About

Chroma Collective combines music and art in a way that is engaging and fun for our audiences, whether that happens in a classroom, concert hall, library, or any other space. We promote historically marginalized composers in our performances, and design our program so that audience members find the artist within themselves. Participants create their own art as we play our instruments, and we invite them to share their artistry alongside us. With our unique chamber ensemble, we have a flexible instrumentation of two trumpets and soprano/piano.

We present events at community music programs, libraries, children’s museums, parks, or any space where people can come together and share in artistry. We welcome audience members to paint or draw while we guide them through our repertoire. A few ways we begin this exploration are by relating various musical intervals to different colors, encouraging audience members to explore contrasting textures in music and art, and inviting guests to draw lines corresponding to musical phrases. Our goal is to present musical and artistic ideas that invite the audience to explore their personal creativity, whether that audience is a group of young children, college-age students, or a retirement home community – extensive knowledge about music & art is not required, and there are no right or wrong answers. We are here to facilitate the act of creation, not necessarily to paint perfect pictures. 

Chroma Collective Advisory Council Members

  • Gabrielle Molina, Teaching Artists International

  • Ashley Hall, Cincinnati Conservatory of Music

  • Andy Kozar, Longy School of Music

  • JR Snow, Harrisonburg City Public Schools

Biographies

  • Hollyn Slykhuis

    Co-Founder, Trumpet

    Hollyn Slykhuis is a trumpet player, music educator, and administrator forging a career in advocacy for historically underrepresented voices in music and music education.

    Hollyn has performed with groups such as the Du Bois Orchestra, Opera Louisiane, and New England Brass Band, and alongside artists including Ben Folds, Wayne Bergeron, and Hila Plitman. She has commissioned and premiered several works for solo trumpet, trumpet and electronics, and chamber music featuring trumpet by composers such as Lara Poe, Anne McAninch, and Samara Rice, and she continues to advocate for new music and the promotion of historically marginalized voices through her work as Diversify the Stand’s Grant Manager and the International Trumpet Guild’s DEI Committee. Her work commissioning and premiering new works by women has been featured on I Care if You Listen.

    Hollyn has maintained a private trumpet studio for 7 years, instructed group and private trumpet lessons at multiple El Sistema programs across the nation, worked with the YOLA program run by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, taught music abroad in Chile, and designed and implemented a music curriculum for students with exceptionalities as the Music Director for the LSU Prism Project. Her pedagogical methods have been published in the International Trumpet Guild Journal and presented at Music Educators Association Conferences across New England.

    Hollyn graduated summa cum laude with College Honors from Louisiana State University with a Bachelor’s of Music Education degree, and is a certified K-12 music educator. She studied with Brian Shaw and Matthew Vangjel. She completed her Masters of Music in Trumpet Performance at Longy School of Music of Bard College as the Giustina M. Brosio Memorial Scholar and studied with Ashley Hall. She is currently the Development Manager at Levine Music in Washington, DC, where she also teaches privately and freelances.

  • Abby Temple

    Co-Founder, Trumpet

    Abby Temple is a Kentucky-based trumpeter and visual artist from the piedmont of North Carolina. Passionate about classical music in diverse formations and contexts, she regularly performs early music to contemporary works with everything in between. Abby’s solo programs focus on the intersection of music and visual art, as her life has always included art and music fully intertwined, with strong imagery and senses connected to musical tones and timbres.

    She currently serves on faculty at the University of Kentucky as an Adjunct Instructor of Trumpet, where she assists in teaching the trumpet studio, plays in the UK Faculty Brass Quintet, and serves as Assistant Director of the UK Summer Trumpet Institute.

    A versatile performer, comfortable to play the music of many styles and eras, Abby has performed on baroque trumpet with Mountainside Baroque (Cumberland, MD) and Bourbon Baroque (Louisville, KY), and on modern trumpet, she served as Principal Trumpet with the Du Bois Orchestra (Cambridge, MA). As a soloist, Abby performs programs of her own artistic connections by incorporating multi-disciplinary art, free improvisation, and teaching artistry. She also enjoys programming traditional trumpet and organ recitals throughout Kentucky with organist, Grant Holcomb.

    As a recording artist, Ms. Temple can be heard with the University of Kentucky Trumpet Studio on John Hyde: A New and Complete Preceptor for the Trumpet and Bugle Horn, Andromeda: New Music for Trumpet Ensemble (Sonitus Records), and Music for Natural Trumpets (New Branch Records).

    Abby holds a Bachelor of Music in Music Performance and a Certificate in Baroque Trumpet from the University of Kentucky. While a student at UK, she was a co-founder of the first International Trumpet Guild Student Group, which has since grown to over 600 student members and was designed to connect young trumpet players throughout the United States and beyond. She holds a Master of Music in Trumpet Performance from the Longy School of Music of Bard College in Cambridge, MA, where she served as a Teaching Assistant in Longy’s El Sistema program, teaching trumpet students from third grade through seniors in high school. Abby has studied trumpet with Ashley Hall, Andy Kozar, Jason Dovel, Tim Hudson, and Tim Phillips.

  • Erin Henke

    Soprano Voice & Piano

    A versatile and sought-after pianist, vocalist, and administrator, Erin Henke’s virtuosic technique and sensitive musicianship consistently leave a lasting impression. A fourth-generation Montanan, Erin Henke’s passions stem from a love of home and the excitement of exploration.

    New music lies at the center of her musical world, and informs her playing at its core. With over 10 years of experience in collaborative music in both piano and voice, Erin strives to equally integrate both interests into her professions. Erin has held numerous positions at churches and schools as both a pianist and vocalist, as well as in professional choirs, including a vocal fellow position with the two-time Grammy award-winning choir, The Crossing. Erin’s skills as both a vocalist and a pianist specifically provide her with a deep understanding of her vocal collaborators, and allow her to accompany them with an ease of flow and precision.

    As a collaborator, Erin has had the pleasure of performing a multitude of genres and art forms, from musicals, to operas, to world premier choral works. In 2017 she was selected as the accompanist for the Montana All State Choir and was recently the rehearsal accompanist for a performance of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro by the Boston Opera Collaborative. Erin also has a love for singing in a choral setting – she is a member of the Montana-based professional choir, Roots in the Sky, with which she recently performed the world premiere of in nature by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer, David Lang, in collaboration with The Crossing. She also sings professionally with the Music of the Baroque and the Chicago-based new music choirs, Stare at the Sun and the William Ferris Chorale.

    Erin received her Master of Music in Collaborative Piano from Longy School of Music of Bard College in Cambridge, MA, where she studied piano with Steinway Artist Spencer Myer and voice with Angela Gooch. Erin earned a Bachelor of Arts in Music, a minor in German, and an Honors Baccalaureate, magna cum laude, from Montana State University–Bozeman in 2018, where she studied both piano and voice. She currently holds the position of Pianist/Organist and Office Administrator for Hope Lutheran Church in Bozeman, MT, and also works as the Choral Accompanist at Montana State University. In her free time, Erin enjoys hiking in the mountains, doing puzzles with a cup of hot tea, watching true crime documentaries with her husband, Logan, and hanging out with her cat, Barbara.