Academy violin student, Jiening Zhang, won the third place in the Aspiring Violin category of the Washington Performing Arts 49th Annual Joseph and Goldie Feder Memorial String Competition. The competition is open to string students grades K-12 in Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia. Students compete in the preliminary round and live final round in one of four categories based on performer’s instrument types and playing level: beginner, aspiring, intermediate, and advanced. This year, the video preliminary round was considered as the final round as part of WPAS’s social distancing procedures. As the third-place winner, Jiening received $50 cash awards. Jiening is a student of Claire Allen.
“I’m very proud of Jiening’s accomplishments,” said Teaching Artist Claire Allen, Jiening’s private music instructor. “Her love for music and dedication to developing her craft has been evident since she started violin at the age of four, and she continues to work hard, explore different parts of her musicianship, and courageously tackle new performance challenges. It’s a joy to be her teacher!”
Jiening joined the Academy in 2013, where she was in the first ever Violin Beginnings class, and since then she studied pricate lessons with Ms. Allen, in violin group classes, private music lessons, Chamber Music Ensembles, and Violin Summer Bootcamps. She has performed in Academy’s music recitals, Spotlight on the Arts showcase recitals, in Harris Theater, the Academy Music Competition honors recitals, and last year, Carnegie Hall as a winner in the American Protégé Competition.