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 students and their teachers who participated in this year’s MTAC San Diego Branch Concerto Competition!  Each contestant submitted a video-recording of his/her concerto without accompaniment. Listed below are the students who will be awarded with a plaque or honorable mention ribbon in the near future. Thank you, as always, to our judges who took time from their professional commitments to create a more meaningful event for all contestants!

Dr. Kay Etheridge
University of San Diego
Chair, MTACSD Concerto Competition

            Piano Adjudicators
            Dr. Beverley Simms (Indiana University-Terre Haute)
            Dr. Baruch Meir (Arizona State University)
            Dr. Tina Chong (SDSU, San Diego Symphony)

            Winds Adjudicators
            Pam Vliek Martchev (University of San Diego)
            Frank Renk (San Diego Symphony)
            Beth Ross Buckley (Co-Artistic Director of Camarada)

            Strings Adjudicators
            Dr. Philip Tyler (Point Loma Nazarene University)
            Isaac Allen (SDSU; Hausmann Quartet)
            Alex Greenbaum (SDSU; Hausmann Quartet)

DIVISION I PIANO (through 11 yrs.)

1^st: Aaron Ye – Chopin Concerto in F Minor, Mvt III
2^nd: Benjamin Chuang – Handel Piano Concerto F Major

DIVISION II PIANO (12-14 yrs.)

1^st: Bradley Carpiuc – Prokofiev Concerto Op. 26, C Major, Mvt I
2^nd: Sonya Yasuda – Haydn Concerto in D Major, Mvt III
3^rd: Ella Xing – Kabalevsky Concerto No. 3, Mvt I
HM: Robin Moon – Beethoven Concerto No. 3 in C minor, Mvt I

DIVISION III PIANO (15-18 yrs.)

1^st: Zixuan Chen – Beethoven Concerto No. 3 in C minor, Mvt I
2^nd: Hahnlin Noonan – Tchaikovsky Concerto No. 1 in Bb Major, Mvt I
3^rd: Rubi Choi – Mozart Concerto No. 20 in D Minor, Mvt I

DIVISION IV WINDS (through 18 yrs.)

1^st: Nithin Chilakapati – Lieberman Concerto for Piccolo
2^nd: Nathan Haghgoo – Carmen (Borne/Bizet)

DIVISION V STRINGS (through age 13)

1^st: Saejoon Hong – J.S.Bach Violin Concerto No. 2, Mvt I
2^nd: Caitlin Wang – Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in E minor, Mvt I
3^rd: Alvin Wang – J.C.Bach Viola Concerto in C Minor
HM: Benjamin Luo – Bruch Violin Concerto in G minor, Mvt I

DIVISION VI STRINGS (14-18 yrs)

1^st: Stacy Widyono – Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto, Mvt III
2^nd: Saeji Hong – Glazunov Violin Concerto, Mvt I
3^rd: Susan Lee – Prokofiev Violin Concerto No. 2, Mvt I
HM: Janice Hu – Sibelius Concerto, Mvt I