The 2020 Chopin Festival Registration is now open. Follow the link to the Chopin Festival page for the registration form and the event guidelines. There is an entry limit of 18 students per category, so teachers are encouraged to register their students early.
Congratulations to all students who performed in this year’s Concerto Competition! The first-place winners in each division will be performing with an orchestra this spring. Details coming soon.
I want to thank the distinguished panel of judges for taking time from their busy schedules to make this event especially meaningful for all participants: Tina Chong, Kookhee Hong, Crystal Rivette (piano judges); Pamela Vliek Martchev, Valentin Martchev, Amy Taylor (winds judges); Isaac Allen, Angela Choong, Paivikki Nykter (strings judges).
I am extremely grateful to all of the teachers who helped to make this event a success:
Sarah Victor, Magda Bornemisza, Dana Burnett, Glen Campbell, Hernan Constantino, Sun Yung Cho, Annelle Gregory, Scott Johnson, Inessa Litvin, Jane Masur, Alex Mirolyan, Alexander Palamidis, Cho-Hyun Park, Anna Savvas, Viktor Shekhtman, Claudia Smetona, Seiran Sohn, Chetan Tierra, Pasha Tseitlin, Michael Tseitlin, Elena Yarritu.
PLEASE NOTE: USD’s Shiley Theatre will not be available for this competition (or any other event) next year due to the major renovations throughout Camino Hall and Founders Hall. We need to find a different location in order to hold this competition in 2021!
| 2020 Concerto Winners | ||
|---|---|---|
| Division I | 1st place | Addison Lee - Mozart: Concerto in C Major, K.246, Mvt 1 |
| 2nd place | Aaron Ye | |
| 3rd place TIE | Sonya Yasuda, Tyler Chang | |
| HM | Ethan Zhou | |
| Division II | 1st place | Ethan Song - Beethoven: Concerto No. 3 in C Minor, Mvt III |
| 2nd place | Andrew Zhang | |
| 3rd place | Bradley Carpiuc | |
| HM | Leo Zhang | |
| Division III | 1st place | Aidan Wahlmann - Mozart: Concerto in D Minor, K. 466, Mvt I |
| 2nd place | Zixuan Chen | |
| 3rd place | Zachary Liu | |
| HMs | Ethan Chuang, Gabrielle Sanchez | |
| Division IV | 1st place | Dillon Halpin - Ibert: Concerto for Flute, Mvt. I |
| 2nd place | Katherine Liao | |
| 3rd place TIE | Helen Zhu, Nathan Haghgoo | |
| HM | Emma Ward | |
| Division V | 1st place | Ethan Zhou - Nardini: Violin Concerto in E Minor, Mvt I |
| 2nd place | Caitlin Wang | |
| 3rd place | Caden Jiang | |
| HM | Benjamin Luo | |
| Division VI | 1st place | Justin Wu - Saint-Saens: Cello Concerto No. 1 in A Minor, Mvt I |
| 2nd place | Susan Lee | |
| 3rd place TIE | Alina Hernandez, Adam Kulju | |
| HMs | Ivan Li, Stacy Widyono, Eric Zhou | |
San Diego Branch VOCE 2020 was an amassment of extraordinary talent and skill under one roof! Ten teachers sent a total of 34 soloists and 6 ensembles to compete, and 1 non-competitive entry. They were assisted by 8 accompanists. The event was held January 5 at Grossmont College in two competition rooms, and was open to the public.
Co-Chairs:
Hernan Constantino, Danette White, and Yuko Maruyama
Studios represented:
Ruslan Biryukov, cello & coach; Hernan Constantino, violin & coach; Peter Dayeh, clarinet; Constantino Felicetta, clarinet; Annelle Gregory, violin; Sunjin Kim, violin; Tasha Koontz, voice; Alex Palamidis, violin & coach; Pasha Tseitlin, violin & coach; and Elena Yarritu, flute & piccolo
Accompanists:
Yulia Atoyan, Dana Burnett, Melissa Creider, Katherine Dvoskin, Yuju Jung, Dale Liao, Joanne Stohs, and Bryan Verhoye
Judges:
Ai Nihira & Jian Wang—Junior & Intermediate Solo Strings
Ethan Parnela & Edmund Stein—Senior Solo Strings, and Intermediate & Senior Ensembles
Amy Taylor & Sheryl Renk—Intermediate & Senior Solo Winds, and Solo Voice
Dan Ratelle—Solo Voice
6 teachers worked as volunteers:
Ruslan Biryukov, Peter Dayeh, Annelle Gregory, Sunjin Kim, Alex Palamidis, and Pasha Tseitlin
3 San Diego Branch board members provided additional support on site:
Chutaphin Yeager, Brian Goral, and Miriam Cole
A tremendous thank you to all involved!!
Congratulations to EACH student for your performance—for dedication to music—and willingness to put yourself out there and go for it!!
Below are the results. 1st Place Winners (including ties) are eligible to compete at the MTAC State VOCE in April. A further online application is required. If 1st Place Winners cannot compete, then a 1st Place Alternate may do so. Note that 2nd Place cannot substitute in the absence of 1st.
Junior Solo Strings
1st Place Tie—Brianna Baek, violin
1st Place Tie—Ethan Zhou, violin
1st Place Alternate—Julian Wu, cello
2nd Place—Alexia Ciobanu, violin
3rd Place Tie—Jasmine Chan, violin
3rd Place Tie—Benjamin Luo, violin
Honorable Mention—Joyce Kwack, violin
Intermediate Solo Strings
1st Place—Stacy Widyono, violin
1st Place Alternate—Justin Wu, cello
2nd Place—Ethan Zhang, cello
3rd Place—Kevin Hu, violin
Honorable Mentions (alphabetical)—Chisato Kamakura, violin; Daeho Lee, violin
Senior Solo Strings
1st Place Tie—Adam Kulju, violin
1st Place Tie—Phoebe Olszewski, violin
1st Place Alternate—Alina Hernandez, violin
2nd Place—Evan Zhou, violin
3rd Place—Janice Hu, violin
Honorable Mentions (alphabetical)—Charlotte Hou, violin; Wei-Shan Huynh, violin; Andrew Yang, cello
Intermediate Solo Winds
1st Place—Nathan Haghgoo, flute
2nd Place—Nithin Chilakapati, flute/piccolo
3rd Place—Ramona Terry-Lorenzo, flute
Senior Solo Winds
1st Place—Gary Lin, clarinet
2nd Place—Elaine Yiu, flute
3rd Place—Daeyoun Na, clarinet
Senior Solo Voice
2nd Place—Sophia Khurana, mezzo-soprano
Intermediate Instrumental Ensemble
1st Place—”Ember String Quartet”
Stacy Widyono, violin; Chisato Kamakura, violin; Maya Rosenbaum, viola; Josephine Kim, cello
2nd Place Tie—”SKY Trio”
Kevin Hu, violin; Sunny Fan, cello; Eric Wang, piano
2nd Place Tie—”String Quartet”
Janice Hu, violin; Tristan Upton, violin; Dasha Zerboni, viola; Ethan Zhang, cello
Honorable Mention—”Mini-Cellissimo”
Han Li, cello, Debora Okhotina, cello
Senior Instrumental Ensemble
1st Place—”The String Beans”
Evan Zhou, violin; Wei-Shan Huynh, violin; James Renk, viola; Dylan Renk, cello
2nd Place—”San Diego Youth Cello Quintet”
Darren Jiang, cello; Andrew Yang, cello; Sebastian Brumm, cello; Ethan Zhang, cello; Justin Wu, cello
Student registration for the 2020 Piano Duo Festival is now open. Please visit the event page https://mtacsd.org/piano-duo-festival/ for the registration form and for more information.
Student registration for the 2020 Concerto Competition is now open. Please visit the Concerto Competition page for the registration form and for more information.
There were 280 participants in the 2019 Sonata Contest, and I really appreciate the help of the following people who contributed their time and made this a successful day! First, a very big thank you to MTAC members: Victor Labenske, Mitzi Kolar, Yuko Maruyama, Miriam Cole, Magdi Bornemisza, Dan Yu, Sarah Victor, Angelina Hardy, Emi Clements, Abby Vickers and Karlin Labenske for their help on the day of the contest and in the preparations for the event. A special thank you to Brian Goral and Chutaphin Yeager for serving a fabulous breakfast and lunch!
Thank you to the following non-MTAC-member volunteers: Chelsea Clements, Patty Rudolph, Aurora Gryzbek, Renee Chang, Paul Otterson, Leslie Lucas, Lindsey Heinrich, Francisco Mamon, Joseph Mamon, Sabrina Jiang, Jordan Klein, Amiee Duncan, John-William Gambrell, Isabella Ettore, Soren Pederson, Meliza San Jose, and Risa Schapiro.
Another big thank you to my husband, Eric Vickers, for his computer expertise, and for his encouragement and support with running this event!
Finally, I am incredibly grateful to Dr. Victor Labenske who helped make it possible for us to utilize the Cooper Music Center for the first time. It is a beautiful venue for the Sonata Contest and I sincerely thank Victor and Point Loma Nazarene University for their generous hospitality allowing us to use their facility.
The judges this year were: Jaeryoung Lee (San Diego), Rob and Teri Watson (Fullerton), Randi Rudolph (Phoenix), Sanaz Rezai (Los Angeles), Joanne Stohs (Northern San Diego), Laurie Meinhold (Aliso Viejo), Lea Schmidt-Rogers (San Diego), and Sonya Schumann (San Diego).
Happy Holidays to all of you and I look forward to seeing you next year!
| Group and Composer | 1st place | 2nd Place | 3rd Place |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1A--Bastien Sonatina in C | Olivia Liang | Leia Park | Tie: Sophia Liang/Avery Yang |
| 1B--Bastien Silver Sonatina | Tie: Chloe Kim/Abigail Guo | Olivia Tsai | Tie: Eli Krongold/Charlotte Zheng |
| 2A--Bastien Chromatic | Kadmus Ma | Elena Chen | Aiden Seungchan Lee |
| 2B--Gillock | Ruiya Xia | Tie: Rain Yang/Katelyn Li | Aria Chan |
| 3A--Vandall Sunrise | An Tran | Diya Nair | Alicia Liu |
| 3B--Vandall Festiva | Ivy Vo | Seojin Lee | Alyssa Ju |
| 4A--Vandall Sonatina in A Minor | Tie: Maya Hanoch/Willem Huang | Tie: Andrew Lee/Lydia Tsai | Claire Otterson |
| 4B--Beethoven | Tie: Isabella Yang/Healin Lee | Tie: Ellie Tsvetov/Joy Xu | Eric Liu |
| 5A--Clementi G Major | Veronica Yu | Miyana Luedke | David Liu |
| 5B--Clementi C Major | Grace Xu | Rien Chen | Anthony Liu/Anna Cao |
| 6A--Lynes | Tie: Tyler Chang/Claire Lim | Joshua Yu | Youchae Bae |
| 6B--Kuhlau | Sarah Deng | Seungbeom Baek | Bryce Liu |
| 7--Mozart C Major | Minhtu Nguyen | Vicky Chen | Amber Zhang |
| 8--Kabalevsky | Andrew Zhang | Edward J. Kim | Annalise Chang |
| 9--Mozart B Flat Major | Ethan Song | Margaret Fan | Tie: Selena Xiang/Adora Xiao |
| 10--Beethoven | Aidan Wahlman | Zixuan Chen | Cindy Cao |
| 11--Haydn | Tie: Bradley Carpiuc/Sabrina Li/Caleb Smedra |
On October 7th, teachers attending Gail Lew’s New Materials Review presentation received a glittering presentation of the best of the new releases, just in time for choosing New Materials pieces for students’ Certificate of Merit/Convention pieces. They also received free music and door prizes as well as the opportunity to buy music and music related items at the Bookmarks Music Store which arrived on location for the event.
This program has always been one of the most popular presentation at the MTAC Convention yearly and now continues to be popular as it travels to branches for intimate presentations to members. Due to its success and the enthusiasm of members, we plan to bring her back next year about this time. Watch for notice of it and don’t miss out!
The Popular Music Festival, chaired by Kathy Kim, was held Saturday, October 12, 2019 at Grossmont College Recital Hall. 43 students were heard in three recitals playing pop, rock, blues, boogie, movie themes, folk, rags, and jazz. This event is a celebration of popular music as well as student creativity. Students played their favorites from many available books. Some played their arrangements from a chord chart, some learned their songs by ear, and we also heard a cello duo team perform a cover of a song originally recorded by the popular rock band AC/DC.
The three recitals were “emceed” by MTACSD teachers Tracy Lovley, Claudia Smetona and Jim Guerin, who introduced each performer and entertained us by their clever commentary between the performances. At the end of each recital, medals were presented to each student.
The event was enriched with a presentation at 3 PM by Yuko Maruyama, “Learn to Play from Chord Charts.” This lecture-presentation covered the basic rules of chord chart notation and how to apply them in songs. Examples were explained and demonstrated using many theory concepts from CM and were relevant to teachers and students familiar with CM theory.
The Popular Music Festival was a joyful day of music filling me with memories. As I have watched it expand and grow in the 25+ years of the event, teachers and students have added freedom of creativity, escalating their personal growth and accomplishments, so important to music education. I invite more teachers and students to join in the fun next year.
2019 POPULAR MUSIC FESTIVAL
Studios Represented: Eunji Bae, Irina Bessonova, Paul Burd, Melissa Creider, James Guerin, Sarah Harris, Kathy Kim, Amy Lee, Tracy Lovley, Yuko Maruyama, Leslie Olson, Carol Ong-Chen, Anna Savvas, Claudia Smetona, Anna Stal, Sophie Webber, Irina Williams and Mei Yin
Judges: Yuko Maruyama and Taylor Smith
Thank you to the 2019 Popular Music Festival Volunteers:
Eunji Bae, Irina Bessonova, James Guerin, Sarah Harris, Kathy Kim, Tracy Lovley, Yuko Maruyama, Leslie Olson, Carol Ong-Chen, Anna Savvas, Risa Schapiro, Claudia Smetona, and Irina Williams
September was an eventful month for the San Diego Branch. Our Annual Fall Breakfast was held on Monday, September 23. In this annual meeting, we said goodbye and gave a warm thank-you to the immediate past branch President, Miriam Cole and her Board of Directors, and gave a hearty welcome to the new President, Yuko Maruyama and the new Board of Directors. The new Fall Breakfast venue, Elijah’s Restaurant, was appreciated for many reasons. The organizational flow of the event gave ample time for all updates and reports, for browsing the music exchange table, and for connecting with new and old friends. The gratitude of all teachers in our branch for the excellent leadership we have was shown in the frequent, enthusiastic applause for the leaders and their reports. A special thank-you goes to the 1st Vice President, Brian Goral and the 2nd Vice President, Chutaphin Yeager, who created the fun take-home mug filled with information and for the enthusiastic kick-off of the CM season by Eleanor Hum.
Five days after the Fall Breakfast, Yuko Maruyama and her jazz group, The Mercantile Alley Band, presented the KIM Scholarship Benefit Concert at the Rancho Bernardo Library, Saturday, September 28. The concert was an incredible gift to the community and to the Goodlin Fund’s KIM Program. Admission was free and online donations to the KIM Program were encouraged. In attendance were MTACSD teachers, KIM students and parents, KIM teachers as well as many library patrons. Yuko’s creativity, musicianship and skills in playing, composing, and arranging are so superb that those of us who attend one of her concerts always look forward to her next one. Yuko’s daughter Risa, a senior in high school, sings with the group and from the first sounds from her voice we delighted in her velvety, rich, strong tones. We all enjoyed hearing her on the accordion, and on the wide array of percussion instruments she played such as a slide whistle, bar chimes, vibraslap and the Kawai toy piano!
The benefit concert brought in some online donations for Kids Into Music (KIM), our outreach music lesson scholarship program administered by the H. B. Goodlin Foundation. We are thankful for that and we want to thank each of you who gave a donation at the Music Exchange Table in the Fall Breakfast. Those donations also go into the KIM fund. The Goodlin Board is pleased that our branch can offer lessons to children of limited means. If you would like to contribute to the KIM program, please follow this link to the KIM donation page: https://mtacsd.org/donations/support-kim/
Student registration for the 2019 Sonata Contest is now open. Please visit the Sonata Contest page for the registration form and for more information.
