STATE OF THE ART

The Orange County Register announced the nominees for the 9th Annual Artist of the Year Awards. This program highlights talented students across the county for their accomplishments in the arts. Each of these students has proven their abilities in their areas of expertise.

Computer-Assisted Visual Arts:

Computer Drawing and Painting
Sofia De Luna (DM, ‘22)
Juliana Jarvis (DM, ‘22)
Elise Maniquis-Dormitorio (DM, ‘22)
Hannah Miller (DM, ‘22)
Megan Mo (DM, ‘22)

Graphic Design and Digital Illustration
Josh Nguyen (FTV, ‘22)

Photography (Film and Digital)
Soren Almeida (FTV, ‘22)

Dance:

Commercial Dance
Danielle Silver (CMD, ‘22)
Reagan Vallejo (IA, ‘22)

Concert Dance
Emmy Cheung (CMD, ‘22)
Nicole Frias Lugo (BCD, ‘22)
Alisa Nguyen (BCD, ‘23)
Amelie Jolie Vidrio (BCD, ‘22)

World/Cultural Dance
Hannah Ayala (BR, ‘23)
Mia Amaris Lopez (BF, ‘23)
Joshua Qin (BD, ‘23)
Hana Uehara (BR, ‘23)

The Orange County Register announced the nominees for the 9th Annual Artist of the Year Awards. This program highlights talented students across the county for their accomplishments in the arts. Each of these students has proven their abilities in their areas of expertise.

Film and Animation:

Animation and Visual Effects
Romeo Martin (DM, ‘22)

Cinematography
Justin Shin (FTV, ‘22)

Directing and Editing
Maggie Ding (FTV, ‘22)
Youning Jiang (FTV, ‘22)
Anirudh Vadhri Kota (FTV, ‘22)
Alexis Ai Macdonald (FTV, ‘22)
Nona Nishigawara (FTV, ‘22)
Michael McDonald (IA, ‘22)

Handcrafted Visual Arts:

Hand Drawing and Painting
Grace Jo (VA, ‘22)
Alison Amber Lee (VA, ‘23)
London San Luis (DM, ‘23)
Xiaowei (Sophia) Wang (VA, ‘22)

Mixed Media
Joyce Yuruo Hong (VA, ‘22)
Hannah Kang (VA, ‘22)

Instrumental Music:

Piano and Strings
Xingyao Li (IM, ‘22)
Sarah Parigela (IM, ‘23)
Sein Yun (IM, ‘22)
Hannah Zhao (IM, ‘22)

Melody Chang (IM, ‘22) was named a 2022 Coca-Cola Scholar in recognition of her superior leadership, service, and academics, as well as her efforts to positively affect others in her community. Out of the 251 regional finalists across the country, she was one of 150 selected to receive a $20,000 college scholarship and join a network of more than 6,600 Coca-Cola Scholar alumni that encourage, challenge, and support each other in their common goal of making the world a better place.

The following students were selected as 2022 Dragon Kim Fellows and earned $5,000 community service grants from the Dragon Kim Foundation. These students were chosen from over 300 applicants across California and Nevada and went through a rigorous interview process to earn the fellowships. Along with the project funding, these five students will receive three weekends of leadership training and hands-on mentorship from local business professionals.
Teachers Aid+: Camila Balanta (CAH, ‘25) and Sara Balanta (IA, ‘22)
Coding Campers: Tane Kim (IM, ‘24), Abbi Park (CW, ‘24), and Joshua Ta (IM, ‘24)

The Orange County Register announced the nominees for the 9th Annual Artist of the Year Awards. This program highlights talented students across the county for their accomplishments in the arts. Each of these students has proven their abilities in their areas of expertise.

Theater:

Acting
Scott Becker (ACT, ‘22)
Carlos Jimenez (ACT, ‘22)
Sophia Madrigal (ACT, ‘22)
Lauren Mei (ACT, ‘23)

Musical Theater Performance
Kenneth Takeshita (MT, ‘22)
Brooklyn Vizcarra (MT, ‘22)

Vocal Music:

Classical Voice
Mia Paris Baron (CV, ‘23)
Alexander Jeon (CV, ‘23)
Evan Richards (CV, ‘22)

Commercial Voice
Ava Ulloa (PM, ‘22)

The following faculty members received 2022 Artist Teacher Fellowship Award grants in the amount of $2,500 each. These individuals were selected based on the strength and potential of their proposals, their commitment to achieving their artistic and scholastic endeavors, as well as their passion for bringing new ideas, practices, energy, and creativity into their classrooms. To read more about each project, please visit: https://conta.cc/3HHnKlb

Mike Bradecich, Creative Writing & Integrated Arts Conservatory Instructor
Stephanie Dorian, El-Erian Family Acting Conservatory Assistant Director
Ryan Reithmeier, D.M.A., Classical Voice Conservatory Director
Dawn Nguyen Spranger, Creative Writing & Integrated Arts Conservatory Instructor

The following students from the Ballroom Dance Conservatory participated in the 2022 California Open DanceSport competition. Many of these students are members of the OCSA Ballroom Latin and Smooth Formation Teams, which also competed and notably received second place as well as many other awards.

Presley Alvarez (BR, ‘27)
Gavin Alvarez-Coyne (BR, ‘23)
Jacqueline Artinian (BR, ‘22)
Celeste Arvizu (BR, ‘25)
Hannah Ayala (BR, ‘23)
Elizabeth Bancroft (BR, ‘26)
Mario Berestetsky (BR, ‘24)
James Brown (BR, ‘27)
Jude Camaya (BR, ‘23)
Constantin Chekardzhikov (BR, ‘24)
Nathan Chen (BR, ‘26)
Daniel Cho (BR, ‘22)
Gabriel Cho (BR, ‘24)
Rafael Cabanas (BR, ‘27)
Paolo De Lancellotti (BR, ‘23)
Princeton Fletcher (BR, ‘25)
Arely Gutierrez (BR, ‘25)
Presley Herthel (BR, ‘26)
Jack Hillebrecht (BR, ‘26)
Dean Jackson (BR, ‘27)
Grace Kim (BR, ‘22)
Jared Lee (BR, ‘24)
Diego Linn (BR, ‘25)
Natalia Linn (BR, ‘22)
Sophie Ma (BR, ‘23)
Liam Majerus (BR, ‘27)
Eva Mazzara (BR, ‘23)
Lucas McCollum-Van Hoosear (BR, ‘22)

The following students from the Ballroom Dance Conservatory participated in the 2022 California Open DanceSport competition. Many of these students are members of the OCSA Ballroom Latin and Smooth Formation Teams, which also competed and notably received second place as well as many other awards.

Samantha Okada-Lam (BR, ‘26)
Nikolai Olive (BR, ‘27)
Nischal Patel (BR, ‘25)
Xavier Petry (BR, ‘27)
Aurelia Philmore (BR, ‘24)
Marina Pitt (BR, ‘26)
Joshua Qin (BR, ‘23)
Chloe Savage (BR, ‘24)
Emmeline Savage (BR, ‘22)
Salim Scheper-Herard (BR, ‘27)
Jessica Shen (BR, ‘27)
Ambria Shields (BR, ‘26)
Jessica Sigala (BR, ‘27)
Brody Silva (BR, ‘25)
Sean Sulit (BR, ‘24)
Jeffrey Tadeo (BR, ‘22)
Heather Torres-Cancino (BR, ‘26)
Kaylee Tran (BR, ‘27)
Jericho Tran-Faypon (BR, ‘22)
Hana Uehara (BR, ‘23)
Celeste Valadez (BR, ‘24)
Breizhlander Vidal (BR, ‘26)
Angela Wang (BR, ‘27)
Alex Williams (BR, ‘26)
Emmanuelle Weisbach (BR, ‘22)
Melissa Yan (BR, ‘23)
Selina You (BR, ‘27)
Mateo Zarate (BR, ‘22)
Cynthia Zhang (BR, ‘27)

As the founder of SLSmileWorld, Samantha Liu (IM, ‘23) sold secondhand clothing and donated the profits to the Tzu Chi International Humanitarian Organization in support of COVID-19 recuperation efforts. She was awarded with a plaque and was invited to speak at the Tzu Chi Pandemic Sharing Ceremony and the Lunar New Year Blessing Ceremony. Her speeches were shared amongst the community during their public board meetings, lectures, and newsletters.

Hannah Solow (MT, ‘08) made her debut as Gertie Cummings in the national tour of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s “OKLAHOMA!” To read more about her journey to the national tour stage, please visit: https://bit.ly/3NBZ4Pp

Emma Ward (IM, ‘22) won first place in the San Diego Concerto Competition in the Winds division. She was selected to be a featured soloist in two concerts with the Mira Costa Symphony Orchestra playing “Concerto for Piccolo” and “Orchestra, Op. 50” by Lowell Liebermann.

Camryn Mi-Young Kim (MT, ‘17) was cast as one of the whistleblowers, Erika Cheung, in the Hulu original series, “The Dropout,” which also features Amanda Seyfried as Elizabeth Holmes.

Michael Repper (IM, ‘08) recorded an album with the New York Youth Symphony, which had a single released by AVIE Records. The single is an excerpt from the adagio section of Florence Price's “Piano Concerto in One Movement.”

The OCSA High School Science Olympiad Team competed in the BirdSO Invitational competition against 236 teams across the nation.

The team earned the following awards:
Fourth Place
Gravity Vehicle: Sameer Bajaj (ACT, ‘24) and Joshua Qin (BR, ‘23)

Sixth Place
Detector Building: Vivian Chen (IM, ‘23) and Nathan Tatsuta (IM, ‘24)
Eighth Place
Machine Learning: Grant Li (CW, ‘23) and Em Wei-Ten (PM, ‘23)
Ninth Place
Ornithology: Sylvia Cheeseman (DM, ‘22) and Vivian Chen (IM, ‘23)

The OCSA VEX Robotics Team won their last three matches and finished 23rd at the 2022 Southern California VRC High School State Championship. They competed in the Southern California region which has hundreds of teams and is said to be the toughest in the country. The following students are members of the team and competed in the championship:

Sumin Cho (IM, ‘24)
Vivienne Ho (IA, ‘22)
Justin Hong (IM, ‘24)
Chelsea Lee (VA, ‘23)
Kara Syn (IM, ‘23)
Jeffrey Tadeo (IA, ‘21)
Ryan Yoo (CAH, ‘24)

Summer Brennan (PM, ‘25) released a music video for her original song, “Boy.” To view the music video, please visit: https://bit.ly/3DwrhCv

Shayna Kaplan (IM, ‘23), Sarah Parigela (IM, ‘23), and Nathan Tatsuta (IM, ‘24) competed as members of the Chemistry Olympiad Team at the 2022 ACS Orange County Chemistry Olympiad at Irvine Valley College and earned sixth place out of all teams in Orange County.

Vanessa Prado (CMD, ‘06) was featured on Kimpton La Peer Hotel’s Instagram account for International Women’s Day, highlighting her work as Director of Sales & Marketing for the company. To view the post, please visit: https://bit.ly/3DpY1NT

The following students competed in the ProStart Cup Culinary Competition among the top 16 teams from Southern California and received the following awards. The Management Team was also invited to the National ProStart Invitational in Washington, D.C. The following Culinary Arts & Hospitality students were additionally featured on Spectrum News 1 for their participation in the ProStart competition. To check out the full story, please visit: https://bit.ly/3uJ85O7

First Place:

Wienerschnitzel's Dress Your Dog Competition
Mason Vair (CAH, ‘23)

Management Competition
Evelyn Wu (CAH, ‘23), Captain
Lanna Gale (CAH, ‘23)
Sam Laven (CAH, ‘23)
Willie Yao (CAH, ‘24)

Fourth Place:

Culinary Competition
Madison (Star) Lu (CAH, ‘22), Captain
Aurelia Carrie (CAH, ‘23)
Max Gilbert (CAH, ‘22)
Ryan Okajima (CAH, ‘23)
Trinity Wiideman (CAH, ‘24)

Reese Hewitt (MT, ‘25) and Allie Patow (MT, ‘26) were cast and performed in the musical “Fun Home” at the Chance Theater, which was nominated for multiple 2021 Orange County Theatre Guild Awards, including Outstanding Production of a Musical. To read more about the other awards for which they were nominated, please visit: https://bit.ly/3IYkkLw

The following students were cast in “Clue! The Murder Mystery Dinner Experience.” This production, based on the movie and board game, sold out within 72 hours of ticket announcement.

Mia Baron (CV, ‘23) as Mrs. Peacock
Katie Cruz (MT, ‘23) as Mrs. White
Ashlye Gambill (MT, ‘23) as Ms. Scarlett
Caleb Malis (IA, ‘23) as Mr. Green
Nathen McLaurin (MT, ‘23) as Professor Plum
Luke Witting (IA, ‘23) as Colonel Mustard

Caitlyn Mason’s (CW, ‘23) original script, “The Last Words of a Shooting Star,” was ranked as a finalist in the 2021 California Young Playwrights' Contest. Her other original play, “Dear Edith,” was ranked as a semi-finalist.

Nathan Tatsuta (IM, ‘24) was selected to participate in one of two editions of the 2022 NEA/Herbie Hancock Institute’s National All-Star Peer-to-Peer Jazz Quintet, one of the most educative and prestigious programs in jazz education. This program includes an all-expenses-paid weeklong performance tour with internationally renowned jazz recording artist Sean Jones in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

The following students participated in the newly commissioned show from composer and librettist Carla Lucero, “The Three Women of Jerusalem (Las tres mujeres de Jerusalén),” with the Los Angeles Opera.

Lilliana Mindel (CV, ‘24), Youth Principal
Sebastian Nunez (CV, ‘24), Community Ensemble
Evan Richards (CV, ‘22), Youth Principal

The BingYi Saxophone Quartet has been chosen to advance to the Junior Wind Division Quarterfinals of the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, the largest and longest running chamber music competition in the nation, held in South Bend, Indiana. The following students are members of this ensemble.

Aidan Luu (IM, ‘23)
Ryan Nicolov (IM, ‘22)
Luke Toner (IM, ‘24)
Darren Qiu (IM, ‘24)

The Culinary Arts & Hospitality Conservatory was featured in an article by the Orange County Register regarding their recent Culinary Throwdown competition and benefit. To read the full article, please visit: https://bit.ly/3ISJGul

Alyssa Kardos (ACT, ‘17) has continued her work in Phnom Penh, Cambodia as an English Teaching Assistant through the U.S. Department of State's prestigious Fulbright Scholarship Program. She is using acting exercises at her public school to support English learning and engage in cultural exchange. Alyssa also started a community project titled "Re-Made in Cambodia" which promotes the work of young Cambodian fashion designers, musicians, dancers, and poets.

Lola Suleiman (CW, ‘23) released a book titled “Predestined,” which is now available on Amazon as part of The Predestined Trilogy.

The following members of the OC Biology Club participated in the USA Biology Olympiad Exam. Audrey Zhang (IM, ‘24) was also selected to advance to the semi-finals, which will take place in March.

Jessica Hong (CW, ‘24)
Tane Kim (IM, ‘24)
Grant Li (CW, ‘23)
Jiin Yun (CW, ‘24)
Audrey Zhang (IM, ‘24)

A photo of Hannah Franklin (ACT, ‘19) was selected to be displayed in the lobby of the Ahmanson Theater at The Music Center in Los Angeles. The photo is from Hannah’s winning performance in the 2018 National August Wilson Monologue Competition.

Marlene Hall, Elective Dance Instructor, received an official government patent for her new and original exercise method that uses a rotator disc to help improve dancers’ turns, strength, and stability.

Amber Khauv (CW, ‘23) won third prize in the 2022 C-SPAN StudentCam documentary competition. To watch the full documentary, please visit: https://bit.ly/3iRmemD