First Chopin Youth Competition

October 23rd, 1999
St. Thomas University
Houston, Texas

First Chopin Youth Competition

This event was held on October 23rd and 24th, 1999.

The Chopin Anniversary Youth Competition was dedicated to Chopin’s 150th anniversary of his death. This was our Houston contribution to world-wide celebrations of Chopin’s music and genius. As UNESCO proclaimed 1999 as the Year of Chopin, we filled our music studios with his compositions.

Twenty one teachers prepared all the contestants who participated in this competition. All together 57 students competed in 3 age divisions

The judges were:

  • Nina Drath from Texas
  • Piotr Kusiewicz from Poland

    Winners

    Senior Gold Adam Fryderyk Golka (with Honors)
    Benjamin Ho
    Amy Yang
    Bronze Rebecca Joy Combs
    Natalia Kalitynska


    Junior Gold Joseph Chen
    Aya Kurihara
    Janica Quach
    William Lee
    Silver Connie Wang
    James De Vera
    Stephanie Wang
    William Appleby
    Katherine Chen
    Zeena Husain
    Bronze Blake Benthall
    Jenifer Tsai
    Kathleen Yeh
    Andrea Leung
    Leslie Rafanan
    Elementary Gold Amber Nicholson
    Andrew Wang
    Yowei Shaw
    Silver Kelly Chen
    Anna-Margaret Chan
    Dennis Yang
    Bronze Angela Chen

    Special Awards

  • The best performance of a Prelude: Yowei Shaw
  • The best performance of a Mazurka: William Lee
  • The best performance of a Waltz: Adam Fryderyk Golka
  • The Jan Ekier Prize for the most outstanding performance of the most difficult competition piece: Amy Yang (for Ballade in f-minor op. 52), Lisa Gaw