CYNTHIA C. has been a pupil of May Lim at Jean Lyons School of Music since the age of 5. She loves playing the piano. Throughout the past 6 years, she has enjoyed many enrichment opportunities that the school offers, such as the Piano Play Class, Studio Club, Ensemble Class, the monthly Studio Recitals, Summer Music Camps, community-sponsored recitals, the annual Scholarship Recitals, the Gala Concerts and other special-occasion performances. She has participated in Master Classes with Dr. Tomislav Baynov, Dr. Adam Gyorgy, and Christopher Norton. She has also had the privilege of working with most of the faculty members at the school.
Cynthia has competed regularly in the Vancouver Kiwanis Music Festival, the second-largest music festival in Canada. This year she was selected as one of only two pianists to perform at the Evening Gala Concert along with seven senior students of other instruments. The Gala was itself a competition and it came as a complete surprise when the judges awarded Cynthia the Tom Lee Excellent Award 2nd Place with $300!
Cynthia is a Grade 6 straight-A student at the South Burnaby Glenwood Elementary School, where she is actively involved in a number of teams and programs, including the World Finals in the Odyssey of the Mind competition for creative thinkers. She was the Regional junior winner of the Sea to Sky Heritage Fair competition for a poster presentation on the Japanese-Canadian World War II internment camp. Cynthia will represent her school at the upcoming Burnaby District Creative Challenge program on the topic of Human Rights. She also enjoys playing the clarinet in her school band.
Cynthia knows what it means to work hard, persevere, and make sacrifices. Most importantly, she genuinely appreciates all the people who support, nurture and give her so much encouragement. Cynthia is thankful and proud to be a student of Jean Lyons School of Music. We wish her all the best as she prepares for her Grade 10 RCM exam next year, as well as her West London College of Music diploma exam.
Congratulations, Cynthia!
LÉAL M., pupil of Angela Barbour, had an exciting and busy year. In November he placed first in the Richmond Music Festival and was awarded the Gloria Cristobal Scholarship for his mark of 94%. In December, he received a mark of 96% in his RCM History exam. He performed in numerous studio recitals throughout the year. In June, Léal presented a graduate recital for family and friends shortly before his ARCT exam, for which he received a mark of 91%. During this time, he received word that he had been awarded a 4-year music scholarship from Westmont College in Santa Barbara, California. In addition, he won the prestigious Monroe Scholarship Competition from Westmont College, a full tuition merit-based academic and character scholarship, worth the equivalent of over $200,000 Canadian dollars.
Over the past year, Léal worked in the lab at the Centre for Molecular Medicine and Therapeutics at Children’s Hospital to complete a personal directed study on Huntington’s Disease. His submitted scientific paper is currently under review for publication early next year. Last fall, he developed and taught an ESL English movie module class for native Mandarin and Cantonese students. A home-school student throughout his academic education, Léal graduated from grade 12 in May of 2015. In July, he sailed as a crew trainee aboard the tall ship The Pacific Grace up and down the central coast of BC and Alaska. Throughout the year, he continued his training for triathlons and road races.
Currently, Léal is studying physics and theology at Westmont College, and is carrying on with his music studies, now under the tutelage of Dr. Steven Hodson.
Congratulations, Léal!
MARKUS M., a student of Jean Brown, has a passion for music and loves to perform for people. This year he demonstrated this passion once again, by performing over 25 times. These performances included many recitals for groups such as Jean Lyons School, and honour recitals for festivals. Markus also played for over eight hours at the Coquitlam Centre Mall at Christmas, and he was hired to perform for one of District Main’s large organizational functions.
In the spring, Markus competed in three Kiwanis Music Festival classes, all earning First Place awards with Distinction. Through the Kiwanis Music Festival, Markus was awarded the Jean Lyons Memorial Scholarship for showing outstanding talent in two or more Senior Piano classes. As well, Kiwanis awarded him the Chopin Medal for his outstanding performance of the Chopin Nocturne in C minor.
Markus also participated in the Coquitlam Festival where he was chosen to be their representative in the B.C. Provincial Festival of the Arts, held in Powell River in May. There he competed with delegates from all over British Columbia and placed First in his age division of 13 to 17-year-olds.
In July, Markus was accepted to the prestigious Morningside Music Bridge summer program at Mount Royal University in Calgary. There he was taught by several renowned professors of music, such as David Moroz and John Perry. It was hard and exciting work which offered many more opportunities for him to perform. Professor Moroz was so impressed with Markus that he invited Markus to attend the Valhalla Summer Music program in August, in the beautiful BC Rocky Mountains area of Revelstoke.
Markus is currently preparing for his ARCT exam in the coming year.
Congratulations Markus!