2024 District NE-I Honors Auditions

Despite the heavy rain, students, parents, and teachers braved the weather and gathered at the UNM-Los Alamos campus on Saturday October 19th for the 2024 edition of the District NE-I Honors Auditions. Students from Los Alamos, Santa Fe, and Taos participated, and ranged from ages 8 to 17. Participating students were from the studios of Dr. Patricia Wood, Wendy Ge, Aejin Chang, Kim Bakkum, and Dr. Haewon Yang, Tatyana Baylieva, Liana Austin, and Allison Rich.

Pianists Robert Krupnick and Dr. Natasha Stojanovska both from Santa Fe, and violinist Kay Newnam from Los Alamos were our distinguished judges for our competition this year. Their expertise and time was appreciated by students and teachers alike.  

The judges found there to be a lot of great talent, and the winners of each level and category are listed below. The first place winners of each level will travel to Albuquerque on Saturday November 9th to compete in the state honors competition in UNM-Albuquerque! 

If you would like more information on the PMTNM honors competition and would like to participate, please contact the NE-I District Vice President, Dr. Haewon Yang at [email protected]. All instruments and voice types are welcome, and non-PMTNM member teachers can enter their students too for an extra fee!

Come join us next Saturday October 26th at the Unitarian Church of Los Alamos from 4-5:30pm for our Halloween Masquerade Musicale. This is a popular well-attended recital where you can hear our LAMTA students play in costume, as well as the winners from our competition perform!

Piano Competition

Level 1

1st place: (tie) Gavin Hu (student of Dr. Patricia Wood)
1st place: (tie) Elizabeth Qichen Wang (student of Wendy Ge)
2nd place: (tie) Alicia Chen (student of Dr. Patricia Wood)
2nd place: (tie) Serenity Tao (student of Aejin Chang)

Level 2

1st place: Elizabeth  Hsu (student of Kim Bakkum)
2nd place: (tie, state alternate) Justin Lei (student of Dr. Patricia Wood)
2nd place: (tie) Eric Xu (student of Aejin Chang)
​3rd place: Alice Chen (student of Dr. Patricia Wood)

Level 3

1st place: (tie) Lyla Lo (student of Aejin Chang)
1st place: (tie) Seojin Choi (student of Dr. Haewon Yang)
2nd place: Julia Robel (student of Dr. Haewon Yang)

Level 4

1st place: Bryan Lee (student of Aejin Chang)
3rd place: (tie) John Fung (student of Wendy Ge)
3rd place: (tie) Natan Svyatsky (student of Tatyana Baylieva)

​Level 5

1st place: Matthea Fung (student of Wendy Ge)
2nd place: Evan Strohmeyer (student of Dr. Patricia Wood)
​3rd place: Henry Gans (student of Dr. Patricia Wood)

String Competition

Level 2 - 1st place: Alice Chen, violin (student of Liana Austin)
Level 3 - 1st place: Sequoya Ke, cello (student of Allison Rich)
Level 4 - 1st place: Angel Meng, violin (student of Liana Austin)