2026 Summer Competition
$1000 Grand Prize
Over $4000 awarded in additional prizes and masterclasses
Grand Prize Winners
%20-%20Tammolivia%20Y_.jpg)
Grand Prize
$1000
Olivia Ye (CA)
Teacher: Jenny Shin
Second Grand Prize
$500
Tristen Chen (CA)
Teacher: Sandra Shen
Olivia Ye
Teacher: Jenny Shin
Third Grand Prize
$300
Yujun Cao (IN)
Teacher: Norman Krieger
Olivia Ye
Teacher: Jenny Shin
Finalist
Emily Chen (CA)
Teacher: Inessa Litvin
Finalist
Alexis Dyche (AZ)
Teacher: Ji-Young Kim
Finalist
Zixu Daniel Qin (CAN)
Teacher: James Giles
Special Prizes
Best non-finalist Bay Area Contestant: Jaylen Wei
Best performance of a Chopin Etude: Olivia Ye
Best performance of a Classical work: Yujun Cao
Best performance of a work by Franz Liszt: Jackson He
Best performance of a contemporary work: Chong Zheng
Best Returning Contestant: Alexis Dyche
Jury Discretionary Award for Returning Contestant: Caroline Chen
Age 6 and under
First Place
Anna Wu (CA)
Teacher: Lingwen (Laura) Luo
Honorable Mention
Cassandra Ge (CA)
Ages 7–9
First Place
Juliana Yan (WA)
Teacher: Renata Shumskaya
Second Place
Daniel Fan (TX)
Teacher: Violetta Zharkova
Honorable Mention
Mari Morishita (CA)
William Qin (PA)
Olivia Zheng (CA)
Matthew Zeng (CA)
Ages 10–12
First Place
Natalie Sun (UT)
Teacher: Jihea Hong-Park
Second Place
Owen Chen (CA)
Teacher: Tina Tsai
Third Place
Vihaan Mahisekar (CA)
Teacher: Dr. Mihyun Kim
Honorable Mention
Hana Dormer (CA)
Esme Tran (CA)
Alexander Liu (GA)
Zichen Zhao (WA)
Maisie Martin (CO)
Ages 13–14
First Place
Jackson He (CA)
Teacher: Jenny Shin
Second Place
Jaylen Wei (CA)
Teacher: James Gardner
Third Place
William Chen (CA)
Teacher: Kai Chi Zhu
Honorable Mention
Kartikeya Akella (CA)
Zhiyu Su (CA)
Shiyun Ding (WA)
Henry Sun (CA)
Emily Fang (CA)
Ages 15–17
First Place (Finalist)
Emily Chen (CA)
Teacher: Inessa Litvin
Second Place
Kou Shimizu (CA)
Teacher: Hang Li
Third Place
Eric Feng (CA)
Teacher: Inessa Litvin
Honorable Mention
Alton Zhong (CA)
Ages 18+
First Place (Finalist)
Zixu Qin (CAN)
Teacher: James Giles
Second Place
Sam Goldfarb (TX)
Teacher: Logan Skelton
Third Place
Yajing Kang (CA)
Teacher: Bernadene Blaha
Honorable Mention
Zhijia He (NY)
Siqi Wang (CA)
Fanxi Ji (OH)
Jingwen Wei (OH)
Chaihun Kim (NJ)
Chong Zheng (CHN)