Nicolette Abate is currently a senior at Morristown-Hamblen High School West. She has played cello for a year and a half under Darby Crigger and Alicia Randisi-Hooker, and this is her first year playing as a member in the Knoxville Symphony Youth Orchestra Association. Nicolette also played percussion for five years and piano for ten. Some other hobbies include solving Rubik’s Cubes and increasing her over three-year streak in studying French and Spanish on Duolingo. She will likely attend the University of Tennessee Knoxville, where she also attended Governor’s School for Science and Engineering this past summer. Nicolette plans on studying mathematics, French, and/or Spanish in the Honors Leadership and Math Honors Programs. Nicolette would like to thank all of her teachers, directors, and family for pushing her to where she is today. She could have not gotten to where she is without them.