Thank you for participating in the 2026 H. B. Goodlin Scholarship Competition! We had 89 students from all over San Diego County competing in five divisions, who represented 46 teaching studios. The auditions were adjudicated by 9 Preliminary Round judges and 6 Finals judges. After the Preliminary Round Audition in a video submission format, 30 Finalists participated in the in-person Finals Audition at Cuyamaca College Theatre on Saturday, May 9.
The Goodlin Finals auditions were held at the Cuyamaca College Theatre throughout the day. Afterwards, the students and teachers were treated to the piano master class given by Dr. Derek Polischuk, where two selected finalists received instruction on one of their Goodlin competition pieces.
Thank you to the San Diego Foundation, the William E. Schmidt Foundation and other generous donors for their continued support for this event. Thank you to Cuyamaca College for hosting the Saturday Finals Competition in their beautiful theatre.
I would like to acknowledge the participating studios for their work in educating our music students in San Diego County: Eunice Ahn, Emily Balderrama, Irina Bendetsky, Ruslan Biryukov, Dana Burnett, Jessie Chang,
Bingjian Chen, Chiyuan Chen, Chia-Ling Chien, Sun Yung Cho, Tina Chong, P.J. Cinque, Hernan Constantino, Ethan Yi Dong, Berta Godkin, Chris Kim, Sunjin Kim, Sarah Koo Freeman, Valeria Kravchenko, Meixuan Li, Shuang LI, April Lin, Inessa Litvin, Anne Liu, Yu Carole Liu, Rinna Livshin, Pamela Martchev, Alexander Mirolyan, Gaiana Mndoian, Brendan Nguyen, Carol Ong-Chen, Julia Pautz, Anna Savvas, Katerina Sharko, Olga Shevelevich, Xiao-yan Sui, Chetan Tierra, Gill Tsai, Irina Tseitlin, Pasha Tseitlin, Luba Ugorski, Danette White, Angela Wu, Dan Yu, Tingting Zhang, and Xiaoxi Zhang.
I would also like to thank the current and the past members of the MTAC San Diego Board of Directors, and the members of the H. B. Goodlin Foundation Board. Special thanks to Jaclyn Summers and Lea Schmidt-Rogers for their perpetual support and guidance for the Goodlin Competition.
Thank you to the 2026 Goodlin Competition Finals Volunteers. This event is not possible without their help: Jessie Chang, Sun Yung Cho, Connie Gale, Brian Goral, Kiera Jensen, Ed Litvin, Anne Liu, Yu Carole Liu, Carol Ong-Chen, Marj Osgood, Lea Schmidt-Rogers, Xiao-yan Sui, Jaclyn Summers, Naomi Teran, and Chutaphin Yeager.
We were privileged to have these distinguished judges for this year’s competition: Isaac Allen, Lori Bell, Dr. Ching-Ming Cheng, Angela Choong, Dr. Eloise Kim, Dr. Michael Krikorian, Gail Lew, Pam Monroe, Dr. Andrew Park, Dr. Derek Polischuk, Heidi Saario, Dr. Taylor Smith, Dr. Joshua Tan, Mark Teplitsky, and Dr. Philip Tyler. (Judges’ bios here).
| 2026 Goodlin Scholarship Competition Results | ||||||
| Division I Keyboard | 1st Place | 13 | Clarie Chen | Piano | $500 | |
| 2nd Place | 11 | Lucas Zhang | Piano | $200 | ||
| 3rd Place | 12 | Angela Cai | Piano | $100 | ||
| HM | 7 | Michael Fang | Piano | $50 | ||
| HM | 10 | Flora Wang | Piano | $50 | ||
| HM | 8 | Marissa Zheng | Piano | $50 | ||
| HM | 9 | Alexander Xiao | Piano | $50 | ||
| Division II Keyboard | 1st Place | 20 | Isabella Yang | Piano | $1,000 | |
| 2nd Place | 19 | Kadmus Ma | Piano | $500 | ||
| 3rd Place | 16 | Cecilia Chang | Piano | $200 | ||
| HM | 18 | Angela Fei | Piano | $75 | ||
| HM | 15 | Landon Han | Piano | $75 | ||
| HM | 14 | Naoya Fukushi | Piano | $75 | ||
| HM | 17 | Yen-Cheng Wu | Piano | $75 | ||
| Division III Keyboard | 1st Place | 26 | Amy Zhang | Piano | $3,000 | Chet & June Schmidt Award |
| 2nd Place | 29 | Daryn Tarasewicz | Piano | $1,000 | Masterclass Participant | |
| 3rd Place | 25 | Emily Chen | Piano | $500 | ||
| HM | 28 | Caleb Tang | Piano | $100 | ||
| HM | 27 | Luna Lee | Piano | $100 | Masterclass Participant | |
| HM | 21 | Sara Sariowan | Piano | $100 | ||
| HM | 22 | Chloe Li | Piano | $100 | ||
| HM | 24 | James Rong | Piano | $100 | ||
| HM | 23 | Marcus Huang | Piano | $100 | ||
| HM | 30 | Sameer Prakash | Piano | $100 | ||
| Junior Instrumental | 1st Place | 5 | Clarie Chen | Violin | $1,000 | |
| 2nd Place | 4 | Mason Kwon | Cello | $500 | ||
| 3rd Place | 6 | Chloe de la Motte | Violin | $200 | ||
| Senior Instrumental | 1st Place | 2 | Caitlin Wang | Violin | $3,000 | Chet & June Schmidt Award |
| 2nd Place | 1 | Alvin Wang | Viola | $1,000 | ||
| 3rd Place | 3 | Pinakin Dhamdhere | Bassoon | $500 | ||
