Arcadia High School (AHS) is excited to announce three award winners for the 2024 YoungArts National Arts Competition: senior Chloe Wong (writing), sophomore Jiayi Xu (classical music), and senior Lillian Feng (classical music). Competing against more than 9000 other applicants, these brilliant artists proved their abilities in their chosen disciplines through this challenging competition.

The YoungArts National Arts Competition is an annual event that attracts thousands of skilled artists from grades 10-12 across 10 disciplines: classical music, dance, design, film, jazz, photography, theater, visual arts, voice, and writing. The awards are divided into two categories: the YoungArts Award and the YoungArts Award With Distinction. Those who received the latter award are also invited to participate and present their work during National YoungArts Week, a week-long series of classes and workshops presented by acclaimed artists, in Miami from Jan. 8-12.

For Wong, who received the YoungArts Award With Distinction for her poetry, her experience participating in the National YoungArts Week in Miami has been unforgettable. There were “workshops every day, so we got up at 7:30 a.m.,” she recalled. “Then we [had] classes on specific genres, like creative non-fiction or poetry, until about six o’clock. Finally, we [went to] see performances from all other disciplines, like classical music and theater.”

Watching the performances of other disciplines was Wong’s favorite part of the event. “It [was] really incredible because it was like watching prodigies perform night after night,” she said.

Wong’s poetry focused on a variety of themes, ranging from critiques about the pressure placed on authors to focus on their ethnicity and related traumas to space exploration with the Soviet space dog Laika. To prepare her portfolio of five poems, she “worked a lot during the summer,” sometimes even spending up to several 15-hour days writing.

The diversity of themes in Wong’s poetry was important to her both as a poet and as a competitor. As she stated, your portfolio gives “you five chances to say something, so you want to be saying something new every time instead of just rehashing [the same theme] again and again. [Rehashing] is hard to do as a writer because then what do you write about if you’re just choosing to say the same thing?”

Wong had also performed her poetry on stage to 20 other writers and felt confident in her delivery. Due to a great deal of practice beforehand, she felt that “by the time to perform, it’s all pretty ready, and I was happy at the time so I wasn’t that nervous.”

Summarizing her experience during the National YoungArts Week, Wong initially believed the event “would [be] nerve-wracking. But honestly, I didn’t feel too bad about any of it. The whole event is very orchestrated. It’s all planned out, and there’re no surprises at all.”

While she cannot re-enter the YoungArts competition to compete again, Wong believes that she would like to participate in a similar program in the future. “I [also] want to go into writing in college, so I can be around a community of writers for a little bit longer,” she explained.

For Xu, the YoungArts Award for her classical music submissions came as a total surprise. She vividly remembers how “I didn’t see my name at first sight [on the award-winner list]. I only realized I had won when my friend told me.”

Xu recounted how she learned to play the flute by starting with private lessons at a music conservatory. Her flute teacher commented that she was very talented, so she attended a flute summer camp program for two years and was fascinated by the experiences there. 

“I saw a lot of professional flutists and I [swore] that one day I would be like them,” she stated.

Beyond the YoungArts National Arts Competition, Xu is also participating in a variety of other competitions and classical music opportunities. She is currently a semi-finalist in the Los Angeles Music Center’s Spotlight program, which provides Southern California high school students with both scholarship opportunities and mastery classes taught by world-renowned artists.

One big goal for Xu this year is to join the National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America (NYO-USA). In the previous year, Xu had participated in a similar program called the National Youth Orchestra 2 (NYO2), and for her, “that experience was life-changing,” she remarked. “This year I wish to go to NYO-USA since they have opportunities such as touring around South America.”

Participating in programs such as those provided by YoungArts or the NYO2 has given Xu a great deal of valuable experience and honor, but her successes didn’t come easily. 

“Last year, I submitted to Music Center Spotlight, YoungArts, and other programs as well…none of these submissions made it into the second stage, which was pretty upsetting for me,” Xu reflected. “But this year, I succeeded in almost all of these competitions.”

Summing up her optimism succinctly, Xu wishes to pass on to future artists her belief that a “one-time failure or not getting what you want doesn’t mean you can’t get it next time. Just keep trying, and you will get what you want.”

For Feng, the competition only reaffirmed her passion for classical music and piano. 

The award was “quite an honor, and…definitely wasn’t expected,” she admitted, noting that she had also entered the previous year without success. “But it’s great and humbling to be recognized for my art.”

Having started piano lessons at the age of four, music has been an integral part of Feng’s life since long before entering the YoungArts National Arts Competition. She currently studies music “two to three times a week” at the Colburn School, a prestigious pre-college music program. 

“It is quite intense, but I learned a lot,” Feng noted in regards to her experience with Colburn. “I have also played the violin as a secondary instrument since I was five, and…was in the orchestra as a section leader [at AHS] for a couple of years.” Outside of playing instruments, her passion for music extends to arranging compositions and singing in the Colburn choir.

In addition to studying at the Colburn School, Feng has been a recipient of the Chopin Foundation of the United States Scholarship since 2021. This scholarship allowed her to attend the Frost Chopin Academy in Miami, where she further studied with laureates of the International Chopin Piano Competition.

To prepare her video submissions for YoungArts, Feng commented, “Every day, I would practice for four to five hours and record two to three takes…I have been working on these pieces for almost a year as part of my program for college music auditions, and so YoungArts couldn’t have come around at a better time.”

The prestige that comes with her award has only encouraged her to reach for new heights in pursuing her passion. In her eyes, it is a reminder to “keep practicing and keep working harder, because this is only the first step in the never-ending journey to learn and improve in music.” Feng has also received a scholarship and discovered a welcoming community of artists similar to her through this opportunity.

With her newfound resources, Feng intends to continue her musical career into college and beyond, stating that she is “auditioning for music conservatories and [planning on] pursuing a Bachelor of Music degree in piano studies.”

In addition to these endeavors, Feng has also created a Youtube channel to further share her love for music with the world, feeling that the joy of connecting with others through these experiences drives her artistry as much as the music itself. As she recalled, “Many times after performances, the people in the audience would come up to me, and they would tell me how they felt after my performance and how moved they were. I can’t imagine a happier feeling…As musicians, we must pass on this knowledge over and over.” 

Congratulations again to all three winners of the 2024 YoungArts National Arts Competition! Your experiences are invaluable as inspiration for other aspiring artists here at AHS, and AHS wishes you the best of luck in all your future creative endeavors.