Mary Stone and Ian Guthrie

Mary Stone began piano lessons at age eight, but she concentrated primarily on playing the hammer dulcimer and performing Irish dance and music with her six siblings. Competing in Irish dance at the local, regional, and national level, she won many trophies, qualified for the World Irish Dancing Championships, and took first place in the Western Regional. Mary has also acted in several community theater productions and with her brothers and sisters, collectively filled the roles of the seven Von Trapp children in The Sound of Music.

Before moving to the Portland/Vancouver area three years ago, Mary decided to make piano a priority and participated in California's Southwestern Youth Music Festival, placing first in her age division. She has played in OMTA's Baroque, Classical, and Romantic Festivals and was a first place winner in the 2008 Romantic Festival. This year Mary qualified to play at the WSMTA District Recital and also performed in a fundraiser for the School of Piano Technology for the Blind. Mary is homeschooled, an accompanist at her church, and a member of the choir, Cantores in Ecclesia, where she sings Gregorian chant and sacred polyphonic music.

Ian Guthrie is a fifteen-year-old home-schooled student going into tenth grade. He has been playing the piano for eight years and has studied with Barbara Roberts since 2005. Ian also studies composition with Robert Priest, and for the past three years won the Washington State Music Teachers' Association's for grades 7th, 8th, and 9th, respectively. He recently placed third in the Webster University Young Composition Contest in 2008. For the past four years he has performed at the Fort Vancouver Seafarers Center concerts. Ian also plays percussion for the Metropolitan Youth Symphony (MYS) in Portland.

In addition to music, Ian's interests include hiking, studying bells, basketball, running, swimming, golf, and other sports.