The team behind the collective

Sara Maria Blanton is the founder and Executive Director of the Raleigh Music Collective. She holds a B.M. in violin performance and music education from Christopher Newport University.

She studied under Yun Zhang, associate concertmaster of the Virginia Symphony Orchestra, and served three years as concertmaster of the CNU University Orchestra. She won the CNU Concerto Competition performing the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in E minor.

She performs with The Raleigh Symphony and the Durham Symphony, teaches private lessons, and is a certified Bornoff Level I instructor.

Matthew Holt is a former NC public school educator with seven years of experience, including roles as Associate Director of Orchestras at Durham School of the Arts and Director of Orchestras at Pinecrest High School.

He is principal cellist for the Raleigh Symphony Orchestra and cellist for the Triangle String Quartet. He holds a B.M. from Susquehanna University and an M.M. from UNC Greensboro, and received the NC Symphony Musicians Award in 2020.

Maria Fernanda Rodriguez is a Venezuelan cellist and arts administrator who began through El Sistema at age nine.

She studied at the Simón Bolívar Conservatories and the Academia Latinoamericana de Violoncello, and received the President’s International Quartet Scholarship at Western Illinois University, where she earned a B.M. in Cello Performance with a Music Business minor.

As Marketing & Development Director and a Teaching Artist, she is focused on expanding access to music instruction.