Junior Strings Division.

During the spring of 2023, Ella won the Adelphi Young Artist Competition’s Senior Division and placed second overall. She also finished first in the Teen Strings Division of the Music International Grand Prix Competition. She is currently first violinist of the FaMa Quartet, which won a Gold Medal in the Junior Strings Division.

Most recently, she became a finalist in the Vancouver Symphony Young Artist Competition. In May 2023, she earned the Gold Medal in the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition Junior Strings Division, and was a semifinalist in the Stulberg International String Competition.

Ella was one of five AHA musicians chosen to perform at the 39th Annual Young Musicians Concert at New York’s Alice Tully Hall. She and a peer presented Hoffmeister’s “Duet for Flute and Violin in G Major, Mvmt. 1.” In addition, her quartet presented Dvorak’s “String Quartet No. 12 in F Major, Op. 96, Mvmt. 1.” Both AHA ensembles were also selected for the Young Musicians of New Jersey Regional Concert. The Academy’s instrumentalists were among the few invited to appear in New York with peers from New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, and Delaware.