The MTNA Performance Competitions offer an opportunity for advanced students. The competitions are offered at the Junior, Senior, Young Artist, and Chamber Music levels, and are open to any student who plays at the level of the required music. The state competitions are considered the primary educational level, with the division and national levels showcasing outstanding performances and honoring significant pedagogical achievement.
REGISTRATION DEADLINE: September 11, 2024 at 12:00 noon Pacific Time.
Complete guidelines are available online at mtna.org
The Washington State MTNA Student Performance Competition for Piano, Strings, Woodwinds (all levels) and Senior Piano Duet will occur November 9-11, 2024 at Central Washington University.
Please contact WSMTA Vice President Amanda Harris, or the MTNA Competitions Chair, Julie Swienty with any questions.
Important Changes to the Brass and Voice Competitions
Registration for Brass and Voice opens on November 1, 2024
Brass and Voice (Senior and Young Artist only – no Junior) Performance Competitions are two-tiered competitions: the Preliminary Round, by video submission only; and the Final Round, live at the MTNA National Conference. Entrants will compete without regard to the state or division in which they live or take lessons. Seven finalists will be selected in both the Brass and Voice categories from a nationwide pool of applicants to compete in the Final Round. (See Senior Brass/Voice Performance Guidelines) (See Young Artist Brass/Voice Performance Guidelines )**
PREVIOUS RESULTS
2024-2025 WASHINGTON STATE
MTNA PERFORMANCE COMPETITION RESULTS
Results will be posted here during the WA State MTNA Performance Competitions in November, during the competitions in Ellensburg.
JUNIOR
SENIOR
YOUNG ARTIST
2024-2025 WASHINGTON STATE
MTNA Performance Competition Judges
Please click on the name of any of the judges to go to their biography (if provided).
Piano Division
Charlie Albright
Stephen Beus
Isabella Jie
String Division
Timothy Christie
Thane Lewis
Maria Sampen
Woodwind Division
Sophia Tegart
Piano Division
Charlie Albright
Hailed as “among the most gifted musicians of his generation” with a “dazzling natural keyboard affinity” who “made quite an impression” by the Washington Post, American pianist/composer/improviser Charlie Albright has been praised for his “jaw-dropping technique and virtuosity meshed with a distinctive musicality” by The New York Times, and his “extravagance that had showmanship but never felt cheap” with his “ease and smoothness that refuses to airbrush the music, but animates it from within” by the Philadelphia Inquirer. Recipient of the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant and Gilmore Young Artist Award, Albright won the Ruhr Klavier Festival Young Artist Award presented by Marc-André Hamelin (Germany) and the Young Concert Artists International Auditions. In addition to performing, Albright is sought after as a speaker, masterclass instructor, teacher, and competition judge. His debut commercial recording, Vivace, has sold thousands of copies worldwide and the first two parts of a 3-part Schubert Series of live, all-Schubert recordings was released in 2017 and 2020. Charlie Albright breaks the “classical” rules of music by connecting with audiences like no other. Through his music, speaking, and unique improvisations that bring music to life, he crosses all genres…and makes it fun.
Albright regularly appears at major concert halls, festivals, and with artists of all genres worldwide. He is a frequently returning guest artist with such orchestras as the BBC Concert Orchestra (14-concert tour with Maestro Keith Lockhart, chosen as one of the “Best of the BBC 2015”); and the Alabama, American, Baltimore, Bergen (Norway), Boston Pops, Buffalo, California, Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, Edmonton (Canada), Des Moines, Fort Smith, Houston, Kymi Sinfonietta (Finland), Lansing, Mobile, National Center for the Performing Arts (Beijing, China), Omaha, Philly Pops, Phoenix, San Francisco, Seattle, Seongnam (Seoul, Korea), Victoria (Canada), and West Michigan Symphony Orchestras. He has performed worldwide, including at the Isaac Stern Auditorium main stage of Carnegie Hall (New
York); the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (Washington, D.C.); Symphony Hall (Boston); the Salle Cortot (Paris, France); the Arsht Center for the Performing Arts (Miami); the Kumho Art Hall (Seoul, Korea); Seongnam Arts Center (Seoul, Korea); Gum Nanse Music Center (Busan, Korea); the National Center for the Performing Arts (Beijing, China); and Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center (New York). In June 2023, Albright performed a Peace Concert with conductor Gum Nanse and the Korean Seongnam Philharmonic at Walt Disney Concert Hall (Los Angeles), commemorating the 70th anniversary of the Korean War’s Armistice Agreement.
Albright regularly performs in programs with artists from all genres, including vocalist/conductor Bobby McFerrin, violinist Joshua Bell, pianist Emanuel Ax, conductor Gum Nanse, and Broadway vocalists Mandy Gonzalez, Scarlett Strallen, and Hugh Panaro. He has performed five times with revered cellist Yo-Yo Ma: at the honorary degree ceremony at Harvard University for Senator Ted Kennedy; at a 10th anniversary remembrance of 9/11; at the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights with Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison; at the Aspen Institute’s Citizen Artistry conference in New York; and with the Silk Road Project. Albright’s compositions and improvisations have been likened to “the great Romantic-era composer-pianists” by Classical Source and have been praised as “thrilling” by the DC Metro Theatre Arts. The Philadelphia Inquirer raved that he “brought the art of classical-music improvisation to a new level.”
A firm believer in education, Albright founded the Charlie Albright Scholarship and Charlie Albright Piano in collaboration with the Centralia College Foundation in his hometown. The Scholarship provides financial aid to music students, and money was raised to purchase and maintain a new 9-foot Steinway Piano for the college’s Corbet Hall. Winner of the Louis Sudler Prize in the Arts and named one of the “15 Most Interesting Seniors,” Albright was also named Artist-in-Residence for Harvard University’s Leverett House, a position last filled by cellist Yo-Yo Ma. Albright’s numerous awards include First Prize in both Solo and Ensemble categories at the 2006 New York National Piano Competition; First Prize and all other awards offered at the 2006 Eastman International Piano Competition; Third Prize at the 2007 Hilton
Head International Piano Competition; Semi-Finalist Award and Best Performance of a Work by Liszt in Stage I at the 2008 Sydney International Piano Competition; and the Vendome Virtuoso Prize and the Elizabeth Leonskaya Special Award at the 2009 Vendome Prize International Piano Competition.
Born in Centralia, Washington, Albright began piano lessons at the age of 3. He studied with Nancy Adsit and earned an Associate of Science degree at Centralia College while still in high school. He was the first classical pianist in the Harvard College/New England Conservatory 5-Year AB/MM Joint Program, completing a Bachelor’s Degree as an Economics major and Pre-Med student at Harvard, and a Master of Music Degree in Piano Performance at NEC, having studied with Wha-Kyung Byun. He graduated with the prestigious Artist Diploma (A.D.) from The Juilliard School, having studied with Yoheved Kaplinsky.
Albright is an official Steinway Artist. For the latest information, please visit CharlieAlbright.com, Youtube.com/CharlieAlbrightPianist, Facebook.com/CharlieAlbrightPianist, and Instagram (@CharlieAlbrightPianist).
Stephen Beus
“Strikingly original… an interpretive voice all his own” (Fanfare Magazine). In the space of four months, American pianist Stephen Beus won first prize in the Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition, first place in the Vendome Prize International Competition (Lisbon) and he was awarded the Max I. Allen Fellowship of the American Pianists Association (Indianapolis).
As a result of winning the Juilliard School Concerto Competition Mr. Beus made his Carnegie Hall debut with the Juilliard Orchestra and James DePreist, playing Prokofiev Concerto No. 3. He has also performed as guest soloist with the Gulbenkian Symphony (Lisbon), Oxford Philomusica, the Tivoli Symphony (Copenhagen), the Tbilisi National Opera Orchestra, the Northwest Sinfonietta (Seattle), the Royal Philharmonic of Morocco (Casablanca), the Vaasa Symphony Orchestra (Finland) as well as with the Hamburg, Indianapolis, Nashville, Santa Fe, Utah, Fort Worth, Tucson, Yakima, Bellevue, Salt Lake, Eastern Sierra, Corvallis, Jacksonville, Texarkana and Walla Walla Symphonies.
Equally active as a soloist, Mr. Beus has performed at Wigmore Hall, the Salle Gaveau and Salle Cortot (Paris), Merkin Hall, the Shanghai Oriental Arts Center, the Central Conservatory (Beijing), Teatro San Carlo (Naples), Carnegie Hall (Weill Recital Hall), the Queluz Palace (Lisbon) and has performed for the Dame Myra Hess and Fazioli Salon series (Chicago), the International Keyboard Institute and Festival (New York City), and has given recitals across the United States as well as in Kazakhstan, Russia, Finland, Denmark, Switzerland, Germany, Georgia, China, France, Italy, Portugal, the Czech Republic, and Morocco.
Born and raised on a farm in eastern Washington, Mr. Beus began lessons at age 5 and made his orchestral debut four years later. He went on to win numerous national and international competitions throughout his youth, capturing the attention of both audiences and critics. Commenting on Mr. Beus’ competition success, Fanfare magazine writes: “In some ways Beus doesn’t fit the mold of the typical competition winner. His playing is strikingly original and, despite his youth, he has an interpretive voice all his own… Above all, his playing is so natural as to seem effortless and the sound he produces has extraordinary richness and depth, not quite like anyone else’s.”
Mr. Beus holds degrees from Whitman College, The Juilliard School, and Stony Brook University, and his teachers have included Leonard Richter, Robert McDonald, Gilbert Kalish, Christina Dahl, and Paulette Richards. He has recorded on the Endeavor Classics, Harmonia Mundi, and Centaur Records labels. Stephen Beus is a Steinway Artist and currently teaches at Brigham Young University. For more details, visit www.stephenbeuspiano.com.
Isabella Jie
Indonesian pianist Isabella Jie is the Affiliate Artist of Collaborative Piano at the University of Puget Sound. She is also on the piano faculty at Tacoma Community College and has served as the President of the WSMTA – Gig Harbor chapter while maintaining a full private teaching studio. She has adjudicated for the Washington State MTNA Performance Competition, WMEA Piano Solo and Ensemble Contests, Performing Arts of the Eastside in Bellevue, Indonesia International Young Musician Awards, and the BBC-ORMTA Piano Competition in Brampton, Canada.
Isabella began learning piano at the age of three. When she was five, she participated in her first public piano concert and has been active in performing and competing, winning numerous Indonesian piano competitions since then. At age 14, she moved by herself to Canada to study with Leon Karan and attend high school at Columbia International College. Isabella won first prizes at the Kiwanis Piano Competitions and was invited to perform at the Living Arts Center in Mississauga, Ontario. She graduated from the University of Toronto in 2010 with her Bachelor of Music degree in Piano Performance, receiving the Most Meritorious Award and the Alexander Kinghorn Scholarship for Gifted Students. Isabella completed her Master of Music and Performer’s Diploma degrees at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University under full academic scholarship and Associate Assistantship. Her teachers included Edward Auer and Shigeo Neriki. There, she also worked for the Young Pianist Program with Dr. Karen Taylor and taught piano courses for both music and non-music majors. Isabella completed her Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Piano Performance at the University of Minnesota in 2017, where she studied with Alexander Braginsky. During her time in Minneapolis, she won the 18th Annual Masters Concerto and Aria Competition by the Kenwood Symphony Orchestra (KSO), the Marvin O. Mechelke Piano Competition, and was a two-time prize winner at the Schubert Club Piano Competition. She has performed at the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts in St. Paul, MN, and as a soloist with the KSO and Tacoma Community College Orchestra.
String Division
Timothy Christie
Violinist and violist Timothy Christie enjoys a multifaceted career as performer, teacher, public speaker, and recording artist. He is the Founder and Artistic Director of the Walla Walla Chamber Music Festival (WWCMF), a nonprofit organization in southeastern Washington presenting more than 40 public chamber music events annually. He also serves on the faculty of the School of Music at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington, and was a member of the Pacific Northwest Ballet Orchestra in Seattle for 15 years.
In demand as a recitalist and chamber musician, Christie regularly collaborates with some of the most exciting artists and ensembles in the industry, including Third Coast Percussion, Spektral Quartet, PRISM Quartet, PROJECT Trio, Sybarite5, Turtle Island Quartet, the Harlem Quartet, and The Westerlies. The solo violist of new-music ensemble Brave New Works since the group’s inception in 1997, Christie can be heard on recordings of William Bolcom’s Piano Quintet and William Albright’s Clarinet Quintet on AMP Records.
Christie earned dual undergraduate degrees in Music and English Literature at the University of Michigan, and a Master of Music degree, also from U of M. His principal teachers include Andrew Jennings and Paul Kantor (violin), and Yizhak Schotten (viola).
Christie occasionally dips a toe in the for-profit wing of the music business, having recorded countless film, television, and video game scores over the years. Away from music, Christie frequently dips a toe in cold mountain streams. His favorite fly in the box is a Parachute Adams.
Thane Lewis
Thane Lewis is Principal Violist of the Tacoma Symphony. Mr. Lewis studied with Steven Staryk at the University of Washington, where he received his Masters. He performed as Assistant Principal Viola of the Boise Philharmonic, and as an extra with the Anchorage Symphony, the Oregon Symphony, the Auburn Symphony, the Pacific Northwest Ballet Orchestra, and at the 5th Avenue Theater Orchestra. Mr. Lewis has appeared as soloist with the Tacoma Symphony, the Eastside Symphony, the Vashon-Maury Chamber Orchestra, Octava Chamber Orchestra and with the Lake Union Civic Orchestra in Seattle’s Town Hall.
From 2000-2006 Mr. Lewis was an active studio musician, recording music for 30 films, television shows, commercials, and video games. He backed local appearances of the traveling stage shows of Pavarotti, Kenny-G, Smokey Robinson, Ray Charles, Sarah Brightman, Josh Groban, k.d. lang, Chris Botti, Chicago, Kenny Rogers, Rod Stewart, Mannheim Steamroller, Streetlight Manifesto, and Sigur Ros. Mr Lewis played on the 2003 double Grammy-award winning rock album Fallen by
Evanescence. Lewis has twice been a guest on KING FM’s live show, NW Focus, and recorded orchestral works for the Sonic Window, Immortal Classics, and First Impression Music labels.
As a chamber musician, Mr. Lewis has performed in the Second City, Cascadia Sounds of Summer, Jacobsen, Mostly Nordic, Seattle Symphony Chamber Music Series, Seattle Symphony Young Composers and Governor’s Mansion Chamber Series. In 2000, Mr. Lewis’s biography of violinist Steven Staryk, Fiddling With Life, was published by Mosaic Press of Toronto.
Maria Sampen
Violinist Maria Sampen enjoys a vibrant career as concerto soloist, recitalist, chamber musician and teacher. Equally at home with repertoire ranging from classical to avant-garde to popular styles, Dr. Sampen has delighted audiences with her eclectic programs, her passionate performance style and her highly expressive playing. She has
performed in Europe, Asia, Canada and all over the United States.
Dr. Sampen’s solo and chamber music appearances have brought her to prominent venues including Carnegie Hall Weill Recital Hall, Symphony Space (NY), Bruno Walter Auditorium at Lincoln Center, Town Hall (Seattle), the Chicago Cultural Center, and the Detroit Institute of Art. She has given recitals and masterclasses at universities throughout the country including the University of Michigan, Cornell, Eastman, the Boston Conservatory, the University of Oregon, the University of Minnesota, Bowling Green State University, Vanderbilt, and the University of Washington. Outside of the United States, she has been a guest soloist and master class clinician at the University of British Columbia, the Sichuan Conservatory in Chengdu, China and given performances in the Canary Islands (Spain), Scotland, Italy and Singapore.
Dr. Sampen is a passionate supporter of contemporary music and has commissioned and premiered concertos for violin and orchestra by composers David Glenn, Marilyn Shrude and Robert Hutchinson. Sampen has released recordings on AMP Records, Block M Records, Perspectives in New Music/Open Space and Origin Records. Additionally, she has commissioned and premiered an impressive body of chamber works, collaborating with composers such as William Bolcom, William Albright, Bright Sheng, Marcos Balter, Andrew Mead, Robert Morris, Nico Muhly and Forrest Pierce.
In addition to her work as a soloist, Dr. Sampen concertizes frequently with her piano trio, the Puget Sound Piano Trio. She was a member of the new music group, Brave New Works from 2000-2020. In 2019, the University of Puget Sound awarded her the Kristine Bartanen Research Award for remarkable accomplishments in research and professional development. She is also a Sigma Alpha Iota Distinguished National Arts Associate.
Dr. Sampen is Professor of Violin and Chair of the String Department at the University of Puget Sound. She has twice received the University of Puget Sound’s Thomas A. Davis Teaching Award for excellence in teaching. Her students are frequent winners of local concerto competitions and have also won top awards at the Music Teacher National Association Competition, the Tacoma Philharmonic Solo Competition, and the American String Teacher Washington State Competition. Dr. Sampen has also taught on the faculties of the Brevard Music Festival in North Carolina, the Interlochen Center for the Arts, the Icicle Creek Chamber Music Institute in Washington and the Hilton Head Chamber Music Festival in South Carolina.
Dr. Sampen graduated with highest honors from the University of Michigan (Bachelor of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts) and Rice University (Masters of Music). Her major teachers include Paul Kantor, Kenneth Goldsmith and Paul Makara. She also performed and studied at the Mozarteum Sommerakademie, the Banff Centre for the Arts, the Musicorda Festival, the Carnegie Hall Professional Training Workshop, and as a fellow at both the Aspen and Tanglewood Music Festivals.
Woodwind Division
Sophia Tegart
Sophia Tegart, Yamaha Performing Artist, serves as Assistant Professor of Flute at Washington State University where she was awarded the 2023 President’s Distinguished Teaching Award and the 2020 College of Arts and Sciences Early Career Achievement Award. During the summers, she teaches at Young Musicians and Artist (YMA) and has also taught at the Interharmony International Music Festival in Acqui Terme, Italy and Music for All.
Tegart has performed at National Flute Association conventions, College Music Society conferences, International Conference on Women’s Work in Music in Bangor, Wales, and the Thailand International Composition Festival. Tegart is flutist in the Pan Pacific Ensemble, a wind quintet dedicated to the advancement of music by composers of the Pacific Rim. The Pan Pacific Ensemble has released three albums through Albany Records and received the 2022 American Prize in Professional Chamber Music. Tegart can also be heard on the Cherry Street Duo album “Flute Duos by Women Composers” and the Crossroads Quartet album (2022). Tegart’s debut solo album, Palouse Songbook, was released through Centaur in 2020. All of Tegart’s recordings can be found on Apple Music and Spotify.
Tegart received her Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Flute Performance from the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music and Dance where she held the flute fellowship in the Graduate Woodwind Quintet and studied with Dr. Mary Posses. She holds an MM in Performance and MA in Music History from the University of Oregon and a BM in Performance and BA in History from Washington State University. She feels honored to be back on the beautiful Palouse and teaching at her alma mater.
PAST WA STATE MTNA PERFORMANCE COMPETITION RESULTS
WASHINGTON STATE
Results
2023-2024 Washington State Results (pdf )
2022-2023 Washington State Results (pdf)
2021-2022 Washington State Results (pdf)
2020-2021 Washington State Results (pdf)
2019-2020 Washington State Results (pdf)
2018-2019 Washington State Results (pdf)
2017-2018 Washington State Results (pdf)
2016-2017 Washington State Results (pdf)
2015-2016 Washington State Results (pdf)
2014-2015 Washington State Results (pdf)
NORTHWEST DIVISION
Results of Washington State students
2023-2024 WA State NW Division Results (pdf, available in January 2024)
2022-2023 WA State NW Division Results (pdf)
2021-2022 WA State NW Division Results (pdf)
2020-2021 WA State NW Division Results (pdf)
2019-2020 WA State NW Division Results (pdf)
2018-2019 WA State NW Division Results (pdf)
2017-2018 WA State NW Division Results (pdf)
2016-2017 WA State NW Division Results (pdf)
2015-2016 WA State NW Division Results (pdf)
NATIONAL
Results of Washington State students
2018-2019 WA State National Winners (pdf)
2017-2018 WA State National Winners (pdf)