In 2026, sdpa students took all three top spots in the Under-18 division at the MTAC Southern Regional, the largest competition stage in Southern California.
2026 Chopin Festival, SDPA faculty and their students won 17 of the 35 prizes.
On Saturday, June 20th, sdpa faculty pianist Seth Quay took the stage for a piano trio, joined by cellist Katie Burns and violinist Renaudo Robinson, for an afternoon of chamber music.
Melissa Evans Tierra premiered Yifan Guo's Assembled Diary, a piece built from fragmented childhood memories that required her to compose her own cadenza, sync to a click track, and play like a child, sometimes literally. Watch the performance and hear the story behind the cadenza her father-in-law mistook for Mozart.
