Taft students Steven Zhang ’26 and Andrew Kim ’28 recently performed at New York City’s Carnegie Hall. The opportunity to take the stage at the storied venue was an honor earned through their prize-winning performances in The American Protégé International Music Competition.

Andrew earned first-place honors in the Intermediate category (ages 15-18) of the Piano and Strings competition. He performed the third movement of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata (Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-Sharp minor). Steven took third place honors in the International Concerto Competition. He performed the first movement of Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 3 in G Major, accompanied by pianist and Taft Adjunct Music Teacher Ray Pierpont.

At Taft, Steven studies violin with Adjunct Music Teacher Lisa Laquidara. His arts resume includes performances at Taft and across the globe with the Chamber Ensemble and Collegium Musicum; has been selected to perform with several state and regional orchestras through a competitive audition process. Steven is also a talented actor and celebrated member of the Taft theater community.

Andrew, who has been studying piano for eight years, also earned invitations to perform on the stages at Vienna’s Musikverein in Vienna, and The Berlin Philharmonie in Berlin. ⁠He recently competed in Andrew earned second place honors in both the Charleston Music Competition and Grand Prize Virtuoso Competitions. At Taft, he performs with the Chamber Ensemble and trains under the tutelage of Instrumental Music Teacher T.J. Thompson and Adjunct Music Teacher Ray Pierpont.

For more than fifteen years, American Protégé has celebrated the talents of young musicians from across the globe. This year, the very competitive applicant pool attracted a record number of artists and, at 76, from a record number of countries. For young artists, the American Protégé competitions, they note, “offer an unprecedented opportunity to escalate the scope of their talents to new heights.”