The Music Academy of the West announces the Winners of the 2024 Summer Festival’s Solo Piano, Duo, and Marilyn Horne Song Competitions
(August 4, 2024, Santa Barbara, California) – The 2024 Summer Music Festival, which took place from June 12 through August 3 at the Music Academy’s idyllic campus — and throughout the stunning setting of the American Riviera in Santa Barbara, California — featured nearly 130 live events including special performances by Joshua Bell, Lawrence Brownlee, Sasha Cooke, Jeremy Denk, Steven Isserlis, Leila Josefowicz, Richard O’Neill, and the Takács Quartet.
Among the Festival’s most anticipated events are the competitions, a platform for Academy singers, pianists, and instrumentalists to vie for a $5,000 cash prize.
The 2024 Marilyn Horne Song Competition, open to the Lehrer Vocal Institute vocalists and vocal pianists, took place on August 2 in Hahn Hall at the Music Academy. The winners were announced shortly after the competition concluded by an esteemed panel of adjudicators: Music Academy soprano alum Brenda Rae (’08), Director of Opera at UCLA Peter Kazaras, and pianist Howard Watkins.
Past winners include Metropolitan Opera stars Susanna Phillips (2002, 2003), Isabel Leonard (2005), and Nadine Sierra (2007).
The Grand Prize recipients – Mariam Mouawad, mezzo-soprano, and Eric Head, piano – each receive a $5,000 cash award and digital assets for career promotion.
Thanks to the generosity of Linda Yawitz, Kayla Rae Stein, soprano and Tzu Kuang Tan, piano, will each receive special recognition awards of $750 cash.
MARIAM MOUAWAD mezzo-soprano, born in Zahlé, Lebanon, is a recent Resident Artist of the Shreveport Opera. She studied with Melanie Sonnenburg at the University of Houston. She placed first at the 2023 Music Teachers National Association Young Artist Competition and the 2022 La Jolla Symphony and Chorus Young Artist Competition. Roles with Shreveport Opera include Dorabella in Mozart’s Cosí fan tutte and Musetta in Puccini’s La bohème. With the Moores Opera Center, Mariam appeared as Federico García Lorca in Golijov’s Ainadamar.
ERIC HEAD vocal piano, from Fairmont, Minnesota, is earning his master’s degree in collaborative piano from the University of Michigan, where he studies with Martin Katz. He won the Rosholt Distinction in Accompanying Prize in 2021 and 2022 and was a Luther College Concerto Competition winner in 2021. Recent performances include Puccini’s La bohème and Gianni Schicchi as well as in Johann Strauss II’s Die Fledermaus. From 2017-2021, he was the Summer Theater Music Director for the Fairmount Opera House.
The 2024 Duo Competition, open to Music Academy instrumental and collaborative piano fellows, took place on July 29 in Hahn Hall at the Music Academy. The adjudicators, Gabriel Campos Zamora, Jeremy Geffen, and Rita Sloan, announced the winners.
The winners – Shengyu Meng, cello, and Yoshino Toi, piano – each will receive a $5,000 cash award and digital assets for career promotion.
YOSHINO TOI collaborative piano, from Tokyo, Japan, recently completed her Performance Diploma in Collaborative Piano as a Graduate Assistant at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, studying with Dr. Futaba Niekawa, Dr. Charles Prestinari, and Anne Epperson. She has previously studied with Norman Krieger, Dr. David Westfall, and Malgosia Lis. She will begin her Doctoral studies at the New England Conservatory in the fall.
The 2024 Solo Piano Competition, open only to solo piano fellows, took place on June 28 in Hahn Hall at the Music Academy. The adjudicators, Inna Falkis, Nir Kabaretti, and Joanne Pearce Martin announced the winner.
Po Han Chiu will receive a $5,000 cash award and digital assets for career promotion.
Po Han Chiu is currently earning his master’s degree at the Yale School of Music, studying with Boris Slutsky. He was a semi-finalist in the 2022 International Paderewski Piano Competition in Los Angeles. He has performed several solo recitals at Yale. There, he also teaches lessons to undergraduate students.
About the Music Academy
Located in Santa Barbara, the Music Academy of the West creates a space where exceptional talent can thrive by encouraging artists to stretch, experiment, improvise, and play. The Music Academy provides artists with the tools they need to become not just great musicians but great leaders. The Music Academy’s programs include the annual eight-week Summer School & Music Festival which trains up to 150 fellows ages 18-34 and presents more than 130 performances and events, competitions, and a fully staged opera; Sing!, a children’s choir that performs with local, national, and international partners; the MAX (Music Academy Exchange) partnership with international orchestras; the innovative Alumni Enterprise Awards; and the Mariposa Series of concerts by Academy-affiliated artists. The 2024 Summer School & Festival takes place from June 12 through August 3. Learn more at staging.musicacademy.org.
For more Summer Festival information, download the Music Academy Summer Festival
press kit
Kerry Allen
Vice President, Marketing & Communications
Music Academy of the West
805‐895-9491