MusicTeacherGifts.com 9th Annual Music Competition, Ages 17-18

May 21

2022 Compositions presented for Ages Over 16 years - Distinguished Judges are Laura Schwendinger and Giovanni Piacentini

First Place - Jiaqi Liu

Second Place - Edward Yuwei Lu

Third place - Nadin Varga

Find ages 12 to 14 HERE, and ages 15 to 16 HERE. Except for 1st, 2nd and 3rd Placements, the order of the pieces listed are in no particular order.

Jiaqi Liu, “View in Spring”

Jiaqi Liu is excited to announce his recent acceptance to The Juilliard School for the fall of 2022. Previously, Jiaqi attended the Music School Attached to The Central Conservatory of Music (Beijing) as a composition major in 2018. His semester final exam results of Composition, Piano, Music Theory, Harmony, Solfeggio and other professional subjects were all "A’s". His principal composition teachers include Changyuan Liu (China), Yihan Chen (America), Lucas Richman (America); and piano teachers include Yuan Wu (China) and Tianyang Wang (China). Jiaqi has received many awards in renowned International composition competitions, and his music is also available at Sheetmusicplus, J.W.Pepper and Midwest Sheet Music.

Edward Yuwei Lu, “Symbiosis”

Edward Yuwei Lu is a Chinese-American composer and multi-instrumentalist based in New Jersey with experience in classical, concert, jazz, marching, and traditional Chinese music. His musical pursuit began in the 2nd grade when he played the guzheng and hulusi in the Music from China Youth Orchestra. In the 3rd grade, he began playing the alto saxophone in his school’s band. Currently, he plays 1st alto saxophone in the Youth Orchestra of Central Jersey Saxophone Choir. He also participates in his high school’s concert band, jazz ensemble, and marching band, where he was woodwind captain for two years.

Edward has been composing since 2020 and derives most of his musical inspirations from nature and various cultural traditions and fairy tales. As a composer, Edward is a gifted storyteller and his works have been described as “painstakingly researched” and “texturally and rhythmically charming” with “fantastic notation and score presentation”. In the spring of 2021, he won his first competition: a film-scoring contest hosted by the Young Composers Forum’s discord server.

Edward currently attends Robbinsville High School and will be studying music composition at Syracuse University this fall with a full-tuition scholarship.

Nadin Varga, “Secret of the Composer”

I started my music studies at the age of 4. First I learned to play the violin, my teachers were Anna Bergerné Szőnyi, Gyöngyi Denkéné Lakner and Zsuzsanna Hidvegi. During that time I had been interested in playing the piano and composing music as well. When I was 12 years old I started focusing on these two when I won the Rév Lívia III. Dél-Dunántúli Regional piano competition with my teacher Adrienn Vadász. In 2018 I achieved shared first prize at Szokolay InspirArt composing competition my composing teacher was Zoltán Galambos. I have been successfully admitted to Hermann László Secondary School of Music to piano and composing specialization which I was prepared for by Adrienn Vadász and Zsuzsanna Petőcz. I study piano at Hermann László Secondary Grammar School of Music and I also study composing. I have achieved excellent grades in common knowledge subjects and I have received an educational award. My current teachers: Éva Kovács piano, Tamás Vasvári and Zoltán Galambos composing. After high school I would like to go to university to learn composition. I have received requests for chamber and choral works. My hobbies are Drawing, Music Theory and Table Tennis.

Nadin’s mother sent me this amazing video of her. Nadin resides in Hungary. This video is from a TV classical music talent contest last year. After the introduction short film, she played Sergey Rachmaninov's Prelude in B minor. Even though there is no English translation I loved watching it.

Katherine Wang, “Goodnight Dream”

Katherine started studying piano at the age of 5 with Ms. Alla Latchininsky in Laramie, Wyoming. At the age of 11, she was accepted into the Juilliard Pre-College Division, and is currently studying piano with Ms. Victoria Mushkatkol. Over the course of her piano study she had participated in many competitions and recitals including two at Carnegie Hall and one at Lincoln Center. She has also participated in masterclasses with renowned musicians such as Messrs. Gary Graffman and Ignat Solzhenitsyn. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Katherine developed an interest in songwriting and production, and has written several songs for competitions and for releasing on Spotify. She is proficient with the Logic Pro software. Katherine also became invested in composition, and is currently taking lessons with Dr. Ira Taxin at Juilliard.

Kristine Arden Brandenburg, “ The Fall of Bataan”

Kristine Brandenburg had been a lover of music from an early age, embracing varying genres of music throughout her life with classical or orchestral music being one of her top genres. At 13, she came across Tchaikovsky’s Pas de Deux which changed her life forever. It was almost as though magically, she begun hearing lovely melodies and harmonies in her mind which she figured were works of her own imagination and not those of other famous composers.

At 17, she finally begun composing. Her first composition which was posted on her youtube channel was a piano piece entitled “Talukap”, a Filipino term for “eyelid”. She then proceeded to working with string, wood wind, brass, and percussion instruments which she never actually knew how to play although she was able to through MIDI instruments on an app called “Bandlab”

January 2022, she started studying how to write musical scores so she could join competitions. Her entry for this particular competition would be her first time scoring music and participating in a composition competition.

Although working as a composer is one of Kristine’s dreams, it is undeniable that it is somehow challenging for her due to certain disorders that she has been diagnosed with such as motor tic disorder and a couple more mental health disorders. Nonetheless, she enjoys making music very much despite her struggles with involuntary movements mostly in her hands and fingers.

Kristine Brandenburg is very much fond of the sound of a french horn and wishes to hear one or more play live in an orchestra.

One student didn’t want to be presented here. It is no shame to not place amongst this amazing group of students.

Click on any photo below to purchase. This is from my artwork, and are also pages in my practice books. Ask about any other gifts if you can’t find what you want. Or ask me for suggestions. Send any questions to Becky@MusicTeacherGifts.com