On Saturday, April 6th, the 2024 Piano Duo Festival was held at the Greene Music Recital Hall. 31 teams from 16 studios were presented in three successful recitals. These student teams performed in four competitive categories and in one non-competitive category. Thanks to the following studios for their participation: Anna Stal, Carol Ong-Chen, April Lin, Isabelle Roux, Yulia Atoyan, Eunice Ahn, Galina Talis, Vivian Wu, Yuko Maruyama, Yun-Yin Wu, Anna Vasilyeva, Lori Vickers, Luba Ugorski, Kathy Kim, Johee Lee, and Irina Bessonova. Also, big thank-you to our volunteer teachers Vivian Wu, Carol Ong-Chen, and Yuko Maruyama for helping the event run smoothly. Our judges, Steve Baker and Joanne Stohs, were very impressed with the level of playing and want to congratulate all teachers and students. See you next year!

2024 DUO FESTIVAL WINNERS

I: Ages 5 – 9
1st – Clarie Chen & Daren Ren
2nd – Nishant Mantravadi & Blake Chuang
3rd – Jimin Lai & Andrew Ong
HM – Alice Lai & Sherri Zhou
HM – Lexie Yang & Justin Chang

II: Ages 10 – 12
1st – Maximilian Zeng & Lyla Zeng
2nd – Blake Hawkinson & Alex Hawkinson
3rd – Yen-Cheng Wu & Vincent Wu
HM – Evangeline Felker & Caleb Felker
HM – O-New Kim & Julie Jeong

III: Ages 13 – 15
1st – Claire Li & Avery Li
2nd – Charity Chen & Yen-Cheng Wu
3rd – Alexander Jaden Smith & Vladimir Bayanduryan

IV: Ages 16 – HS
1st – Tony Qu & Hsueh-Heng Lu
2nd – Peiran Liang & Charity Chen
3rd – Eunseo Lim & Cala Ko
HM – Maya Hanoch & Leah Wylie
HM – Ellie Chen & Evan Chen
HM – Caitlin Wang & Alvin Wang
HM – Christopher Lee & Daniel Kwon
HM – Emma Shi & Jack Shi
HM – Rudy Zhang & Michael Zhang
HM – Sonya Yasuda & Kyla Ho

Three recitals were successfully held for this year’s Piano Duo Festival on April 15th at Greene Music. We had 25 teams from 13 teaching studios competing in four categories. Thank you to the studios of Eunice Ahn, Eunji Bae, Jim Guerin, Bon Kim, Jeeyoon Kim, Kathy Kim, April Lin, Yu Carole Liu, Carol Ong-Chen, Isabelle Roux, Anna Stal, Lori Vickers, and Vivian Wu. Our two judges, Steve Baker and Sanaz Rezai, were very impressed with the level of playing by all teams. Also, special thanks to Yuko Maruyama, Isabelle Chen, Carol Ong-Chen and Lori Vickers, who volunteered for the event. Congratulations to all students for participating in the event. We hope to see you again next year!

2023 Piano Duo Festival Results

Category I: Ages 5 – 9
1st place: Jimin Lai & Andrew Ong
2nd place: Clarie Chen & Daren Ren
3rd place: Olivia Chen & Blake Chuang
Honorable mentions: Lillian Wang & Jimin Lai, Mia Lyu & Michelle Lyu

Category II: Ages 10 – 12
1st place: Yen-Cheng Wu & Vincent Wu
2nd place: Jovanny Fernandez & Joshua Hsu
3rd place: Bokyung Logan Kwon & Jiwoo Aileen Park
Honorable mentions: Fuga Liam Endo & Christopher Taiyo Whitacre, Allison Duong & Katelyn Duong, Kayla Tsubokawa & Caleb Felker

Category III: Ages 13 – 15
1st place: Ling Zhong & Charity Chen
2nd place: Charity Chen & Peiran Liang
3rd place: Veronica Xu & Stephen Xu
Honorable mentions: Sophie Tsui & Hsueh-Heng (Helen) Lu, Anita Qian & Alethia Li

Category IV: Ages 16 – high school
1st place: Ruei-Chi Lai & Davina Zhu
2nd place: Tony Qu & Hsueh-Heng (Helen) Lu
3rd place: Vinh Son Nguyen & Gracelyn Nguyen

This year’s Piano Duo Festival was presented in two successful recitals on Saturday, April 16th, 2022, in-person at Greene Music Recital Hall. We had 16 teams compete in 4 categories in the event. Thanks to the studios of Eunice Ahn, Eunji Bae, Carol Ong-Chen, Isabelle Roux and Luba Ugorski for their hard work preparing these teams. Thanks to our two wonderful judges, Steve Baker and Joanne Stohs. Also, thanks to Yuko Maruyama, Carol Ong-Chen, and Professor Victor Labenske’s two student volunteers for their help to make this festival happen. 

Category I: Ages 5 – 9 

1st place: Mason Kwon & Ryan Kim
2nd place: Elise Fu & William Fu
3rd place: Lilian Wang & Andrew Ong

Honorable Mentions: Jimin Lai & Lilian Wang, Evangeline Felker & Aarya lyer, and Julie Jeong & O-New Kim

Category II: Ages 10 – 12 

1st place: Charity Chen & Yiyi He
2nd place: Alex Hawkinson & Blake Hawkinson
3rd place: Allison Duong & Katelyn Duong

Honorable Mentions: Astrea Archibald & Euan Lee, and Yen-Cheng Wu & Vincent Wu

Category III: Ages 13 – 15 

1st place: Ella Xing & Sophie Hart 
2nd place: Yiyi He & Ling Zhong

Category IV: Ages 16 – high school 

1st place: Davina Zhu, Ruei-Chi Lai, Peiran Liang & Wei-Shi Lai

This year’s Virtual Piano Duo Festival was held on Saturday, April 24th. We had 6 teaching studios and 18 duo teams participated in 4 categories for this event. Thanks to the participating teachers, Eunice Ahn, Irina Bessonova, Carol Ong-Chen, Isabelle Roux, Lori Vickers, and Lea Schmidt-Rogers for their dedicated work with their duo teams. Also, thanks to Yuko Maruyama, Chutaphin Yeager and Risa Schapiro for their help to run this Zoom event smoothly.

Category I: Ages 5 – 9

1st place: Mason Kwon & Ryan Kim 
2nd place: Lillian Wang & Andrew Ong 
3rd place: Blake Hawkinson & Alex Hawkinson 

Honorable Mentions:
Elena Knight & Beau Miller 
Aarya Iyer & Eva Lobo 
Maya Tsubokawa & Kayla Tsubokawa 

Category II: Ages 10 – 12

1st place: Allison Duong & Katelyn Duong 
2nd place: Charity Chen & Yiyi He 
3rd place: Gloria McKibben & Cloë Coco Reeves Abi-Nahed 

Honorable Mentions:
Emma Bransi & Zoé Bransi 
Kenzie Shaaban & Kaïla Knight 
Chloe Lin & Claire Lin 
Yiyi He & Ling Zhong 
Sailee Caffrey & Lydia Grace Thompson 
Sonali Caffrey & Nima Movaghar 

Category III: Ages 13 – 15

1st place: Annalise Chang & Tyler Chang 
2nd place: Peiran Liang & Wei-Shi Lai 

Category IV: Ages 16 – high school

1st place: Joshua Sasaki & Brian Alba 

Congratulations to all those who participated and thank you to all those who came to support the 2020 Piano Duo Festival. The festival was held at Greene Music on February 22. This year, we had a total of 24 duo teams registered, of which 7 were non-competitive Student & Teacher and Student & Adult teams. The 17 competitive teams included 15 duo teams and 2 four-member teams playing selections written for eight-hands. Three recitals were presented in front of packed audiences, and our judges were very impressed with the level of the students’ playing. Thank you to Steve Baker and Joanne Stohs for adjudicating the event, and special thanks to Yuko Maruyama and Carol Ong-Chen for their help running the festival and all studios who participated. I hope to see you all next year!

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