Inland Valley Symphony 2015 Young Artist Competition

Southern California Junior Bach Festival 2015

Inland Empire Piano Festival 2015

Royal Conservatory Music Development Program

Congratulations to the following students who successfully passed their RCM exams:

Kelly Rausch: Level 7 Piano Performance First Class Honors with Distinction, Advanced Rudiments Theory Academic Exam First Class Honors, Center Excellence Award (highest score in Temecula), State Excellence Award (highest score in California)

Meijke Balay-Mickelson: Level 8 Piano Performance First Class Honors, Advanced Rudiments Theory Academic Exam First Class Honors with Distinction

Catherine Howard: Level 9 Piano Performance Honors

National Piano Guild Auditions 2014

We have had another very successful year at this year's National Piano Guild Auditions! In June and July 30 students from our studio participated, and their programs totaled 299 pieces! I am very proud of each and every student that participated in this event. Everyone performed from memory, and everyone did Sight Reading and Ear Training. Our youngest student this year was Kristen Law, age 5, who performed a National 10-piece program. The highest level performed from our studio this year was Preparatory B (Jessica Kim, Kelly Rausch and Hunter Erickson), and the highest scores went to Claire Howard (Temecula audition center) and Hunter Erickson (San Diego Escondido audition center). Congratulations to all the students! Special congratulations to the following students who scored Superior Plus rating: Rachel and Charys Hong, Claire and Joseph Howard, Ethan Phan, Claire Nguyen, Jonathan Lee, Katherine Shepherd, Emma, Hudson and Hunter Erickson, Thien Sa and Sam Luyen, Alexa Willis, Jessica and Jeffrey Kim.

Southern California Junior Bach Festival

I am so very proud to announce that, on Saturday April 12, 12 of our students participated in the Temecula Branch Festival of the Southern California Junior Bach Festival. This festival attracts approximately 2500 students from 34 branches of MTAC every year, and is one of the most competitive events for students in CA. The festival is in three stages, a small percentage of winners are selected at the Branch level, who proceed to the Regional Festival, then at the Regional festival, a yet smaller percentage of winners are selected to proceed to the Complete Works final competition. This year, 40 students performed in the Temecula Branch Festival, and 8 winners were selected by three judges. Of those 8 selected winners, 6 of them are from our studio! I could not be more proud of our students. The judges also selected 3 alternates (runner-ups), and 2 of those are also from our studio! I know the students worked so hard for this! Congratulations to the following students:

Winners: Cheryl Tan, Rachel Hong, Catherine Howard, Emma Erickson, Hudson Erickson, Hunter Erickson

1st and 2nd Alternates: Ron Lycan and Alexa Willis

Compostition Competition

Congratulations to Emma Erickson (8 years old) for receiving 2nd Place (Silver) in the Hal Leonard Carol Klose Composition Competition! 

At the Music Teachers National Convention held last week in Chicago, Hal Leonard Corporation proudly announced the winners.

Hal Leonard, the world's largest publisher of songbooks and music educational materials, created this online student piano composition competition in honor of Carol Klose (1945-2013), a popular piano teacher and prolific Hal Leonard composer. The purpose of the competition is to encourage the creative musical spirit that Carol always fostered, by giving piano students a platform to compose, perform and share their original pieces.

Nearly 200 contestants from USA and Canada created original compositions and submitted YouTube videos of their performances in the competition's three age categories: Junior Composer (ages 12 and under); Teen Composer (ages 13-18); and Collegiate Composer (ages 19-23). Here is a complete list of winners.

I am so proud of Emma! You can watch Emma's performance of her piece here.

Certificate of Merit

Congratulations to all the students that sat the MTAC Certificate of Merit test! We had 20 students participate this year. Everyone passed, and 18 students got Branch Honors! They are:

Emma Erickson (5+), Hudson Erickson (5+), Hunter Erickson (5+), Jessica Kim (5+), Jeffrey Kim (5+), Alexa Willis (5+), Shania Jin (5+), Fiona Harley (5+), Charmaine Tan (5+), Jonathan Lee (5+), Chanelle Tan (5), Cheryl Tan (5), Ron Lycan (5), Kaitlyn Hetsko (5), Rachel Hong (5), Charys Hong (5), Anna Stone (5-), Sam Luyen (4+)

The following students scored 90% or higher in the Theory test:

Ethan Phan (Prep): 99%

Ron Lycan (Level 5): 99%

Rachel Hong (Level 5): 97%

Hudson Erickson, Jonathan Lee (Level 4): 96%

Chanelle Tan (Level 3): 96%

Jeffrey Kim (Level 6): 95%

Charmaine and Cheryl Tan (Level 3): 94%

Kaitlyn Hetsko (Level 3), Hunter Erickson (Level 5): 93%

Jessica Kim (Level 6): 91%

Fiona Harley and Sam Luyen (Level 4): 90%

Rotary Club Music Competition

Congratulations to my student, Catherine Howard for getting Second Place at the Murrieta Rotary Club Music Competition on February 12! This was open to all instrumentalists, including voice, and the competition was fierce! Catherine will go on to compete at the Rotary District level. Great job, Catherine! I am so proud of you!

Inland Empire Piano Competition

Congratulations to all the students that competed at the Inland Empire Piano Competition on Feb 2 at University of Redlands. This was such a high level competition, and I am so proud that our students did so well! Congratulations to the following winners:

Emma Erickson - First Place Winner

Hunter Erickson - First Place Winner

Hudson Erickson - Honorable Mention

Claire Howard - Honorable Mention

Catherine Howard - Honorable Mention