Piano students of Edna McCoy won nine gold medals at the recent Mississippi Music Teachers Association State Finals competition at Hinds Community College in Raymond. A total of 25 awards were given to the 13 participating students taught by McCoy of Columbus.
In order to progress to State Finals, students had to earn Superior scores at local MMTA evaluations in basic categories such as performance, sight reading, keyboard technique and written theory. Additional categories are sonata-sonatina, theme and variations and ensemble.
First place medals were awarded to Tracey Singer for Level 7 performance.
First in Theme and Variations went to Gloria Zhang and Tracey Singer. Ensemble first places went to Claire Chi, Victoria Pan, Rebecca Pan, Gloria Zhang, Jane Fan and Singer.
The rating of Superior is 90-100 but only students who received 95 and above were named place winners, from honorable mention to first place.
Taking second place in various categories were Gloria Zhang, Tom Pan, Jane Fan, Vivik Nagarajan and Sidharth Nagarajan.
Third place winners in various categories were Rebecca Pan, Jane Fan, Sammira Rais-Rohani and Margaret Ann Street. Gloria Zhang also won a fourth place in sonatina.
Claire Chi, Sidharth Negarajan and Anne Reed Hairston received honorable mention in solo performance.
In addition to medals and places for performances, two of McCoy’s students received highest composite scores for all four basic categories, Gloria Zhang and Tracey Singer. Both had perfect scores of 400.
MMTA is the state affiliate of the Music Teachers’ National Association, the oldest national music organization in the United States.
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