Winter Mix!
Saturday, February 28 ~ 7:30pm
Shasta College Theatre
Dr. Jeff Specht, Music Director & Conductor
Featuring winners of the annual Emerging Artist Solo & Aria Competition
Anesthesia, ReddingLily Tao, piano
Emerging Artist – High School Division
Lily Tao, piano
Lily Tao, a sophomore at Chico High School, has been playing the piano since she was four.
Lily appreciates her longtime piano teacher, Justin McKay, with whom she has studied for 11 years. Jinsong Zhang, Tao’s mother, has said that Justin’s teaching style has always been a perfect fit for Lily, and she truly credits him with playing a significant role in her musical growth and success.
Tao won the Paradise Symphony Orchestra’s Young Artist Competition as a pianist in the junior division in 2023
and in the senior division in 2025. Besides the instrumental division, she also won the vocal division of this year’s Shasta Symphony Orchestra Emerging Artist Solo & Aria Competition.
She is passionate about serving the community. She organized a concert to honor longtime Chico State Music Professor Robert Bowman, who died in 2023, that raised $1,300 for the restoration of Bidwell Mansion. She says she would be “happy to perform, either on piano or as a vocalist, at future events in the area to support local causes.”
Abigail Miller, clarinet
Emerging Artist – College Division
Abigail Miller, clarinet
Abigail Miller has a BM in Music Performance (clarinet concentration) from University of the Pacific’s Conservatory of Music, magna cum laude. She received Pacific’s Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship in 2023 for her project, “Diversifying Pedagogical Repertoire for the Clarinet.”
Abigail has performed with ensembles at the Festival of New American Music (2022), Saarburg International Chamber Music Festival (2023), and the CBDNA W/NW Conference (2024).
She is currently teaching clarinet, saxophone, and music theory at the Redding Music School.