Our Team

Sara Maria Blanton is the founder and executive director of The Raleigh Music Collective as well as the executive director of the CODA Strings Camp. She graduated from Christopher Newport University (CNU) where she received her Bachelors of Music with a double concentration in violin performance and music education and a minor in leadership. She studied under Yun Zhang, the associate concert master of the Virginia Symphony Orchestra. While at CNU, she served for three yeas as the concert master in the CNU University Orchestra. She also played first violin for the CNU quartet and the CNU string ensemble. Her senior year at CNU, she won the CNU Concerto Competition and performed the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in E minor with the CNU orchestra. She performs with The Raleigh Symphony, Durham Symphony, Chamber Orchestra of the Triangle, DITA Orchestra, and has recorded with artists such as Jess Ray, Mission House and Ryan of Sleeping at Last. Mrs. Blanton has been teaching private violin, viola, and cello lessons for over six years. She is a certified as a Bornoff Level I instructor.

Matthew (Matt) Holt is a former educator in the North Carolina Public Schools system. He previously taught for seven years as an Associate Director of Orchestras at the Durham School of the Arts and as the Director of Orchestras at Pinecrest High School in Southern Pines, North Carolina. Holt studied cello with Lisa Olsen, Lila Ainsworth, Andrew Rammon, and David Meyer. 

Matt currently performs as principal cellist for the Raleigh Symphony Orchestra and is the cellist for the Triangle String Quartet. He has also made several guest conducting appearances in Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and North Carolina. He has studied conducting under David Itkin, Steven Smith, Gerard Schwartz, David Glover, Gregory Grabowsky, Julia Thorn, and Eric Hinton.

Matt holds a Bachelor of Music in Music Education (BM '15) from Susquehanna University with emphasis in cello, baroque music, and conducting and a Master of Music (MM '21) in Music Education from UNC Greensboro. He received the North Carolina Symphony Musicians Award in 2020. He currently serves as Music Director at NewHope Church in Durham, NC.

Corrie Tew is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and holds a degree in Music Education where she focused on orchestral instruction. She currently teaches at Poe Elementary School in Wake County and serves as a private teacher at the Dunn School of Music. She previously taught at Culbreth Middle School and Chapel Hill High School for ten years. Prior to Chapel Hill, Mrs. Tew taught at Raleigh Charter High School and at multiple elementary schools in the triangle. Mrs.Tew also served as the co-director for Raspberry Ridge Strings Camp, and worked as an instructor for Meredith College Pops In the Park Camp, RMC Summer Camp, and UNCG Summer Music Camp. In addition to teaching, Mrs. Tew enjoys playing for weddings with Dean’s Duets, and previously performed with the Durham Symphony for 11 years. She is also the Eastern Region Orchestra Chair for NCMEA. Mrs. Tew is passionate about making orchestra accessible to all students and is excited to be working with the Raleigh Music Collective this year. 

Violinist Helena Bandy was born in Virginia Beach and began taking violin lessons at the age of four and piano lessons shortly after. She was exposed to a variety of music genres in childhood and grew up listening to and playing classical music, jazz, gospel, and funk. Helena received both her BM and MM from Baylor University, studying violin performance with Dr. Bruce Berg and Dr. Eka Gogichashvili. During her time at Baylor, she also studied classical voice, piano, and improvisation. Being a zealous chamber musician, she developed and curated an interest in significant and unusual chamber works, performing Bartók’s Contrasts, Messaien’s Quartet for the End of Time, Shostakovich’s Prelude & Trio for String Octet, Ewazen’s Trio for Trumpet, Violin, and Piano, and Stravinsky’s Dumbarton Oaks Concerto for chamber orchestra. During her collegiate years and afterward, she performed with the Waco Symphony Orchestra, the Abilene Philharmonic, and the Temple Symphony Orchestra and taught at the Central Texas Strings Academy, Live Oak Classical School, and within her own private studio. In addition to teaching and playing in orchestras, she regularly performed in jazz trios as a singer and violinist. Helena was a founding member and songwriter of the folk/jazz bands Medicine Man and Days & Nights. Both of these groups performed extensively in east Texas and released several singles and albums on streaming platforms. Helena recently relocated to North Carolina after winning an audition with the Chamber Orchestra of the Triangle. She has now been a member of the COT for two seasons, and she regularly performs with the Carolina Philharmonic, the Carolina Ballet, and the Long Bay Symphony. Helena currently teaches violin and piano at the High Strung School of Music and the Community Music School of Raleigh. She lives in west Raleigh with her partner and enjoys reading, hiking, running, kayaking, and cooking in her free time. 

Born in San Fernando, Venezuela, Maria was first introduced to the cello at the age of nine through El Sistema as a part of the first generation of young musicians of her hometown, Cantaura. In 2011, she started her studies at the Simon Bolivar Music Conservatory in Puerto La Cruz with María Oropeza. At the same time, she was serving as principal cellist of both the Regional Youth Orchestra and the Cantaura Symphony Orchestra, a role that she maintained for four years. By the age of 16, she started teaching younger students and serving as lead cellist for sectionals and seminars in her orchestra. She was admitted to the Academia Latinoamericana de Violoncello in 2014, guided by William Molina, and subsequently, in 2015, continued her studies at the Simon Bolivar Music Conservatory in Caracas under Francy Vásquez while studying Modern Languages at Universidad Metropolitana. 

She moved to the United States, and in 2020, Maria was awarded the President’s International Quartet Scholarship at Western Illinois University and began studies under the tutelage of Kenny Lee. During her time there, she was provided with full tuition to complete her Bachelor's degree in Music Performance with a minor in Music Business. Since graduating in 2024, Maria has been performing as a cellist with the Raleigh Symphony and Durham Symphony, while continuing to broaden her artistic endeavors and growth.