YOUNG STUDENTS SUNDAY:
ASHAN GALHENA, FLUTIST and ROGER WANG, BARITONE

Music partner: Roswell Music Club

Ashan Galhena, flutist

Ashan Galhena is a flutist from Lambert High School in Suwanee, GA. He is currently a member of the Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra and the Emory Youth Symphony Orchestra, and is the principal flutist of the Lambert High School Wind Ensemble under the direction of Kevin Morrison. Ashan has performed with the Atlanta Youth Wind Symphony, and has been a member of the annual GMEA All-State Band and Orchestra event in Athens, GA for five years consecutively. As well as playing in ensembles, Ashan has worked with esteemed musicians and conductors such as former GMEA president Matt Koperniak, conductors Steven D. Davis, Buddy Langley, and Paul Bhasin, composers Julie Giroux and Minoo Dixon, and New York Philharmonic principal trumpet Christopher Martin. In addition to concert ensembles, Ashan has also worked as a conductor for 2 years with the Lambert High School Marching Band, and plans to work as a conductor for a professional drum corps.

Roger Wang, baritone
Roger Wang, 16, is an 11th grade student at Lambert High School in Suwanee, Georgia. Roger has been taking classical vocal training since he was 10 years old. He has won multiple awards in various music competitions, including 1st place and a monetary reward from the 2021 Florida Keys International Music Competition, Judges Distinction Awards and 1st place in the 2020 American Protégé International Vocal Competition, 2nd place winner in 2019 Hal Leonard Vocal Competition. He was selected by Broadway celebrity Corey Cott as one of the grand prize winners in 2020 CYT national Talent Thon competition and earned the opportunity for virtual meet with Director Jon Chu. Roger is the official National Anthem singer for professional sport teams, including the Atlanta Gladiators (Hockey), and the Gwinnett Stripers (Baseball).
Roger is a major member in Lambert High School Chamber Chorus – he is proud to be a participant in the Georgia All-State Chorus for 3 straight years, earning perfect scores for two years. Last year, he also auditioned for the Georgia All-State Reading Chorus and got selected; he is the first and only student from his high school who has ever passed the all-state reading chorus audition.

Indulge in the magic of Simone Vigilante’s talent and passion for the art of opera and vocal music. Her mastery will leave you spellbound, captivating hearts with every note.

About The Artist:

Simone Vigilante is lauded as a “beautiful dramatic soprano capable of some awesome fireworks” (Asheville Citizen-Times). She has appeared in recitals and competitions, with opera companies and orchestras, throughout the United States, France, Spain, Austria and Italy.

Recent highlights include a lecture-recital at the NC Museum of Art where Classical Voice of North Carolina noted “Vigilante provided the pizazz” and her solo CD release, Love, Look Away. This recording showcases her diverse talents in singing various genres including opera, classical, musical theater, gospel, and folk song through a dynamic collaboration with pianist David Troy Francis.
Ms. Vigilante has lived in the Asheville area since 2001 and is a founding member of Opera Creations. She has sung numerous leading roles with Asheville Lyric Opera, from Mozart to Strauss to Menotti, as well as musical theater such as Bloody Mary (South Pacific) and Mother Abbess (The Sound of Music). Additional roles include Sister Rose (Dead Man Walking) for The Modern American Music Project and Katisha (The Mikado), Miss Silverpeal (Mozart’s Impresario), and Ruth (Pirates of Penzance) for Opera Creations.

As a soloist of choral and orchestral works, Ms. Vigilante performs regularly with Asheville Choral Society (Vaughan Williams’ Hodie, Handel’s Messiah, Brubeck’s Mass: To Hope! A Celebration and Theofanidis’ The Here and Now), Asheville Symphony, and Asheville Symphony Chorus (Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem, Mozart’s Requiem, Duruflé’s Requiem). She serves as a regular Cantor/Soloist at St. Mary’s Church and is a popular vocal instructor and master class clinician at UNC-Asheville, Academy for the Arts at First Baptist Church, and La Bella Voce Studio of Simone Vigilante.
Born in Rochester, New York, Ms. Vigilante attended the Eastman School of Music beginning her studies in piano and voice. She earned vocal and opera performance degrees from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts (BM) and Indiana University of Bloomington (MM), where she worked primarily with the world-famous and Classical Singer Magazine’s 2010 teacher of the year Virginia Zeani.