Winners' Circle

Evelina Kleczek (2025)

Vienna, VA

Born in 2009, Evelina Kleczek began playing piano at the age of five and currently studies with Dr. Martin Labazevitch in Washington, D.C. Evelina has earned prizes at several piano competitions, including Grand Prize and Audience Favorite Award at the 2025 MostArts Young Pianist Competition; third prize and audience award at the 2024 Thomas F. Hulbert International Piano Competition; the Rosalyn Tureck prizes in the Contemporary and Prelude and Fugue categories at the 7th Tureck International Bach Competition in 2022; and first prize and Szymanowski Award at the 2020 Kosciuszko Foundation Chopin Piano Competition for Young Pianists in Washington, D.C. Evelina also won the state and division levels of the 2025-2026 MTNA Senior Piano Competition. 

Besides exploring solo piano repertoire, Evelina was accepted into the National Symphony Orchestra Youth Fellowship Program for the 2024-2025 school year, which gave her the opportunity to immerse herself in chamber music. Her chamber music ensemble "Reinecke Trio" won third prize at the 2025 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition and second prize at the 2025 Misbin Family Memorial Chamber Music Competition. In addition to her competition awards, Evelina is a 2026 National YoungArts Winner and has received the Chopin Foundation Scholarship for the past three years.

Evelina has had solo performances in the United States, Poland, Hungary, Spain, and Puerto Rico and has performed with the MostArts Festival Orchestra in New York. She has also participated in lessons and masterclasses with such acclaimed pianists and pedagogues as Kirill Gerstein, Garrick Ohlsson, Kevin Kenner, Ewa Pobłocka, André Laplante, Krzysztof Jabłoński, Jeffrey Swann, Golda Vainberg-Tatz, Michael Lewin, and others.

Jonathan Mei (2024)

Charleston, SC

Jonathan Mei is a ninth-grader at Academic Magnet High School in Charleston, South Carolina. He currently studies piano under the guidance of Dr. Marina Lomazov and previously studied with Dr. Irina Pevzner. Johnny has won multiple scholarships and awards, including the Charleston Music Club Lancaster-King Piano Award and Music Matters! Award, the Charleston Symphony Orchestra League (CSOL) summer study scholarship, first place at the statewide South Carolina Music Teachers Association Piano Competition, and first prize at the 2019 South Carolina Steinway Junior Piano Competition.

Ann Bray (2023)

Sterling, VA

Anna is a 16-year-old from Sterling, Virginia and is a student at Trinity School at Meadowview. She currently studies with Professor Alexander Shtarkman at Peabody Conservatory. Most recently, Anna was selected to receive a scholarship by the Chopin Foundation of the United States. She has performed at prominent venues such as the Kennedy Center, the Washington Arts Club, Merkin Concert Hall, Linehan Concert Hall, Friedberg Hall, as well as the Embassies of Russia, Germany, France, Hungary, and the Netherlands.

Carey Byron (2019)

Los Angeles, CA

From Roswell, Georgia, fourteen-year-old Carey Byron is currently residing in Los Angeles to pursue her music studies in the Colburn School, where she studies with Fabio Bidini and HyeJin Kim. She is a rising tenth-grader in the Oak Crest Academy. Selected as a Young Scholar by Lang Lang International Music Foundation, Carey is also a finalist on NPR’s From The Top.

Christopher Zandieh (2018)

Syossett, New York

Christopher Zandieh began his Suzuki piano studies at age 4 on Long Island, and, by age 6, enrolled at the School for Strings in NYC as a student of Marina Obukovsky. He is presently 14 years old, in his fourth year of study at the Juilliard School as a student of Ernest Barretta, and a 9th-grade student at Syosset High School Long Island.

Alice Zhang (2017)

Vernon Hills, Illinois

Alice Zhang, 17, is currently a senior at Vernon Hills High School and will be attending Yale University in the fall of 2019. Born in Vernon Hills, IL, Alice started taking piano lessons at age four with Brenda Huang, Founder/Artistic Director of the Emilio del Rosario Music Foundation. In addition to Ms. Huang, she also takes lessons with Professor Eduardus Halim, the Sascha Gorodnitzki Chair of Piano Study at New York University, and with Dr. Matthew Hagle, piano faculty of the Music Institute of Chicago.

Derek Chung (2016)

Lincolnshire, Illinois

Derek Chung is a freshman at Stanford University majoring in Music and Computer Science. He currently studies piano with Frederick Weldy and has previously studied with Sueanne Metz. Derek was a member of the orchestra for the Department of Music's musical theatre production of 'A Little Night Music.' He is also a co-founder of 88Keys to Cure, a non-profit organization promoting classical music for the benefit of various causes.

Avery Gagliano (2015)

Washington, DC

17-year-old Washingtonian Avery Gagliano is a full scholarship piano fellow at the Curtis Institute of Music, under the tutelage of Jonathan Biss and Gary Graffman. Avery is a 2019 Young Arts Winner in Music, a young artist of the Artemisia Akademie at Yale, a three-year winner of the US Chopin Foundation Scholarship (2016 - 2018).

Mayuki Miyashita (2014)

Maryville, TN

Mayuki Miyashita was born in 2000 in Japan and started her piano studies at age 6 in Hamamatsu. She moved to the United States in 2011 where she studied piano with Dr. David Northington at the University of Tennessee School of Music. She gave her first solo recital at age 13 at the Steinway Piano Gallery in Knoxville.