FSMTA COMMUNITY SERVICE AWARD WINNER - Florida State ...

Byrd and Gray Perry
Competitions
The FSMTA Competitive Events were held on May 15th at the Florida State
University College of Music in Tallahassee. We had fine representation for both
events, and there were winners in every category.
THE BYRD PIANO ENSEMBLE AWARD:
by Norma Mastrogiacomo, Chair
Pre-college:
Winners Emily Nourishirazi Coached by Irena Kofman
Nikita Myullyari
Second Place Nadia Azzi Coached by Leonidas Lipovetsky
Austin Shin Coached by Vladimir Khokhlov
College:
Winners: Priscila Navarro Coached by Michael Baron
Paul Wright
Second Place Emily Charlson Coached by Norma Mastrogiacomo
John Callahan
GRAY PERRY YOUNG COLLEGIATE PIANO AWARD:
Winner: Priscila Navarro Student of Michael Baron
Second Place: Paul Wright Student of Michael Baron
Honorable Mention Adam Ravain Student of Gary Wolf
We had excellent performances, and the students were also very enthusiastic
performers. Special thanks to the students, parents and teachers for a fine
competition!!
Certification Announcement
by Helen Hartman Dingus, FSMTA Certification Chair
I have been asked to prepare a workshop for the FSMTA
Conference this fall and have agreed to do so. This will be
a one-hour presentation with some handouts, some
verbal information and then some time for
questions and answers. I hope that all of you
who are not yet FSMTA certified will join me
for this event to learn more about the
certification process.
Page 8
Byrd Piano Ensemble
Pre-College Division Winners
Emily
Nourishirazi
Emily Nourishirazi, is 16 years
old and currently a junior at Boca
Raton Community High School. She
has been playing piano for ten years
and has been studying with Dr. Irena
Kofman for the past three years.
Under the strong guidance of her
teacher, Emily has won numerous
awards across the counties, including
the Miami International Competition,
the Palm Beach County MTA Competition, the Delray
Beach Competition, the Broward County MTA
Competition, the Pompano Competition which also
includes the Young Virtuoso Scholarship Award from the
Steinway Gallery (in both 2009 and 2011) for a
distinguished performance, and several more. She has
participated in the Palm Beach Atlantic International
Festival with Nelson Delle-Vigne Fabbri and Philippe
Entremont for the past three years. Emily also took part in
the Chopin Foundation Young Pianists Concert. Recently,
she won the Ars Flores Concerto Competition which
rewarded her with the opportunity to perform with the Ars
Flores Symphony Orchestra. Furthermore, she placed first
in the FMSTA District Piano Concerto Competition in the
senior division. During the summer of 2009, she
participated in FAU’s Tops Music camp, and then in the
summer of 2010 she took part in the University of Miami
Young Musicians’ Camp which focused on chamber music.
Besides playing the piano, Emily works as a piano teacher
for four young students. She plans on continuing her
passion by majoring in music performance and pedagogy,
for she enjoys sharing the culture and gratification of music
with others.
Nikita
Myullyari
Nikita Myullyari started playing
piano when he was eight years old. He
studied piano for three years with
Maria Borges in Miami. For the last 5 years, he has been
studying piano with Dr. Irena Kofman, and for the last year
and a half, he has been studying composition and theory
with Donald Waxman. His original composition,
'Bittersweet Waltz', won first place in the 2010 Florida
division of the MTNA Young Composer's competition. He
has participated and won awards at the Delray, Palm
Beach and Steinway piano competitions in the last three
years, among other contests.