A group of talented high school and collegiate musicians walked away with thousands of dollars in scholarship money after impressing judges during the eighth annual Nancy F. Walker Memorial Scholarship Auditions.
Sponsored by Matinée Musicale Cincinnati, the awards program awarded a total $54,500 in scholarships to classical instrumental and vocal students. The event, held March 1 at Greenhills Community Church in Parkdale, was open to area high school and college juniors and seniors, drawing 44 applicants from local colleges and public, private and home schools.
Students performed before a panel of distinguished judges, who provided feedback to participants and also determined the winners. Cincinnati Fusion Ensemble’s Music Institute hosted the event.
This year’s first-place winners are:
College
- Ava Shedd, violin (instrumental)
- Alex Herron, tenor (vocal)
High school
- Keliang Yao, piano (instrumental)
- Genevieve Howard, soprano (vocal)
The winners in the college categories took home $10,000 prizes, while the high school champions each won $4,000. Second-place ($4,000 and $2,000), third-place ($3,000 and $1,000) finishers won scholarships as well as did Encouragement Award recipients ($500)
The complete list of winners is below.
The scholarship honors Nancy Fuldner Walker, a musician, teacher and arts advocate who led Matinée Musicale Cincinnati for over four decades until her death in 2017. The organization established the scholarship to continue Walker’s legacy of supporting young musicians.
To date, the program has awarded more than $300,000.
Competition Winners
College Instrumental
First: Ava Shedd – violin (Teacher: Won-Bin Yim)
Second: Chang Lu – piano (Teacher: Sara Daneshpour)
Third: Aidan Bolding – cello (Teacher: Alan Rafferty)
College Vocal
First: Alex Herron – tenor (Teacher: Elliot Madore)
Second: Leah Yackanech – soprano (Teacher: Elliot Madore)
Third: Samantha Pape – mezzo-soprano (Teacher: Gwendolyn Coleman)
Encouragement Awards
Meg Booker – soprano (Teacher: Dr. Kimberly Lazzeri)
Lucas Maceroni – baritone (Teacher: Dr. Quinn Patrick Ankrum)
High School Instrumental
First: Keliang Yao – piano (Teacher: Logan Skelton)
Second: Vivian Chang – violin (Teacher: Hong Cheng)
Third: Grace Kim – flute (Teacher: Randolph Bowman)
Encouragement Awards
Sarah Hu – piano (Teacher: Richard VanDyke)
Kaede Suzuki – piano (Teacher: Jackson Leung)
High School Vocal
First: Genevieve Howard – soprano (Teacher: Talia Zoll)
Second: Blake Sisney – tenor (Teacher: Karl Resnik)
Third: Adelaide Linser – soprano (Teacher: Karl Resnik)
Encouragement Awards
Ezren Derkson-Malone – bass-baritone (Teacher: Catherine Keen)
Christopher Velasco – baritone (Teacher: Brad Caldwell)
Catherine Mazzella – soprano (Teacher: Melanie Woodruff)
Aadharshini Sriram – soprano (Teacher: Talia Zoll)
William Wittekind – bass-baritone (Teacher: Karl Resnik)
Nancy F. Walker Memorial Scholarship Auditions
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