After almost 400 applications, 96 front-runners and weeks of deliberation, the winners of the YCIS YWIES Young Musicians Music Competition were finally announced! We are thrilled to share with our community that four YCIS Beijing students received 1st, 2nd and 3rd prizes in recognition of their dexterity in music and one of them received the noteworthy Alumni Award, a prize handed to only four students in the final round, amongst the entire cohort of participants.

The YCIS Beijing Awardees YC YW Music Competition are the following:

Hok Sum Chan (Y6) - First Place Prize

Qinghong Sun (Y13) – Second Place Prize

Yuxuan Su (Y11) – Third Place Prize

Raymond Mao (Y5) - Third Place Prize

Coco Hong (Y9) - who received the Alumni Award

Congratulations to all of them!

Though they knew they had worked really hard to prepare for the competition, news of their wins still came as a surprise to some of these students.

“I feel very excited, happy and astonished because I never thought I would get so far!”  said Sum. In addition, the competition offered him and other contenders the opportunity to hone their skills in playing instruments. “Before, some of the songs I learned were very challenging, but after the competition, I found the songs less troublesome.”  he added.

Melody Su reiterated his thoughts:“I think this competition inspired me to practice harder. When I decided to participate in this competition, preparing pieces, and recording the final recording, motivated me to practice the piano more diligently.”  she said. Sum played Blackbird by The Beatles on the guitar while Melody played Moszkowski Etudes Op.72 No.2 in G minor on piano.

In Qinghong Sun’s case, the award was the perfect way for him to pay homage to YCIS Beijing that has been home to him for years, before he graduates.  “I am very glad to win awards for both categories that I had participated and I am also very happy that I could win honor for my School in my last few weeks before the graduation to repay their important educations on me.”

Special Alumni AwardAn award that was sought after from the competition was the Alumni Award which was adjudicated by YCIS Hong Kong alumni who are now attending prestigious music institutions. Tifanny Cheng is a student at the Royal College of Music London and Ryan Cheng is currently at Eastman School of Music Rochester New York.

Handed to only four students, YCIS Beijing Year 9 student, Coco Hong was astounded to receive the gold award as well as the special honor. “I was very excited and pleasantly surprised.” Noted the guitar player who was described as being “musical” by one of the judges.

Erin Luce, Head of PA expressed her well wishes to students:“Congratulations and I’m very proud of my students! I appreciate and respect all the hours of practice they put in and how they rose to the occasion and performed your very best, and they deserve this recognition.”

Although not all entrants were awarded prizes, Miss Luce said in closing: “I’m very proud of all our students who entered, from the first round until the final round. I’m proud of you for all your hard work and putting yourself out there.” . She encouraged her students to continue taking part in competitions such as the YC YW Music Competition in future.

Congratulations to all the participants and a special mention to everyone who made this competition possible, including YC/YW Music Director Jeremy Williams, the judges Dr Liz Lane, Mr Pavlo Beznosiuk, Mr David Greenlees our Head of Junior Strings Programme Yuen Yum San.