A transgender violinist will perform at Carnegie Hall in New York next week, following a successful crowdfunding campaign

Tona Brown, a violinist and mezzo-soprano, will be the first openly trans woman of colour to ever play the iconic venue next Wednesday, after raising nearly $4000 on IndieGoGo.

She told Huffington Post: “The concert is called ‘From Stonewall to Carnegie Hall’ because we want to educate people about the plight of LGBT Americans, from 1969 to the present, through music and speech.

I have dreamed of performing at Carnegie Hall since I was 14 years old, when I was attending the Governor’s School for the Arts in Norfolk, Virginia.”

“It was there at the Governor’s School, that I realized that if I practiced, and studied with the best, one day I could perform at Carnegie Hall.

“My first reaction to the news that our proposal was approved by Carnegie Hall was amazement… I couldn’t believe that we got a yes!

“I started tearing up while telling my friends, because I thought of all the great artists who have crossed that stage.

“Many of them had enormous obstacles to overcome, like I do as a transgender person of colour in America.”

According to GLAAD, Brown has had an accomplished career, starring as La Principessa in the opera Suor Angelica, performing the National Anthem for Barack Obama, and landing a recurring role in yet-to-be-announced Netflix series City Lightz.

Watch Brown perform Amazing Grace below:

