October 17, 2026 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 207 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 helping us to communicate with our teachers and student families. To our other MTAC member volunteers: Lisa Bastien Hanss, Sarah Giles, Karlin Labenske, Hua Wang, and Carole Liu Yu, thank you so much for your time.
Other volunteers: Chelsea Clements, Elian Mizrachi, Ari Mizrachi, Emily Trinh, Zachary Haubenstock, Irune Payas Gomez-Arrue, 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:
Dr. Hyoung Wuk Kim, Masako Klassen (Fullerton), Joanne Stohs (Northern San Diego), Mark Mendez (Montebello), Teri Watson (Fullerton), Dr. Rob Watson (Fullerton), Dr. 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
| 2026 Sonata Contest Results | |||
| Student Name | Student Name | ||
| Group 1A | Group 5A | ||
| 1st Place | Leyu Han | 1st Place | Ethan Xiu |
| 2nd Place | Jayden Yang | 2nd Place | Lisa Terrazas |
| 3rd Place | Thomas Duan | 3rd Place | Jason Luo |
| Group 1B | Group 5B | ||
| 1st Place | Evelyn Liu/ Isabella Yang | 1st Place | Avry Dispo |
| 2nd Place | Nile Liao | 2nd Place | Abigail Shen |
| 3rd Place | Madeleine Thomas | 3rd Place | Erin Yang |
| Group 2A | Group 6A | ||
| 1st Place | Soleste Green | 1st Place | Alina Ruitong Xia/ Marissa Zheng |
| 2nd Place | Hana Yee | 2nd Place | Evangeline Felker |
| 3rd Place | Elizabeth Zhang | 3rd Place | Lia Feng/ Jason Park |
| Group 2B | Group 6B | ||
| 1st Place | Miaomiao Dong | 1st Place | Olivia Chen |
| 2nd Place | Kaylee Choi | 2nd Place | Jayden Wang |
| 3rd Place | Enzo Lee | 3rd Place | Elena Song |
| Group 3A | Group 7 | ||
| 1st Place | Danielle Yu | 1st Place | Angela Cai |
| 2nd Place | Aya Kunitake | 2nd Place | Lucas Zhang |
| 3rd Place | Angeline Benjamin | 3rd Place | Benjamin Sun |
| Group 3B | Group 8 | ||
| 1st Place | Seth Felker | 1st Place | Nathan Chou/ Jack Park/ Daniel Lee |
| 2nd Place | Odysseus Zisoulis | 2nd Place | Enyo Martchev |
| 3rd Place | Eva Wang | 3rd Place | Clara Stone |
| Group 4A | Group 9 | ||
| 1st Place | Kai Prada | 1st Place | Yeema Liu |
| 2nd Place | Jack Stone | 2nd Place | Sharon Yu/ Chi-Ching Chan |
| 3rd Place | Ray Sun | 3rd Place | Alexis Xia |
| Group 4B | Group 10 | ||
| 1st Place | Aaron Deng | 1st Place | Ruiya Xia/Euan Lee |
| 2nd Place | Allison Chung | 2nd Place | Matthew Chao/Jason Wu |
| 3rd Place | Alden Sutheno | 3rd Place | Bodhi Landin |
| Group 11 | |||
| 1st Place | Serafin Gimutao | ||
| 2nd Place | Darren Hack | ||
| 3rd Place | Nathan Teng | ||