{"id":271610,"date":"2018-03-09T06:06:20","date_gmt":"2018-03-08T20:06:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=271610"},"modified":"2018-03-09T06:06:20","modified_gmt":"2018-03-08T20:06:20","slug":"yonsei-students-win-8-medals-guam-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/yonsei-students-win-8-medals-guam-festival\/","title":{"rendered":"Yonsei students win 8 medals at Guam festival"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Yonsei Academy students are joined by Ji Hye Yun, a director of Yonsei Academy, as they pose with the medals they earned at the Tumon Bay Music Festival. (Contributed Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Kate Ishida, a music student of the Yonsei Academy on Saipan, received a perfect score from every judge at the ongoing Tumon Bay Music Festival in Guam. That feat earned her a gold medal.<\/p>\n

The academy\u2019s other students\u2014Heechan Kim, Grace Zhang, Joseph Zhang, and Nancy Han\u2014also received gold medals. <\/p>\n

Students of the Yonsei Academy competed at the music festival on March 3, 2018. <\/p>\n

The festival itself is from March 1 to 10, 2018. There will be an encore concert on March 10, together with the awards ceremony.<\/p>\n

The academy sent a five-person delegation to the music festival last year; all five returned with three silver and two gold medals. Ishida won a gold medal last year. She has been competing at the festival for six years now.<\/p>\n

This year, Ishida, a 16-year-old sophomore at Marianas High School, played the prelude to Claude Debussy\u2019s Pour le Piano on the piano. <\/p>\n

\u201cEvery year is as exciting as the last. I get to meet new people, reunite with the friends I made in the previous years, and I always learn something new with each performance. <\/p>\n

\u201cI have grown so much as a musician from the first time I competed at [the Tumon Bay Music Festival] when I was 11 years old to now. [The festival] has helped me get out of my comfort zone and [meet] every challenge and opportunity out there. <\/p>\n

\u201cI am thankful to my teacher for pushing me to be the best pianist I can be, and for my family and friends for always supporting me,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

This was Grace Zhang\u2019s first time to compete at the Tumon Bay Music Festival. She played the piano piece Pathetique.<\/p>\n

\u201cLeaning this piece nearly broke my wrist. I couldn\u2019t believe it when they announced my win,\u201d she said. \u201cI am so thankful to God. \u2026I am also very, very grateful to my teacher. <\/p>\n

Grace Zhang said that without her teacher, she wouldn\u2019t have been able to win. \u201cMrs. Yun brought me to a whole new world of music; she is the best piano teacher anyone can ever have. After this year\u2019s competition, I am inspired to play piano more.\u201d<\/p>\n

This was also her brother\u2019s first time to compete at the Tumon Bay Music Festival. Joseph Zhang plays the violin.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was stunned to hear my win,\u201d Joseph Zhang said.<\/p>\n

He gave thanks to God, Mrs. Yun, his violin teacher, and his parents. \u201cWithout [Mrs. Yun\u2019s help] I wouldn\u2019t have won. She also gave me the motivation to practice my violin more. I also would like to thank my violin teacher, Mrs. Lim, for teaching me. Lastly, I would also like to thank my parents and everyone who supported me.\u201d <\/p>\n

Kim, a senior at Mount Carmel School, is no stranger to the Guam music festival. This was his third time competing at the festival. He got a silver medal in 2016 and 2017, but this year, he won a gold medal, playing Lizst\u2019s Nocturne No. 3 Liebestraum.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy piece, Liebestraum, also called Love Dream, is a serene, melodious piece.\u00a0It was such a joy to perform this piece before a large crowd. All my effort was so meaningful. It was an unforgettable moment when I received applause! Finishing my senior year with a gold medal was wonderful,\u201d Kim said.<\/p>\n

Another gold medalist, Han, goes to school at Agape Christian School, and it has only been five months since she started learning at Yonsei Academy. It was also her first time to compete at the Tumon Bay Music Festival. Her parents live in China and she is currently staying at the school\u2019s dormitory.<\/p>\n

The school\u2019s other students\u2014Sua Kim, Cindy Kim, and Judy Simeng\u2014all received silver medals. It was Sua Kim\u2019s and Simeng\u2019s first competition but they say it was fun and a very good experience. <\/p>\n

Although Cindy Kim is just 15 years old, she first competed at the Tumon Bay Music Festival when she was just 11 years old. She says it was still just as nerve-wracking as the first time, but it was very memorable and she learned many new things. <\/p>\n

Ji Hye Yun, a director of Yonsei Academy, said that, for many of the students, this was their first time to compete at the festival \u201cbut they practiced very well and could enjoy their time while we were there. It was a very memorable experience for both me and the students, but the scores that the judges gave us made it even more memorable. I am very proud of each and every one of my students.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kate Ishida, a music student of the Yonsei Academy on Saipan, received a perfect score…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":271611,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[900],"tags":[10147,20382,16004,4211],"class_list":["post-271610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","tag-grace-zhang","tag-ji-hye-yun","tag-joseph-zhang","tag-yonsei-academy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=271610"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271610\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/271611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=271610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=271610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=271610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}