International Competition of Romantic Music 2018
The American Protégé International Competition of Romantic Music is open to instrumentalists (piano, piano duo, winds, strings, chamber orchestras, voice) of all nationalities and countries. Participants are required to submit video/audio recording materials for the audition. Multiple winners will be chosen in each age category.
American Protégé International Competition of Romantic Music 2018 attracted applicants from across the United States, Canada, Costa Rica, Great Britain, Germany, Singapore, Thailand and Australia.
Awards
Winners performed at the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in New York City on:
December 15, 2018,
December 16, 2018,
December 23, 2018,
March 31, 2019 and
April 21, 2019 (Easter).
Special prizes for best performances were awarded based on the judges’ recommendations.
Judges
Four qualified judges will evaluate audition materials. All judges are independent; their students are not allowed to apply this season.
Dr. Sophya Genis is invited as a Chairwoman of the Competition 2018. A graduate of the Moscow Gnessin Academy of Music, Mrs. Genis holds a Doctor of Music Arts Degree. She studied piano with such renowned professors as Alexander Yoheles, Yakov Milstein and Yakov Zak.
International Competition of Romantic Music 2018 Results:
Judges Distinction Award (Plaque Trophies) Winners
Sophia Suwiryo is a fourth grader at St. Mary School Hyde Park. She has been studying piano in the CCM Prep. University of Cincinnati with Dr. Takako Hayase Frautschi since she was 4 years old. Sophia was mentioned on WCPO and ABC News in 2018 as a 9-year-old child prodigy. She performed with Cincinnati Pops Orchestra and the conductor, John Morris Russell described her as “amazing” and “brilliant”. She was also invited as a special guest on “Steve” Harvey TV show at Hollywood. Sophia has received many awards from piano competitions such as first place 2018 Carmel Klavier International Piano Competition, a gold medal from AADGT, a grand prize in Rising Talent Music Festival, exceptional young talent prize in Music Awards International, and National Gold Medal from The Royal Conservatory. She also performed three times in the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie in New York.
Michelle Skylar, born in 2005, is a soprano vocalist who has lived in Russia, United States, and currently resides in England. Michelle achieved Grade 5 certification in piano and voice with distinction at the age of 9, with the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music, and went on to play lead roles in Shakespeare Festivals in London. In 2017, Michelle was awarded 1st Prize in Golden Voices International Competition, 2nd Place in American Protégé International Music Talent Competition, and 1st Prize in International Vocal Competition, debuted at Carnegie Hall, and performed in concerts with orchestras in Moscow and St. Petersburg at the invite of the Spivakov Foundation. In 2018, Michelle was awarded Grand Prix and 1st Prize in International Competitions. Michelle has performed at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Baruch Performing Arts Center, and Musikverein.
Hailey Kang is a 16 year old junior at Tualatin High School. She started cello at the age of eight years old and currently studies with Hyun-Jin Kim. She has been part of the Metropolitan Youth Symphony for seven years and is currently co-principle of the top orchestra, as well as MYS’s top chamber group, MYSfits. Hailey is also the principle of her school orchestra. She was a three time winner in the Oregon Cello Society competition. She played in the 2017 All-Northwest Orchestra and 2018 All-State Orchestra as well as winning numerous concerto competitions such as Jewish Community Orchestra, two-time winner of MYS Concerto Competition, and Oregon Pro Arte Orchestra. Hailey has also participated in master classes taught by Harriet Krijgh, Colburn Conservatory professor Dr. Nail, and SF Conservatory professor Angela Lee. She attended Boston University’s 2018 Tanglewood summer solo camp. Hailey was a winner for the 2018 Monday Musical Scholarship Competition, as well as the 2018 Oregon State Solo and Ensemble Competition.
Winners by Age Category
| Name | Age | Country/State |
| Young Musicians Category, Age 5 to 10: | ||
| First Place Winners | ||
| Elijah Chang, piano | 6 | Campbell, CA |
| Student of Matt Wang | ||
| Sophia Suwiryo, piano | 9 | Mason, OH |
| Student of Dr. Takako Hayase Frautschi | ||
| Olivia Li, piano | 10 | Cary, NC |
| Student of Florence Ko | ||
| Rachel Ko, piano | 10 | Santa Rosa, CA |
| Student of John McCarthy and Marilyn Thompson | ||
| Sadie Wang, cello | 10 | Portland, OR |
| Student of Hyun-Jin Kim | ||
| Second Place Winners | ||
| Angelina Wu, piano | 6 | Blacksburg, VA |
| Student of Sonya Ho | ||
| Jeremy Liu, piano | 7 | Naperville, IL |
| Student of Sueanne Metz | ||
| Elisa Xu, piano | 8 | Irvine, CA |
| Student of Emily Hung | ||
| Faith Divya Moey, violin | 8 | Singapore |
| Student of Cindy Yan | ||
| Leighton Ko, piano | 8 | Santa Rosa, CA |
| Student of John McCarthy and Marilyn Thompson | ||
| Abigail Goddard, piano | 10 | Studio City, CA |
| Alexandra Ma, piano | 10 | Toronto, Canada |
| Student of Michael Berkovsky | ||
| Brendan Tark, piano | 10 | Portland, OR |
| Student of Anne Denis | ||
| Lindsay Miao, piano | 10 | Winchester, MA |
| Student of Yidan Guo | ||
| Minghui Yao, piano | 10 | San Diego, CA |
| Student of Rowena F. Asuncion | ||
| Third Place Winners | ||
| Haowen Zhong, piano | 6 | Cambridge, MA |
| Student of Yidan Guo | ||
| Nicolette Ledford, piano | 8 | San Jose, CA |
| Student of Ekaterina Gueorguieva | ||
| Junior Category, Age 11 to 14: | ||
| First Place Winners | ||
| Kanami Nagaoka, piano | 11 | Kyoto, Japan |
| Student of Yumiko Imina | ||
| Alicia Chu, voice | 12 | Newark, DE |
| Student of ChunFeng Li | ||
| Michelle Skylar, voice | 13 | London, Great Britain |
| Student of Marika Rauscher | ||
| Ashley Yoon, violin | 14 | Charleston, SC |
| Student of Hye-Jin Kim | ||
| Grace Seoeun Kim, violin | 14 | Closter, NJ |
| Student of Yu Jeong Lee | ||
| Second Place Winners | ||
| Jennifer Pan, piano | 11 | American Canyon, CA |
| Student of Amy Chiu | ||
| Jianna Jia Kim, flute | 11 | Blue Bell, PA |
| Student of Michael Maizels | ||
| Justin Sun, piano | 11 | Spring, TX |
| Student of Dr. Matthew Loudermilk | ||
| Noah Balough, piano | 11 | Los Gatos, CA |
| Student of Ekaterina Gueorguieva, M. M. | ||
| Henry Yao, piano | 12 | Sunnyvale, CA |
| Student of Dr. Yu-Jane Yang and Shen-Ling Chuang | ||
| Caitlin Ang, cello | 13 | Waban, MA |
| Student of Elena Korableva | ||
| Zhuyun Wei, piano | 13 | Marietta, GA |
| Student of Hwee Boon Ng | ||
| Adrian Pu, piano | 14 | Davis, CA |
| Student of Natsuki Fukasawa | ||
| Daniel Cai, piano | 14 | San Diego, CA |
| Student of Xiaoyan Sui | ||
| Jacob Youn, cello | 14 | Portland, OR |
| Student of Hyun-Jin Kim | ||
| Jason Li, piano | 14 | San Diego, CA |
| Student of Anna Stal | ||
| Nathan Napier, piano | 14 | Amherst, NY |
| Student of Violeta Arakelova | ||
| Raina Bandekar, flute | 14 | Ambler, PA |
| Student of Michael Maizels | ||
| Third Place Winners | ||
| Hongyu “Hugh” Ma, piano | 12 | San Jose, CA |
| Student of Ekaterina Gueorguieva | ||
| Aidan Robinson, piano | 13 | La Canada, CA |
| Student of Yin Yin Huang | ||
| Bell Chen, cello | 13 | Shoreline, WA |
| Student of Zhenlun Li | ||
| Jinjeong Kim, piano | 13 | San Jose, CA |
| Student of Inna Gendler | ||
| Nicolas Kim, piano | 13 | New York, NY |
| Student of Sohyun Ahn | ||
| Reagan Smith, piano | 13 | Eagle, ID |
| Student of Suzanne Winegar Clive | ||
| Ryan Si, piano | 13 | Hinkley, OH |
| Student of Tatsuya Nagashima | ||
| Audrey Burnett, piano | 14 | Chandler, AZ |
| Student of Yali Luo | ||
| Charles Hawthorn, piano | 14 | Missouri City, TX |
| Student of Yanzi Lin | ||
| Chengyi Situ, piano | 14 | Canton, MA |
| Student of Shelley Robbins and Emily Luker | ||
| Nathan Mu, piano | 14 | Solon, OH |
| Student of Ella Karasik | ||
| Honorable Mention | ||
| Anakha Ganesh, piano | 13 | Union City, CA |
| Student of Helen Lee | ||
| Dylan Hooshi, piano | 13 | Old Westbury, NY |
| Student of Vivian Chan | ||
| Jiaxuan (Christina) Peng, piano | 14 | Irvine, CA |
| Student of Ping | ||
| Komal Pamujula, piano | 14 | Pleasanton, CA |
| Student of Helen Lee | ||
| Rahul Gunturi, piano | 14 | Fremont, CA |
| Student of Helen Lee | ||
| Intermediate Category, Age 15 to 18: | ||
| First Place Winners | ||
| Issa Okamoto, voice | 15 | Portland, OR |
| Student of Hannah Penn | ||
| Kevin Yu, piano | 15 | Austin, TX |
| Student of Dr. Susan Groves | ||
| David Ban, piano | 16 | Wexford, PA |
| Student of David Allen Wehr | ||
| Hailey Kang, cello | 16 | Tualatin, OR |
| Student of Hyun-Jin Kim | ||
| Renee Qin, harp | 16 | West Vancouver, Canada |
| Student of Elizabeth Volpe Bligh | ||
| Alexander Cheng, piano | 17 | Sandy, UT |
| Student of Gary Amano | ||
| Frederick Chang, violin | 17 | Cary, NC |
| Student of Shelley Livingston | ||
| Second Place Winners | ||
| Friedrich Fong-Yi Liu, violin | 15 | Brookline, MA |
| Student of Mark Lakirovich | ||
| Jane Hwang, piano | 15 | Chestnut Hill, MA |
| Student of Pavel Nersessian | ||
| Jeffrey Huang, piano | 15 | Pleasanton, CA |
| Student of Taichen Cheng | ||
| Jia Yuan Hu, piano | 15 | Sugar Land, TX |
| Student of Yanzi Lin | ||
| Katerina Fenner, piano | 15 | Santa Clara, CA |
| Student of Janna Usmanova | ||
| Mitchel Wang, violin | 15 | Paradise Valley, AZ |
| Student of Danwen Jiang | ||
| Christine Kim, piano | 16 | San Jose, CA |
| Student of Inna Gendler | ||
| Kenichiro Takeoka, piano | 16 | Newton, MA |
| Student of Mana Tokuno | ||
| Stephanie Wang, piano | 16 | Cary, NC |
| Student of Florence Ko | ||
| Brandon Kim, violin | 17 | Belmont, MA |
| Student of Kyoko Horowitz | ||
| Third Place Winners | ||
| Alex Ye, piano | 15 | Mason, OH |
| Student of Luba Fedorov | ||
| Alton Shen, piano | 15 | Austin, TX |
| Student of Susan Groves | ||
| Audrey Yellich, piano | 15 | Carmel, CA |
| Student of Ekaterina Gueorguieva | ||
| Erica Hooshi, piano | 15 | Old Westbury, NY |
| Student of Vivian Chan | ||
| Jeffrey Huang, violin | 15 | Pleasanton, CA |
| Student of Amy Liu | ||
| Mathew Luo, piano | 15 | Saratoga, CA |
| Student of Yu Yang | ||
| Nicholas Xie, piano | 15 | Athens, GA |
| Student of Anatoly Sheludyakov | ||
| Tomas Germanas, piano | 15 | Ellicott City, MD |
| Student of Sima Elkis | ||
| Jialin Tso, piano | 16 | Chantilly, VA |
| Student of Lisa Emenheiser Sarratt | ||
| Joyce Yang, piano | 16 | San Diego, CA |
| Student of Irina Tchetchko | ||
| Jun Sang Lee, piano | 16 | San Diego, CA |
| Student of Eunice Ahn | ||
| Katherine Chou, piano | 16 | Chandler, AZ |
| Student of Yali Luo | ||
| Honorable Mention | ||
| Anna Zhao, piano | 15 | San Marino, CA |
| Student of Chloe Xie | ||
| Annie Wang, piano | 15 | Ann Arbor, MI |
| Student of Chris Carlon | ||
| Ian Morgan, piano | 15 | Medina, OH |
| Student of Tatsuya Nagashima | ||
| Nina Shenoy, piano | 15 | San Ramon, CA |
| Student of Nina Shenoy | ||
| Samantha Shelffo-McGrath, piano | 15 | New York, NY |
| Student of Sohyun Ahn | ||
| Ananya Ramkumar, piano | 16 | Palo Alto, CA |
| Student of Natalia Borodulin | ||
| Kyra Hooshi, piano | 16 | Old Westbury, NY |
| Student of Vivian Chan | ||
| Richard Jones, piano | 16 | Solon, OH |
| Student of Ella Karasik | ||
| Sanjay Gollapudi, viola | 16 | Cupertino, CA |
| Student of Peter Thompson | ||
| Albert Zhu, piano | 17 | Solon, OH |
| Student of Xiaoling Anderson | ||
| Audrey Hsu, piano | 17 | San Diego, CA |
| Student of Hsin-I Sharon Cheng | ||
| Elya Lavi, piano | 17 | Scarsdale, NY |
| Student of Leke Salihu | ||
| Advanced Category, College Students and Professionals: | ||
| First Place Winners | ||
| Chen Liang, piano | 24 | Winchester, VA |
| Jian Song, violin | 29 | Winchester, VA |
| Fei Tong, violin | 25 | Mount Pleasant, MI |
| Student of Fangye Sun | ||
| Silvia Denk, flute | 45 | Passau, Germany |
| Student of Prof. Peter Thalheimer and Prof. Gunther Pohl | ||
| Shun-Jung Hsu, piano | 29 | Madison, Wi |
| Xin Zhang, piano | 31 | Lexington, KY |
| Student of Irina Voro and Joanne Polk | ||
| Yibing Zhang, piano | 30 | Plano, TX |
| Student of Pamela Mia Paul and Joaquin Achucarro | ||
| Second Place Winners | ||
| Carolina Ramírez, piano | 24 | Heredia, Costa Rica |
| Student of Alexander Sklioutovsky | ||
| Kevin He, cello | 24 | Lexington, KY |
| Kevin Xiao, piano | 24 | South Windsor, CT |
| Student of Maggie Francis | ||
| Linda Iko Suzuki, piano | 36 | Edgewater, NJ |
| Madeleine Riding, violin | 18 | Spanish Fork, UT |
| Student of Monte Belknap | ||
| Ryan Grieser, viola | 19 | Cleveland, OH |
| Student of Prof. Jeffrey Irvine | ||
| Shelley Shao, piano | 18 | Toronto, Canada |
| Student of Enrico Elisi | ||
| Yi Qing Elaine Yang, piano | 20 | Toronto, Canada |
| Student of Enrico Elisi | ||
| Amateur Category: | ||
| First Place Winner | ||
| Emelia Suljic, voice | 20 | La Jolla, CA |
| Student of Dr. Robert White, Jr. | ||
| Second Place Winner | ||
| Ashley Tolman, voice | 28 | Logan, UT |
| Student of Susan Haderlie | ||
| Honorable Mention | ||
| Karen Salicath Jamali, piano | 50 | Greenwich, CT |
Other applicants received Diploma of Participation
CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL WINNERS!