11/08/2025
Happening today ay 11am! Learn more about our amazing performers!
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.
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Abby Temple is a Kentucky-based trumpeter and artist from the foothills of North Carolina. Passionate about classical music in diverse formations and the versatility of the trumpet, she regularly performs early music to contemporary works with everything in between.
Abby currently serves on faculty at the University of Kentucky as an Adjunct Instructor of Trumpet, where she assists Dr. Jason Dovel in teaching the trumpet studio, plays in the UK Faculty Brass Quintet, and works as Assistant Director of the UK Summer Trumpet Institute.
A versatile performer, comfortable to play the music of many styles and eras, she has performed on baroque trumpet with Mountainside Baroque, Bourbon Baroque, and the Kentucky Bach Choir, and on modern trumpet, she served as Principal Trumpet with the Du Bois Orchestra (Cambridge, MA), and recently performed the Haydn Trumpet Concerto with the University of Kentucky Symphony Orchestra. For her solo projects, Abby performs programs of her own artistic connections by incorporating multi-disciplinary art, free improvisation, and teaching artistry.
Abby earned a Master of Music in Trumpet Performance from the Longy School of Music of Bard College in Cambridge, MA, and holds a Bachelor of Music in Music Performance and Certificate in Baroque Trumpet from the University of Kentucky. Abby has studied trumpet with Ashley Hall, Andy Kozar, Jason Dovel, Tim Hudson, and Tim Phillips.
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A versatile and sought-after pianist and vocalist, Erin Henke’s virtuosic technique and sensitive musicianship consistently leave a lasting impression. With over 12 years of experience in collaborative music in both piano and voice, Erin strives to equally integrate both interests into her professions. She has held numerous positions at churches and schools as both a pianist and vocalist, as well as in many professional choirs, including the Montana-based group, Roots in the Sky, and Chicago-based new music choirs Stare at the Sun and the William Ferris Chorale.
As a collaborator, Erin has had the pleasure of performing a multitude of genres and art forms. Some of her highlights include performing with the James Sewell Ballet Company on their Earth Tomes tour, working as a staff pianist at her alma mater, Longy, and most recently, performing with the teaching artistry ensemble, the Chroma Collective, at Lincoln Memorial University.
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 B.A. in Music, a minor in German, and an Honors Baccalaureate, magna cm laude, from Montana State University in 2018, where she studied both piano and voice. She currently holds the position of Parish Coordinator at Park Ridge Community Church in Park Ridge, IL, sings as part of the professional Schola Choir at Church of the Atonement in Chicago, and freelances as a pianist and vocalist.
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Hollyn Slykhuis is a trumpet player, music educator, and administrator forging a career in advocacy for historically underrepresented voices in music and music education. She is the co-founder of the nonprofit ensemble Chroma Collective. Hollyn 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 with Diversify the Stand 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 maintains a vibrant private studio, and 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 cm laude with College Honors from Louisiana State University with a Bachelor’s of Music Education degree, where 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. Hollyn is currently the Development and Institutional Giving Manager at Levine Music in Washington, DC, where she also teaches privately and freelances.
