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.
2025 Music Awards Announcement
Monday April 14, 2025: Monday Musical Club of Portland is proud to announce the names of contestants selected for awards following our auditions on April 12th and 13th for our 2025 Award program. Forty-nine contestants participated in this year’s events held in Lincoln Hall at Portland State University. The Judges for our auditions this year were the Associate Concertmaster of the Oregon Symphony, Peter Frajola (Instrumental), Dr. Esteban Zúñiga Calderon (Voice), and Dr. Barbara Roberts (Piano). Our adjudicators carefully evaluated the performances and selected the award winners based on scoring factors that included Stage Protocol and Etiquette, Musical and Rhythmic Integrity, Musical Artistry and Stage Presence, Technical Mastery, and Stylistic Accuracy with ten points each for a total score of 50 points possible.
Congratulations to all our award recipients who will receive their awards at our May 5th Awards Ceremony to be held at 1 pm at Westminster Presbyterian Church in NE Portland. Winners must be present and perform in order to win and the event will be open to the public with donations accepted to support our awards program. Additional details will be provided soon. A total of $16,500 will be awarded, and the winners are:
First Prize $2,000 Awards:
– Jonathan Derby was selected for the LaFord Award for the best vocal performance. Johnny, 22, is a recent graduate of Portland State University and studies voice with Dr. Harry Baechtel.
– Nikita Istratov was selected for the Colliver Award for best Piano performance. Nikita, 18, is a freshman at the University of Oregon and studies piano with Dr. Alexandre Dossin. Nikita achieved a perfect score of 50 points!
– Kristen Kim was selected for the Phillips Award for the best Instrumental performance. Kristen, 15, is a sophomore at Westview High School and studies cello with Hyun-Jin Kim.
Second Prize $1,500 Awards:
Luke D’Silva, 17, is a senior at Westview High School and studies viola with Andrea Hawkins.
Elijah Wilson, 16, is a junior at the International School of Beaverton and studies piano with Linda Barker.
Laurien Zahn, 21, a soprano, studies at Portland State University with Kelly Nassief.
$1,000 Awards:
Minntah Haefker, 18, is a freshman at Portland State University, sings soprano, and studies with Gina Saputo. Minntah receives this award for the best non-classical repertoire performance for her rendition of the Pink Martini hit, Amado Mio (Thai version) by Allan Roberts and Doris Fisher.
Sam Lopez, 14, is in the 8th grade at Pacific Crest Community School and studies piano with Momoko Muramatsu.
Isabel Pichler, 24, graduated from Lewis and Clark College, sings soprano and studies with Susan McBerry.
Kaden Prichard, 16, is a sophomore at Rex Putman High School and studies clarinet with James Shields.
Andy Shin,15, is a sophomore at the Beaverton Academy of Science and Engineering (BASE) and studies cello with Maria Shim.
Ray Yoshimori, 17, is a senior at West Linn High School, and studies piano with Mimi Shen.
Honorable mention is given to recognize the following individuals for scoring highly in their respective categories:
Instrumental:
Luna Woo, 14, studies with Hae-Jin Kim
Jacob Peizner, 16, studies with Phil Baldino
Ekaterina Kabenina, 18, studies with Elizabeth Peyton
Emily Seo, 16, studies with Hamilton Cheifetz.
Voice:
Katherine Plunkett, 21, studies with Angela Niederloh
Orie Zadok, 18, studies with Jesse Cromer
Elaina Stuppler, 16, studies with Angela Niederloh
Alexandra Gunderson, 19, studies with Hsin Yi Lin
Piano:
Lydia Saubel, 21, studies with Jill Gambill
Cole Strong, 16, studies with Julia Lee
Emily Liu, 15, studies with Thomas Otten
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, and volunteers who came together to support our competition.
Grant Porter
Awards and Programs Chairman
Monday Musical Club of Portland
2024 Music Awards winners
The auditions for our 2024 Awards Program were held on April 21st, 2024. Thirty excellent contestants participated in the 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 (USD).
$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 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 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
- Visit our 2023 Music Awards winners page for photos & bios.
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:
- Here’s a link to the 2022 Music Awards winners page.
2021 Music Awards:
- Here’s a link to the winners of our 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.