October 18, 2025, was a beautiful day at Point Loma Nazarene University where the Sonata Contest in Memory of Jane Smisor Bastien, was held. It was a joy to hear and see so many of our students! We had 227 entrants this year.
I want to thank our incredible team of volunteers! First and foremost, thank you to MTAC member, Dr. Victor Labenske for co-sponsoring our event and helping us to secure Point Loma Nazarene University as our facility. Thank you to Brian Goral and Chutaphin Yeager for organizing our lovely and delicious breakfast and lunch. Thank you to Yuko Maruyama for posting the finalists on our facebook page, helping us communicate with our teachers and student families. To our other MTAC member volunteers: Lisa Bastien Hanss, Sarah Giles, Karlin Labenske, Isabelle Roux, Hua Wang, Dan Yu, and Carole Liu Yu, thank you so much for your time.
Other volunteers: Riley Vickers, Janie Overland, Chelsea Clements, Jacqueline Mizrachi, Ari Mizrachi, Emily Trinh, Irune Payas Gomez-Arrue, Chloe Li, Kiera Jenson and to the several Point Loma Nazarene music students who volunteered: we thank you so much for your time.
To my husband, Eric, thank you for your time, patience, and technical expertise to help organize the event.
We are very grateful to our highly esteemed judges for the day:
Jo Ellen Vandruff (Temecula), Teresa Wang (Stevenson Ranch), Joanne Stohs (Northern San Diego), Mark Mendez (Montebello), Teri Watson (Fullerton), Dr. Rob Watson (Fullerton), Ellen Kim (Fullerton), Dr. Jane Park (Inland Empire) and Dr. Andres Jaramillo (Riverside). We thank them for their time, dedication, and musical expertise.
We hope to see everyone again next year!
Sincerely,
Lori Bastien Vickers, Chairperson
2025 Sonata Contest Results
| Student Name | Student Name | ||
| Group 1A | Group 5A | ||
| 1st Place | Holly Chang | 1st Place | Olivia Chen/Rain Liu |
| 2nd Place | Yuta Boston | 2nd Place | Andrew Luo |
| 3rd Place | Amelia Zhu/Riley Atheena Tsui | 3rd Place | Ivy Zhang/Jane Yan |
| Group 1B | Group 5B | ||
| 1st Place | James Coll | 1st Place | Ruitong Alina Xia |
| 2nd Place | Hana Yee | 2nd Place | Victor Shen |
| 3rd Place | Miaomiao Dong | 3rd Place | Yicheng Tan |
| Group 2A | Group 6A | ||
| 1st Place | Lisa Terrazas | 1st Place | Lucas Zhang |
| 2nd Place | Yinuo Grace Wang | 2nd Place | Angela Cai |
| 3rd Place | Catherine Liu | 3rd Place | Daren Ren |
| Group 2B | Group 6B | ||
| 1st Place | Seth Felker | 1st Place | Jovanny Fernandez |
| 2nd Place | Ava Deshmukh | 2nd Place | Camila Mendoza |
| 3rd Place | Danielle Yu | 3rd Place | Coye Miao |
| Group 3A | Group 7 | ||
| 1st Place | Allison Cai | 1st Place | Yeema Liu |
| 2nd Place | Zoë Zuzu Reeves Abi-Nahed | 2nd Place | Daniel Liu |
| 3rd Place | Julie Yang | 3rd Place | Jovan Lim/Sharon Yu |
| Group 3B | Group 8 | ||
| 1st Place | Aaron Deng | 1st Place | Matthew Chao |
| 2nd Place | Jason Luo | 2nd Place | Alexis Xia/Brandon Swap |
| 3rd Place | Mananya Debnath | 3rd Place | Blake Hawkinson/Ethan Chen |
| Group 4A | Group 9 | ||
| 1st Place | Emery Faustino | 1st Place | Henry Sun |
| 2nd Place | Caitlin Park | 2nd Place | Jason Wu/Ruiya Xiu |
| 3rd Place | Tina Hou/Jadon Wang | 3rd Place | Bodhi Landin |
| Group 4B | Group 10 | ||
| 1st Place | Aden Jung | 1st Place | James Rong |
| 2nd Place | Abigail Shen | 2nd Place | Yvonne Gao |
| 3rd Place | Nayi Lui | 3rd Place | Darren Hack |
| Group 11 | |||
| 1st Place | Grace Xu | ||
| 2nd Place | Addison K Lee | ||
| 3rd Place | Andrew Lee/Nathan Teng |
