Hi! There’s a lot in the news to catch up on!
But first, a word - sometimes we feel that we get a little bit lucky with results, and honestly, there’s always some luck involved. We never know if our style will speak to a judge or not. Sometimes the best performances go unacknowledged, and sometimes a performance that is less than our best receives a top prize. You never know. The goal, as always, is to share the joy of music and keep growing!
March 2018 - Jason Zhu solos with the Plano Symphony, performing Liszt concerto no. 1
March 2018 - Jason Lin wins 2nd prize at the MTNA national competition in Orlando, FL. He also won the Chopin prize!
April 2018 - Hannah Rosen accepts a scholarship offer from the Eastman School of Music, where she will study as a piano major
June 2018 - at the Texas Music Teacher’s Association state-level competition, we had 3 first places and 3 second places (out of 8 possible divisions in the state!), including: Ella Tran (7 solo, first place), Esther Pham (8 solo, second place), Sydney Levey (9 solo, second place), Pranay Varada (9 solo, first place), Gordon Liu (9-10 Concerto, second place), and Shiv Yajnik (9-10 solo, second place).
June 2018 - Jason Lin wins second prize at the Arthur Fraser International Piano Competition at the Southeaster Piano Festival
January 2019 - Shiv Yajnik wins the grand prize at the Collin County Young Artist Competition. As a result, he soloed with the Plano Symphony in March, performing the MacDowell concerto no. 2, mvt. 1. This is the fourth year in a row that a student from this studio has won the grand prize and performed with the symphony! Previous winners include: Jason Lin, Liszt 1 (2018); Shaun Orth, Schumann mvt. 1 (2017); Patrick Magee, Rachmaninoff 2, mvt. 3 (2016).
February 2019 - At Dallas Symphonic Festival, McDonald Music Studio students won 9 first places, out of 15 possible divisions. Amazing job, everyone!
