Echols Alumni

Imani Edwards of Fairfax, Virginia, officially began her musical journey at the age of five. Having been surrounded by music for as long as she could remember, it was no surprise that seeing her neighbor with a violin sparked her curiosity. Eventually her parents relented and signed her up for lessons with a phenomenal teacher who happened to live on the same street. Over the years she has experimented with the double bass, piano, and currently, the viola, but the violin will always have a special place in her heart. Before attending UVA, Imani had been a member of the DC Youth Orchestra for almost five years; highlight performances include the Chilean Presidential Palace and the International Development Bank under the baton of Gustavo Dudamel. She also had the pleasure of taking part in the first two seasons of Carnegie Hall’s NYO2, in addition to attending other music festivals such as Credo Oberlin and the Philadelphia International Music Festival. As the daughter of a hospice social worker, Imani has seen firsthand how important (and rewarding) it is to use these skills she has developed to give back to others. At UVA, she has continued playing the violin as a member of the Charlottesville Symphony, in addition to taking up the viola to play in a piano quintet. Imani is incredibly grateful for the many opportunities, most recently the chance to become a Miller Arts Scholar, that she has been afforded to grow both as a musician and a person. She looks forward to taking advantage of everything this program has to offer, and cannot wait to see where this experience takes her.

Rainah was born in Australia, grew up in England, attended a conservatory in New York, and is now pursuing a degree in Virginia. To elaborate: dancing since the age of three, Rainah has tapped, turned, and kicked her way across stages, cruise ships and venues in Europe. She currently has an American accent (due to her American family) however will slip into British phrases and annunciations here and there (as would happen when you have spent sixteen years of your life in Britain). She now divides her time between three jobs, school, creating things, and watching a lot of British television programs. Rainah completed the Integrated Program at AMDA NY, studying singing, acting, and dance in 2017 and moved to Virginia to pursue a degree in 2018. After studying at PVCC and leading the PVCC Dance Club for 2 semesters, she applied to transfer to UVA as a Second year, and got in! After taking Screenwriting, Directing 1, and acting in the 2020 New Works Festival, Rainah became intrigued by the opportunities offered by the UVA Drama Department and looks forward to becoming more involved. She won the written category of Comedy Knight 2020, is part of University Vocal Jazz, has been a part of poetry and fiction workshops, and she is an American Sign Language student. She aspires to collaborate with Deaf artists in the future. 

Abreale was born and raised in Bethesda, Maryland. Growing up, she went to every Smitsonian museum with her mother. This fostered an appreciation for a multitude of art forms from an early age. Though there was an appreciation for art, she viewed her art classes as just a school requirement. by the time she reached her junior year of highschool, she began to take art more seriously. She recognized how much joy she got from sketching and painting in her free time, and began to center her education around art. After her first year of college, she decided to make Studio Art one of her majors. Primarily working with paint, Abreale seeks to display the experience of Blackness.  This has given her the platform to create an interdisciplinary major in Studio Art and African American Studies. Abreale is deeply appreciative of her acceptance into the Miller Arts Scholars Program. She plans to use these privileges to expand her understanding of the world around her in relation to race, as well as develop her identity as an artist.

Cordelaine Klyne, from Marshall, Virginia, fell irrevocably in love with dance at three years old in her first movement class. She trained at Virginia Civic Ballet in ballet, jazz, lyrical, contemporary, and musical theatre for fifteen years, pointe for nine years, and tap for seven years, with five years of partnering experience. Cordelaine performed lead roles and choreographed for two full-length ballets, two jazz showcases, multiple competitions, and various dance festivals and volunteer events. She was voted by her peers to be captain of the competition team and senior ballet company. A student-teacher at VCB, who also started a dance studio in her home, Cordelaine developed curriculum, organized, and offered two annual in-house performances. She is certified through Grade VII of the Cecchetti Council of America Syllabus and participated in intensives with Richmond Ballet, Cecchetti Conference, Steps, and VCB. At UVA, she is involved with Rhapsody Ballet Ensemble as well as the Dance Department’s Fall and Spring Dance Concerts.

Kyara Måhlén was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. Her interest in drama began at the dinner table where most of her time was spent acting out the bizarre stories of a day in the life of a first grader, than actually eating. She performed in her first play at her small progressive NYC school and fell in love with the experiecne. Since then she has done musicals and plays all throughout middle school and high school, as well as costume designed, sound designed, stage managed, and written a few plays. To her it does not matter which capacity she is involved, she is simply mesmerized by all aspects to creating a great production. Kyara solidified that she wanted a career in the industry after her time as a company member with the Harlem School of the Arts Theatre Alliance during her last few years of High School. Besides drama and film, she also loves to dance. She has danced pre-professionally with a Russian Ballet company as well as choreographed for her school benefit dance concert, Dancer’s Responding to AIDS for 5 years in a row. Kyara is looking forward to her experience as a Miller Arts Scholar and immerse herself further in the field.

The son of immigrants and heir to a line of Spanish farmer-poets, Reza Manuel Mirzaiee was born in the northwest coast of Spain to an Iranian father and a Spaniard mother. He grew up travelling back and forth between Spain and Virginia for the first twelve years of his life, inheriting his mother’s tactful wit and his father’s relentless determination; from a young age he fell in love with people and the stories they brought along with them. A multidisciplinary artist, Reza began drawing as long as he can remember. He won a regional Scholastic Art award in 2017 for a portrait of his military-bound brother, and works part-time as an animator and graphic design specialist for New Point Strategies, an HR consulting firm. He’s also currently performing as a guitarist and singer in his band Live Wire on weekends, and has been cast in a number of theatre productions, including  First Year Player’s fall 2018 production of Into the Woods, and more recently the UVA Drama Department’s Spring 2020 production of Once Upon A Mattress. He’s currently the UVA Student Game Developers Club’s Internal Relations officer, where he directed the indie top-down shooter Flint Westwood, and is planning on writing and directing an original role-playing Game in 2020. Reza hopes to double major in Computer Science and the Area Program for Literary Prose under the English Department. He’s looking forward to forming part of the Miller Arts Scholars program, and excited about where the arts will take him next!

Libbie began dancing at age 3 in a local studio in Mechanicsville, VA. There she studied ballet, jazz, and tap. Her passion for modern dance began in middle school and continues today. Growing up, she participated in community performances, annual galas and recitals, DanceMakers convention and competition, and local intensives through RADAR and School of Dance Arts. In high school, Libbie joined the Youth Ensemble for Dogwood Dance Project. With them, she performed modern pieces alongside local artists in their yearly show, and also participated at Virginia Dance Symposium, Virginia Dance Festival, and Richmond Dance Festival. She also loves exploring new dance styles and teachers through organizations such as Dogtown Dance Theatre. Since being at UVA, she has been heavily involved in dance on grounds, performing in the Fall and Spring concerts, joining Virginia Dance Company, attending ACDA, and beginning to take classes for her Dance Minor. Libbie is excited to grow as a dancer and an artist at UVA, especially by connecting with other art scholars. She plans to study Special Education and hopes to carry her passion for dance through her career.

Wendy Tang grew up in Great Falls, Virginia, where she started playing the flute at the age of 10. In high school, she played in her school's band and orchestra programs, the American Youth Philharmonic Orchestras, and in honor ensembles, such as District Band, All-State Band & Orchestra, and Senior Regional Orchestra. She has also performed at the Kennedy Center and with the Fairfax Symphony Orchestra. Through these experiences, Wendy realized the extent to which music can inspire a community, and she wants to continue to inspire a wider audience through her craft. At UVa, Wendy plays with the Cavalier Marching Band, the UVa Wind Ensemble, the Charlottesville Symphony Orchestra, and studies flute under Kelly Sulick. She plans to double major in Economics and Computer Science. Wendy is extremely grateful and honored to be a Miller Arts Scholar and hopes to take advantage of this opportunity to expand the influence of the arts by bringing music to those who do not have easy access to it.

Berkeley Wilkins of Falls Church, Virginia began taking art classes when he was five. He began participating in theatre productions in Middle and High School. He continued taking art classes in school, participating in the international baccalaureate art program. Berkeley developed a love for sculpture, which became a form of tactile art. He began writing poetry and making art that could be heard or touched. He earned a silver key in 2018 for a poem he wrote about time-travel and neglect. At the university, he became more invested in writing—taking poetry workshops, participating in the poetry and spoken word club, and being nominated for the Gosnell Prize. In the spring of 2019, he also began a social media campaign called Announce Capacity where he posts poems and photographs displaying the artistic capabilities of people with disabilities in an effort to advocate for authentic representation of people with disabilities in the media. He found his artistic calling in writing. Writing allows Berkeley to make space and raise the volume when he was feeling unheard. Berkeley’s mission in poetry is to show the reader what it is like to live with a vision impairment through his voice, form, and movement, something he has not seen in poetry before. His vision portrays his work as an instinctive part of how he navigates the world. Berkeley’s goal is that one day his work can help others find their voice and create more space for other people with disabilities to be included in the arts.

Katie grew up in Woodbridge, Virginia and has been dancing since the age of 3. She began at a local studio with ballet and tap classes before making her way into the realm of jazz and contemporary. She studied in the dance concentration of the Center for Fine and Performing Arts program at Colgan High School, training in modern, ballet, and jazz. In the summer of 2017, she was able to further her ballet and modern training as she attended the Virginia Residential Governor’s School for dance. As a member and two-time captain of the Varsity Dance Team, Katie competed at the regional and national levels. Her dance team won multiple first-place titles in jazz and kick and she placed top 5 in the county as a soloist. She was also involved in drama with featured dance roles in the musicals ​Little Shop of Horrors​ and ​Hairspray​ along with an acting role as Sylvia in ​Tribes​. Here at UVA, she has stayed involved in arts on grounds as a member at large of the Virginia Dance Company, the secretary of the Dance Committee, an Arts Grounds Guide, and a dancer in the spring and fall dance concerts. As a public policy major and dance minor, Katie hopes to continue her work in dance through the opportunities of the Miller Arts Scholars program.

While Wesley Diener has intensely studied theatre, violin, and piano, his true passion is singing.  In his hometown of Vienna, VA, Wesley was surrounded by instrumental endeavors when he first discovered the beauty of singing in preparation for musical theatre roles.  Since then, he has truly fallen in love with the art form, performing lead roles in musicals such as Into the Woods, Seussical, and The Wizard of Oz, collaborating with Tony award-winner Jason Robert Brown, and singing in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall multiple times.  At UVa, he studies voice with Mrs. Pamela Beasley and piano with Mr. John Mayhood.  This year, he had the privilege of performing in Ash Lawn Opera's Amahl and the Night Visitors, UVa Drama's Wonderful Town, and First Year Player's The Producers.  Additionally, he is a member of the University Singers and the Chamber Singers, the incoming Fundraising Chair of First Year Players, and a member of the Student Council Arts Committee for the 2015-2016 school year.  This summer, he will be portraying Riff in West Side Story and Micah in The Bartered Bride with the Bethesda Music Festival.  He is thrilled to further explore UVa's artistic opportunities with the Miller Art Scholars!