We are so happy to announce that Bea Grant was awarded First Place in the Minnetonka Symphony's Young Artist Concerto Competition. This is a very tough one to win as it is all instruments - not just piano - and the auditions are held over a period of several weekends.

Last Saturday, December 1st, The St. Paul Piano Teachers Association (SPPTA) held its annual concerto competition. This is a very fine and rewarding event with the winner given the opportunity of performing with the Mississippi Valley Orchestra. All three of our entrants performed beautifully and ranked at the very top of the event. Beatrice (Bea) Grant, a high school junior, was awarded Second Place giving a very powerful and beautiful performance of Liszt's Concerto No. 1 in E-flat Major.

As I have noted before, Nita Qiu is competing in the Chopin Foundation of the United States' four year scholarship program. This program challenges the applicant to develop - over a four year period - the repertoire necessary for entering the International Chopin Competition in Warsaw. For the second year in a row, Nita was just one of nine pianists nationwide to win the full scholarship.

Although sixteen year old Beatrice Grant (Bea) is very new to our studio - having joined our roster just this past fall - she has quickly established herself in the upper echelon of Minnesota's top pianists. Yesterday, Bea received Honorable Mention in the new Steinway Competition and two weeks earlier was named Third Place Winner in the new Bosendorfer Competition.

Our sixteen year old Nita Qiu was just declared the First Place Winner of the Aloha International Piano Competition!! We are all off our heads with joy over this! Nita arrived in Honolulu on Thursday night. The competition in solo literature was the huge opening event in the week-long festival and academy of private lessons, master classes, and performances with top international musicians.

One week ago yesterday, January 13, Beatrice (Bea) Grant and Nita Qiu, both fifteen, auditioned at the Golden Valley Orchestra's Young Artists Competition for an opportunity to perform with the orchestra. Both Bea and Nita were among those selected to perform with the orchestra!!

Yesterday evening, eleven year old (soon to be twelve!) Orion Kim was named the First Place Winner of the 13th annual Minneapolis Music Teachers Forum (MMTF) Mozart Concerto Competition!! As a result, he will have the opportunity to perform a solo concerto movement with orchestra for the very first time.

Yesterday, our great Nita Qiu took Second Place in the La Crosse Symphony Orchestra's Rising Stars Competition. Nita gave stunning performances in both Prelims and Finals of the first movement of Chopin's Concerto No. 2 in F minor.

We just had a very rewarding weekend! On Saturday, Beatrice "Bea" Grant and Orion Kim were chosen as two of six finalists to perform in the Saint Paul Piano Teachers Concerto Competition. Bea was awarded Third Place giving an awesome performance of the first movement of Schumann's magnificent Concerto in A minor.

Nita Qiu, a 15-year-old pianist from Woodbury, Minnesota, has won From the Top’s Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Award, a national scholarship for extraordinary young musicians. Nita is one of only twenty young musicians to receive From the Top’s Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Award in the 2017–2018 season.

We are so happy to announce that our fifteen year old sophomore, Nita Qiu, has just been chosen for an appearance on the celebrated national radio program, From the Top!!

As so many of you who followed the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in Fort Worth, Texas already know, our great alumnus, Kenny Broberg, won the Silver Medal. Many in the Classical Music world consider the Cliburn to be the most important competition on the planet. Kenny is suddenly (what seems suddenly) thrust into the light as one of the greatest pianists of his generation on earth.

Our radiant Nita Qiu just received a National Career Development Grant from the Chopin Foundation of the United States!! "The purpose of the Chopin Foundation Scholarship program is to support and encourage young, talented American pianists through up to four years of preparation for the National Chopin Piano Competition of the United States.

As I wrote on March 7th, our beloved Nita Qiu was selected by Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) as a Minnesota Varsity 2017 Featured Artist. Her blazing performance of Chopin's B minor Scherzo was subsequently aired on Minnesota Public Radio on March 7th. This past week a panel of judges named Nita to the ultimate status of Minnesota Public Radio's 2017 Minnesota Varsity Showcase Artist!

Collin Jinks, having won First Place in both the State and Regional Competitions was one of just seven National Finalists. The standards were exceedingly high. All seven high school pianists played at the very highest levels of artistry. However, Collin was named the National First Place Winner!!

This past Saturday our great alumnus, Kenny Broberg, won First Prize in the Hastings International Piano Competition in England!! He was awarded $12,300 and a performance with the Royal Philharmonic in June in Bexhill. Bexhill is a resort community just south of London on the southern coast of the United Kingdom.

This past Saturday, along with all the excitement of Kenny Broberg's win in the UK, Naoh Qiu continued his blistering senior year by winning the coveted First Place Award in Thursday Musical's Young Artist Competition. Noah won $750 and will be a guest artist on Thursday Musical's Winner's Concert on March 30.

Nita Qiu has been selected a Minnesota Varsity 2017 Featured Artist of Minnesota Public Radio!! Nita's "hair raising" performance of Chopin's Scherzo No. 1 in B minor will be aired this Thursday, March 9, at 7:45 am and 3:45 pm on Classical MPR (in the Twin Cities, KSJN 99.5).

This past Saturday, along with all the excitement of Kenny Broberg's win in the UK, Naoh Qiu continued his blistering senior year by winning the coveted First Place Award in Thursday Musical's Young Artist Competition. Noah won $750 and will be a guest artist on Thursday Musical's Winner's Concert on March 30. The concert will be at 7:00 pm at beautiful Antonello Hall, MacPhail Center for the Arts, in downtown Minneapolis.

This past weekend, our ten year old (barely) fourth-grader, Franklin Waldron, won First Place in the Minneapolis Music Teachers Forum (MMTF) Mozart Concerto Competition!!