MMC Music Awards Information

The Monday Musical Club ”Music Awards“ fund was started in memory of founder Carrie Heppner and has grown over the years with bequests and gifts from members. Interest from this fund, along with yearly fund-raising events and contributions from members and friends, support a program that today awards thousands of dollars annually to music students. Students participate in the audition process each spring, and the winners are selected by professional adjudicators.


2024 Music Awards winners

Monday Musical Club of Portland is proud to announce the names of contestants selected for awards following auditions for our 2024 Awards Program held April 21st, 2024. Thirty excellent contestants participated in this year’s event held at the Community Music Center in Portland, Oregon. A highly skilled, experienced set of adjudicators carefully evaluated the performances, provided verbal feedback to our contestants, and determined the award amounts from a budget of $16,500.

Award amounts and selections are as follows:

$2,000 Awards:

Kaylee Nah was selected for the Phillips Award for the best Instrumental performance. Kaylee, 14, is a freshman at Sunset High School and studies violin with Hae-Jin Kim.

Taylenne J. Ubieta Johnson was selected for the Foster/LaFord Award for best Vocal performance. Taylenne, 20, is a sophomore at the University of Portland and studies voice with Nicole Hanig.

Jeffrey Tso was selected for the Colliver Award for best Piano performance. Jeffrey, 18, is a senior at Mountain View High School and studies piano with Renato Fabbro.


$1,500 Awards:

Eden Choi, 15, is a sophomore at Lake Oswego High School and studies violin with Carol Sindell.

Noe Ramirez Perez, 22, is a senior at Portland State University, sings tenor and studies with Harry Baechtel.

Elizabeth Shen, 14, is in 9th grade at Jesuit High School and studies piano with Renato Fabbro.


$1,000 Awards:

Minntah Haefker, 17, a senior at Lincoln High School, sings soprano, and studies with Angela Niederloh, is our first-ever Susan Patzakis award winner for vocal excellence.

Agnes Nguyen, 17, is a junior at Westview High School and studies piano with Anne Denis.


$750 Awards:

Sarah Lee, 17, is a junior at Westview High School and studies cello with Hyun-Jin Kim.

Seojeong Huh, 15, is a sophomore at Sunset High School and studies clarinet with Hye Young Jeong.


$500 Awards:

Annie Rhew, 16, is a sophomore at Westview High School and studies cello with Hyun-Jin Kim.

Isabel Pichler, 24, graduated from Lewis and Clark College, sings soprano and studies with Susan McBerry.

Elaina Stuppler, 15, is a sophomore at Lakeridge High School, sings Soprano, and studies with Daniel Hartley.


$400 Awards:

Emily Liu, 14, is in 8th grade at Skyridge Middle School and studies piano with Cinda Redman.

Olivia Solensky, 16, is a sophomore at Laurel Springs High School and studies piano with Alexandre Dossin.


$200 Award:

Sandy Tang, 15, is a sophomore at West Linn High School, and studies piano with Kristy Moore.

We’d like to thank all of our contestants, their parents and teachers for the great effort they have made. We’d also like to thank all our members for their donations, our volunteers, the staff at the Community Music Center, and an excellent set of adjudicators. The Judges for our auditions today were Trevor Fitzpatrick (Instrumental), Christine Meadows (Voice), and Thomas Otten (Piano).

Visit our 2024 Awards Winners page for photos & bios.


2023 Music Award winners

Thanks to all of our donors, we were pleased to award a total of $16,000 to the following contestants:

Top Prize Awards of $2.000:

Maggie Carter
Phillips Award for the best instrumental performance, (Bass)
Teacher: Dr. Jordan Anderson

Jacob Nenow
Colliver Award for the best piano performance
Teacher: Dr. Renato Fabbro

Courtney Lawrence
Foster Award for the best vocal performance (Soprano)
Teacher: Erin McCarthy

2nd Prize Awards of $1,500:

Katie Liu, Violin
Teacher: Hae-Jin Kim

Michael Hsu, Piano
Teacher: Dr. Thomas Otten

3rd Prize Awards of $1,000:

Noah Carr, Violin
Teacher: Dr. Tomas Cotik

Trinity Goff, Piano
Teacher: Dr. Jean-David Coen

Leo Trajano, Violin
Teacher: Kevin LeFohn

Fedor Chayka, Flute
Teacher: Corrie Cook

Charlie Martin, Piano
Teacher: Kristy Moore

Alex Tran, Piano
Teacher: Dr. Renato Fabbro

Emily Seo, Cello
Teacher: Hamilton Cheifetz

We thoroughly enjoyed the outstanding participation of all of our contestants and the excellent work of our judges. We would like to thank all the parents and teachers for supporting their student’s music! We especially want to recognize our Monday Musical Club volunteers for their great support, particularly Nancy Woo who organized the team of volunteers to guide contestants and their families in and around the church. We are grateful to Jonathan Dyer and the staff at Westminster for their support of our program. This was an incredible effort on multiple levels and was totally worth the hard work and investment in our musical community. 

The adjudicators for today’s audition were Dr. Arsen Gulua, Dr. Asya Gulua and Dr. Wyatt True.


2022 Music Awards:


2021 Music Awards:

Please visit and follow our Facebook page for more updates.

Also, visit our 2019 Music Awards Winners page, and our Music Awards Alumni page.

MMC Music Awards are open to music students in Oregon or Clark County, Washington. Thousands of dollars in scholarships are awarded annually to students, ages 14-22, studying instrumental as well as vocal music.