Our Team

Cellist Hilary Glen has been praised as a “standout performer” who has successfully “taken on the demanding and most expressive responsibilities assigned to the instrument.” She enjoys a varied career of teaching and performing.

Performances have taken her around the world from the Kennedy Center and Carnegie Hall in the US to the Concertgebouw in the Netherlands, to Bunkamura Orchard Hall in Japan. After maintaining a fulfilling orchestral schedule for many years, Dr. Glen has turned her focus to chamber music, touring with her duo, Gibbs St. Duo, which was formed with the mission to expand the cello/piano canon. She currently serves on the faculty of Indiana University and the Hochstein School of Music.

With a mission to promote inclusive and intentional programming, she regularly curates interactive chamber music events that feature the works of historically excluded composers. She has presented her research at National Conferences for the College Music Society and at the inaugural, 2023 Context Conference at the Eastman School of Music.

Dr. Glen completed her BM at Indiana University with Janos Starker. She earned her MM and DMA with Alan Harris, at the Eastman School of Music.

Cellist Angelique Montes had her solo debut in 2010 as the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra Concerto Competition winner. She received her Bachelor’s in Cello Performance at the Oberlin Conservatory, where she studied with Amir Eldan. She then earned her master’s degree from the University of Denver’s Lamont School of Music, under the guidance of Matthew Zalkind; and studied with Alan Rafferty at the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music, where she received a doctoral degree.

Montes has participated in masterclass for world renowned artists such as Yo-Yo Ma, the Marsalis family, Midori, Zuill Bailey, and more. She has attended major summer music festivals where she has performed all over the country and world. During the summer of 2022, Montes released her debut album, “Refraction”, which highlights solo cello pieces by black composers as well as electroacoustic music.

In addition to cello and music, Angelique enjoys baking/cooking, listening to podcasts, playing ping-pong, and drinking tea.

Laura Usiskin (she/her) enjoys a versatile career as a cellist and educator. Her playing has taken her to concert halls throughout the United States and Europe, including the Kennedy Center, Palazzo Chigi Saracini, Symphony Hall (Boston), Alice Tully Hall, Weill Hall, Zankel Hall, Merkin Hall, Miller Theatre, Barge Music, Steinway Hall, and Klavierhaus. Usiskin is a member of the Bayberry String Quartet as well as the Atlanta-based new music group ensemble vim and the touring ensemble Astralis.

While completing an Artist-In-Residency with the Montgomery Symphony Orchestra, Usiskin founded and served as the inaugural Executive Director of the Montgomery Music Project, an El Sistema strings program in Montgomery, Alabama. The program, now more than 10 years old, has given intensive string instruction to hundreds of low-income children across three counties. She has held faculty positions at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham-Southern College, Alabama School of Fine Arts, and STEP Birmingham, and she has nurtured a private cello studio for more than twenty years.

Usiskin graduated from Columbia University cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in Neuroscience and Behavior, The Juilliard School with a Master of Music, and Yale University with a Doctor of Musical Arts. She lives in a circular house in Atlanta with her husband and two children.

Brazilian cellist, pedagogue, and composer Bianca d’Avila do Prado is cello faculty at the Music Institute of Chicago and online instructor for the University of Idaho Preparatory Division. She coordinates the MIC Third Coast Suzuki Strings, a tuition-free cello program for the Hispanic community in Evanston, IL.

Ms. Prado holds a Master of Music in Cello Performance and String Pedagogy degree from Illinois State University. At ISU, she completed her cello studies under Dr. Adriana Ransom and Dr. Cora Swenson-Lee. She continues her Suzuki pedagogy training as part of Dr. Tanya Carey’s studio.

Bianca actively works on making Brazilian music for strings more accessible and performed in the US and has published articles about that in The Scroll and the American String Teacher Magazine. She was commissioned by the New Canon Project to compose Valsa para Sofia for strings and by the Cello Teaching Repertoire Consortium to write Suite Pequenina for cello solo. Her composition Brazilian Habanera was published as part of the Mosaic: A Collection of String Music for Black and Latino Composers.

A performer and educator based in Rochester, NY, Jennifer Carpenter is a cellist in the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra and a member of the faculty at Eastman Community Music School and The Hochstein School. She also coordinates and coaches chamber music ensembles at the University of Rochester. Her previous teaching roles include serving as a Lecturer in Music at Nazareth College, and as a mentor and coach to students in the Juilliard Pre-College Orchestra, Rochester Philharmonic Youth Orchestra, Eastman Cello Institute, Point CounterPoint, Kneisel Hall Program for Maine Students, and Wyoming Seminary Performing Arts Institute.

As a dedicated chamber musician, she has performed on the WXXI Live From Hochstein radio broadcast concert series, the Village of Brockport’s Winter Serenade concert series, and Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra's Living Room Series. She has also performed at festivals such as The Perlman Music Program Chamber Music Workshop, Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival, Bowdoin International Music Festival fellowship program, Orford Musique, and the Castleman Quartet Program.

Carpenter holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the Eastman School of Music, Master of Music degree from The Juilliard School, and Bachelor of Music degree from Oberlin Conservatory.