The 2025 Piano Duo Festival was held on Saturday, April 5th at Greene Music in two successful recitals. We had a total of 14 duo teams competing in 4 categories. Our judges, Joanne Stohs and Steve Baker were very impressed by the level of preparation and performances! Thanks so much to the studios of Dr. Bon Kim, Kathy Kim, Elaine Tokman, Carol Ong-Chen, Carol Seefeldt, and Luba Ugorski. Also, appreciation to great help from Yuko Maruyama, Carol Ong-Chen and Carol Seefeldt. See you next year!

Category I: Ages 5 – 9
HM: Sharon Yu & Evelyn Chong

Category II: Ages 10 – 12
1st place: Jimin Lai & Andrew Ong
2nd place: Siyul Park & Siwoo Park
3rd place: Ava Yang & Leyna Yang
HM: Angelina Desclos & Claire Weng

Category III: Ages 13 – 15
1st place: Yen-Cheng Wu & Vincent Wu
2nd place: Charity Chen & Yen-Cheng Wu
3rd place: Yong-xun Cai & Yong-shi Cai
HM: Jason Park & Daniel Park, Emery Faustino & Cameryn Faustino

Category IV: Ages 16 – high school
1st place: Charity Chen & Peiran Liang
2nd place: Kyla Ho & Sonya Yasuda

The participants in this year’s competition provided us with two days of exceptional musical performances. Congratulations to all contestants and their teachers!

The first-place winner in each division will perform with the Mira Costa College Symphony Orchestra, directed by Branden Muresan. Concerts will take place at:

Mira Costa College – Oceanside Campus Concert Hall (Bldg 2400), 1 Barnard Drive, Oceanside, CA 92056

DIVISION I PIANO (through 11 yrs old)
First Place: JANELLE CHEN – Mozart Concerto in A Major, K.414, 1st mvt
~ Performs with the Mira Costa College Symphony Orchestra, Branden Muresan, conductor, on Fri-Sat March 15-16, 2025 (7:30 pm)
Second Place: Claire Chen
Third Place: Claire Ding
Honorable Mentions: Kye Urgolites, Julia Yu, Mananya Debnath, Daren Ren
Studios represented for these award winners: Elena Edgar, Berta Godkin, Chris Kim, Carol Seefeldt, Anna Stal, Lori Vickers.

DIVISION II: PIANO (12-14 yrs old)
First Place: YEN-CHENG WU – Haydn Concerto in D Major, 3rd mvt
~ Performs with the Mira Costa College Symphony Orchestra, Branden Muresan, conductor, on Fri-Sat March 15-16, 2025 (7:30 pm)
Second Place: Luna Lee
Third Place: Ashley Li
Honorable Mentions: Ryan Jian, Clara Stone, Euan Lee, Aven Ko
Studios represented for these award winners: Carol Ong-Chen, Sun Yung Cho, Karen Follingstad, Minji Lee, Chetan Tierra, Lori Vickers.

DIVISION III: PIANO (15-18 yrs old)
First Place: VICTORIA CHEN – Grieg Concerto in A Minor, 1st mvt
~ Performs with the Mira Costa College Symphony Orchestra, Branden Muresan, conductor, on Fri-Sat March 15-16, 2025 (7:30 pm)
Second Place: Celine Kargodosa
Third Place: Khai West
Honorable Mentions: Yo Yo Wu, Ethan Chen
Studios represented for these award winners: Brendan Nguyen, Carol Seefeldt, Chetan Tierra, Ting Ting Zhang.

DIVISION IV: WINDS
First Place: MAGGIE LIANG – Ibert Concerto for Flute, 1st mvt
~ Performs with the Mira Costa College Symphony Orchestra, Branden Muresan, conductor, on Fri-Sat May 16-17, 2025 (7:30 pm)
Honorable Mentions: Ruth Tu
Studios represented for these award winners: Elena Yarritu

DIVISION V: STRINGS (through 13 yrs old)
First Place: EMEL CUBUKCU, violin – Mendelssohn Concerto E minor, 1st mvt
~ Performs with the Mira Costa College Symphony Orchestra, Branden Muresan, conductor, on Fri-Sat May 16-17, 2025 (7:30 pm)
Second Place: Aaron Seo
Third Place: Sequoia Jain-Hong
Honorable Mentions: Olivia Min
Studios represented for these award winners: Sunjin Kim, Michael Tseitlin, Pasha Tseitlin.

DIVISION VI: STRINGS (14-18 yrs old)
First Place: CAITLIN WANG, violin – Lalo Symphonie espagnole, Op. 21
~ Performs with the Mira Costa College Symphony Orchestra, Branden Muresan, conductor, on Fri-Sat May 16-17, 2025 (7:30 pm)
Second Place: Julian Wu (cello)
Third Place: Tracie Liu (violin)
Honorable Mentions: Caroline Lee (violin) Alvin Wang (violin), Helen Wang (cello)
Studios represented for these award winners: Ruslan Biryukov, Chia-Ling Chien, Susanna Han, Irina Tseitlin, Michael Tseitlin, Pasha Tseitlin.

Thank you to those who were tremendously helpful to me during the competition:
Sun Yung Cho, Kathy Kim, Carol Ong-Chen, Carol Seefeldt, Chetan Tierra, Melissa Tierra, Lori Vickers, Ting Ting Zhang in piano. Elena Yarritu in winds, and Michael Dvoskin, Susanna Han, and Pasha Tseitlin in strings. And a SPECIAL thank you to Carol Seefeldt who scanned all judges’ comment sheets so they could be emailed to you quickly!

There were 27 teachers who participated this year and a total of 55 students competing!

Cheers to all!

Thank you for participating in the 2024 H. B. Goodlin Scholarship Competition! We had 114 students from 49 teaching studios competing in five divisions. The auditions were adjudicated by 9 Preliminary Round judges and 6 Finals judges. After the Preliminary Round Audition in a video submission format, 34 Finalists participated in the in-person Finals Audition at Cuyamaca College Theatre and at the Foothills United Methodist Church on Saturday, May 18.

The Instrumental Division Finals auditions were held at the Cuyamaca College Theatre and the Keyboard Division Finals auditions were held at two locations throughout the day. Afterwards, the students and teachers were treated to the piano master class given by Dr. Dmitry Rachmanov, where two selected finalists received instruction on their Goodlin competition pieces.

Thank you to the San Diego Foundation, the William E. Schmidt Foundation and other generous donors for their continued support for this event. Thank you to Cuyamaca College and the Foothills United Methodist Church for hosting the Saturday Finals Competition in their beautiful buildings.

I would like to acknowledge the participating studios for their work in educating our music students in San Diego County: Rowena Asuncion, Yulia Atoyan, Ruslan Biryukov, Dana Burnett, Jessie Chang, Chiyuan Chen, Chia-Ling Chien, Anna Cho, Sun Yung Cho, Emi Clements, Hernan Constantino, Maria Crystalia, Zishan Ding, Karen Follingstad, David Garrett, Eleanor Hum, Emily Hung, Ji-Won Lee, Sunny Lee, Shanshan Li, Shuang Li, April Lin, Inessa Litvin, Yu Carole Liu, Rinna Livshin, Pamela Martchev, Alex Mirolyan, Anders Nelson, Brendan Nguyen, Thuy Nguyen, Alexander Palamidis, Cho-Hyun Park, Wesley Precourt, Frank Renk, Sean Reusch, Leslie Robb, Anna Savvas, Yvonne Shanks, Ory Shihor, Gill Tsai, Irina Tseitlin, Michael Tseitlin, Pasha Tseitlin, Anna Vasilyeva, Sophie Webber, Angela Wu, Elena Yarritu, Dan Yu, and Jia Sheng Zhou.

I would like to thank the current and the past members of the MTAC San Diego Board of Directors, and the members of the H. B. Goodlin Foundation Board. Special thanks to Dr. J. Mitzi Kolar, Jaclyn Summers and Lea Schmidt-Rogers for their perpetual support and guidance for the Goodlin Competition.

Thank you to the 2024 Goodlin Competition Finals Volunteers: Sun Yung Cho, Brian Goral, Ashten Jensen, Ed Litvin, Yu Carole Liu, Marj Osgood, Michele Resnick, Leslie Robb, Larry Rogers, Lea Schmidt-Rogers, Anna Savvas, Risa Schapiro, Xiao-yan Sui, Jaclyn Summers, Elena Yarritu, Chutaphin Yeager, and Dan Yu.

We were privileged to have these distinguished judges for this year’s competition: Isaac Allen, Dr. Wan-Chin Chang, Dr. Ching-Ming Cheng, Dr. Tina Chong, Dr. Andrea Gareffa, Dr. Eloise Kim, Dr. Michael Krikorian, Gail Lew, Pam Monroe, Keith Popejoy, Dr. Dmitry Rachmanov, Dr. Taylor Smith, Mark Teplitsky, Philip Tyler, and Teri Watson.

The results are posted below. We hope to see you again next year!

2024 Goodlin Scholarship Competition Results

2024 Goodlin Finalist Repertoire

We had 83 pianists who performed beautifully at the 6th Annual Chopin Festival on April 27, 2024.

Here are the winners:

Division I
Emily Chen, 1st Place
Kai Yi, 2nd Place
Landon Han, 3rd Place
Darren Hack, Honorable Mention
Jayden Wang, Honorable Mention
Euan Lee, Honorable Mention
Daren Ren, Honorable Mention

Division II
Emma Ericson, 1st Place
Astrea Archibald, 2nd Place
Ray Fu, 3rd Place
Aaron Ye, Honorable Mention
Nuri Jang, Honorable Mention

Division III
Khai West, 1st Place
Saya Schmitigal, 2nd Place
Clarie Chen, 3rd Place
Cody Land, Honorable Mention
Sarah Deng, Honorable Mention
Nathan Teng, Honorable Mention
Seoyeon Lee, Honorable Mention

Division IV
Amy Zhang, 1st Place
Henry Sun, 2nd Place
Eric Feng, 3rd Place
Terrence Zhou, Honorable Mention

Division V
Caleb Tang, 1st Place
Ye Eun Hong, 2nd Place
Victoria Chen, 3rd Place
Hayden Crocker, Honorable Mention
Melinda Wang, Honorable Mention

Congratulations to all the winners and their teachers: Irina Bendetsky, Jessie Chang, Sun Yung Cho, Karen Follingstad, Berta Godkin, Mitzi Kolar, Inessa Litvin, Yu Carole Liu, Rinna Livshin, Cho-Hyun Park, Anna Savvas, Viktor Shekhtman, Chetan Tierra, Anna Stal, Gill Tsai, Ting Ting Zhang, Jia Sheng Zhou

We look forward to seeing you next year!
Jessie Chang
MTACSD Chopin Festival Chair

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

DIVISION I (Piano through 11 yrs)
First Place – Kadmus Ma
Second Place – Ray Fu
Third Place – (TIE) Astrea Archibald and Janelle Chen
Honorable Mentions – Alexis Lee, Clara Stone, Julia Yu

DIVISION II (Piano 12-14 yrs)
First Place – James Rong
Second Place – Seoyeon Lee
Third Place – Aaron Ye
Honorable Mentions – Jayson Bordges and Benjamin Huang

DIVISION III (Piano 15-18 yrs)
First Place – Ethan Song
Second Place – Khai West
Third Place – You Wu
Honorable Mentions – Hayden Crocker and Nathan Dai

DIVISION IV (Winds)
First Place – Harper Xu (flute)
Second Place – Maggie Liang (flute)
Third Place – Edward Pacal (bassoon)
Honorable Mentions – Rashmi Chelliserry (flute) and Beckham Kunkler (bassoon)

DIVISION V (Strings through 13 yrs)
First Place – Elisha Kim (violin)
Second Place – Clarie Chen (violin)
Third Place – Tracie Liu (violin)
Honorable Mentions – Emel Cubukcu (violin) and Victoria Kim (violin)

DIVISION VI (Strings 14-18 yrs)
First Place – Anthony Kim (violin)
Second Place – Lucas Lee (violin)
Third Place – Brianna Baek (violin)
Honorable Mention – Caitlin Wang (violin)

PIANO ADJUDICATORS: Dr. Wan-Chin Chang, Dr. Kookhee Hong, Dr. Stephen Pierce
WINDS ADJUDICATORS: Pam Martchev (flute), Teri Perrin (flute), Valentin Martchev (bassoon)
STRINGS ADJUDICATORS: Angela Choong, Dr. Wan-Chin Chang, Yoomin Seo.

Congratulations to all competitors and teachers in this year’s MTACSD Concerto Competition. All students performed beautifully and expressively and hopefully feel rewarded for their hard work. I want to give special thanks to Greene Music (Robert Catalano, Jaime Pecorella, Ken Schoenwetter) for allowing us to use the Recital Hall for 2 full days, even opening the store several hours earlier so we could finish in two days.

We are excited that this year all 6 division first-place winners will be performing with the Mira Costa College – Oceanside Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of Mr. Brandon Muresan.

Dates and performances are:

Friday-Saturday, March 15-16, 2024, 7:30 pm
Soloists:
Ethan Song (Saint-Saëns Piano Concerto No. 2, MVT III)
Elisha Kim (Vieuxtemps Violin Concerto No. 5, MVT I)
Anthony Kim (Sibelius Violin Concerto in D Minor, MVT I)

Friday-Saturday, May 17-18, 2024, 7:30 pm
Soloists:
Kadmus Ma (Shostakovich Piano Concerto Op. 102 No. 2, MVT II)
James Rong (Mozart Piano Concerto in G Major, K.453, MVT I)
Harper Xu (Morlacchi The Swiss Shepherd for flute and orchestra)

I am very grateful to the following teachers who either helped by donating food for the judges, donated their time to assist me at the competition, or both: Dana Burnett, Jessie Chang, Berta Godkin, Chris Kim, Carol Seefeldt, Pasha Tseitlin, Lori Vickers, Danette White, Elena Yarritu, and Dan Yu. I also want to thank Jay Jay Lim for allowing us to use the Greene Music Education Center for teachers to pick up the judges comment sheets.

Congratulations again to ALL contestants and ALL participating teachers! Hope to see you next year!