(Credit: Eric Woolsey)

Music Academy of the West has announced the winners of their 2021 Summer School & Festival, comprised of several competitions, masterclasses, and more, in support of young artist development.

Instrumentalists of the Music Academy took part in the 2022 Keston MAX Exchange competition with the London Symphony Orchestra. Company musicians gave over 30 private lessons virtually to students of the Music Academy, such as Edward Vanderspar, Colin Paris, Daniel Jemison, Paul Milner, and Neil Percy.

Winners of the 2022 Keston MAX Exchange are Rodion Belousov, oboe; Aaron Blick, bass; Keoni Bolding, viola; Elissa Brown, flute; Cristina Cutts Dougherty, tuba; Carlos Jiménez Fernández, trombone; Sean Juhl, viola; Kipras Mazeika, bassoon; Emma Lee, cello; Ka Long Lee, cello; Javier Morales-Martinez, clarinet; and Jonathan Wisner, percussion.

Instrumentalists and singers could also take part in three of four competitions: Solo Piano, Duo, Marilyn Horne Song, and Digital Challenge. The six winners will each receive $5k and a work commissioned on their behalf, to be premiered in recital in the Music Academy’s Han Hall in spring of 2022.

Pianist Hsin-Hao Yang won the Solo Piano Competition; the Duo Competition was won by violist Keoni Bolding and pianist Melivia Raharjo; the Marilyn Horne Song Competition was won by tenor Shawn Roth and pianist Alexander Soloway; horn-player Gabrielle Pho won the Digital Challenge; and the Fast Pitch Awards went to soprano Anush Avetisyan, double bassist Rachel Martin, and baritone Byron J. Mayes.