Shenandoah Conservatory announces the winners of this year’s Student Soloists Competition (SSC) on behalf of the SSC committee. The final round of the competition was held at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday, March 1, in Armstrong Concert Hall.

Winners of this year’s competition will be featured in performances with the Shenandoah Conservatory Symphony Orchestra throughout the Conservatory Performs 2026/27 season.

Participants performed in preliminary and semifinal rounds judged by the SSC Committee, which featured Shenandoah Conservatory faculty representatives from the Instrumental, Keyboard and Vocal/Choral Divisions, as well as Director of Orchestral Studies and Associate Professor of Conducting Emanuele Andrizzi, D.M.A., who also serves as SCC Committee chair. The final round was adjudicated by an all-external jury.

Pictured left to right: Emanuele Andrizzi, Simeone Tartaglione, Jim Kelly, Morna Chenchen Hu, Fotina Naumenko, Colin Davin, Andrew Wood, Wentao Luan, Coleman Wright, Nancy Gustafson, John O’Conor, Grace Ashby, Lizhuo Sun

Guest Final Jury

Winners

Soprano Morna Chenchen Hu ’28 (Doctor of Musical Arts in Performance) studies with Associate Professor of Voice (Soprano) Fotina Naumenko, D.M.A. She received both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Sichuan Conservatory of Music in China. She has performed the role of Musetta in “La Bohème” and Nannetta in “Falstaff.” Hu is passionate about opera and vocal artistry, and she is continually working to deepen both her musical expression and technical refinement through performance and academic study.

Chinese saxophonist Wentao Luan ’28 (Bachelor of Music in Performance) studies with Chair of Instrumental Division, Coordinator for Conservatory in the Community and Professor of Saxophone Timothy Roberts, D.M.A. He previously studied at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee under Philipp Stäudlin from July 2024 to December 2025. Luan began studying the saxophone at the age of seven and commenced formal training at age 12 with Professor Manlong Li of the China Conservatory of Music, receiving systematic classical training and building a solid technical foundation. He has participated in several youth music competitions and received recognition for his performances. His awards include first prize in the 4th Yamaha China Saxophone Solo Competition (Professional Youth Division) in 2021, where he also received the Best Stage Performance Award, as well as First Prize in the China Youth Music Competition – Hummingbird Music Awards (2021).

Pianist Andrew Wood ’28 (Bachelor of Music in Performance, Bachelor of Arts in English) studies with Distinguished Artist-in-Residence, Chair of Keyboard Division and Professor of Piano John O’Conor, Mus.D. Originally from Raleigh, North Carolina, Wood currently teaches at the Community Music School of the Piedmont in Upperville, serves as the pianist and pastoral assistant at Open Door UCC in downtown Winchester, and is a collaborative pianist for Shenandoah’s choral department. Winner of the Virginia Music Teachers Association (VMTA) Concerto Competition, he has appeared with the McLean Symphony, and routinely gives concerts around Virginia and North Carolina.

Saxophonist Coleman Wright ’28 (Doctor of Musical Arts in Performance) studies with Chair of Instrumental Division, Coordinator for Conservatory in the Community and Professor of Saxophone Timothy Roberts, D.M.A., and is a post-master’s teaching assistant. Wright also serves as an adjunct instructor of saxophone at Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, Virginia, as well as the Northern Virginia Community College in Alexandria, Virginia. He has taken part in various consortia for new saxophone repertoire by composers such as Nina Shekhar, Karalyn Schubring and Piet Swerts. Some performance highlights include being a winner of the 2019 South Carolina MTNA chamber music competition, as well as being a concerto soloist with the University of South Carolina Symphony Orchestra.

Honorable Mentions

Soprano Grace Ashby ’26 (Bachelor of Music in Performance) studies with Associate Professor of Voice (Soprano) Fotina Naumenko, D.M.A. Originally from Hebron, Maryland, Ashby has been involved in numerous choral ensembles, including the Conservatory Choir, and had the honor of being the soprano soloist in Amy Beach’s “Canticle of the Sun,” performed with Shenandoah Conservatory’s Symphony Orchestra and Conservatory Choir in April 2024. In October 2024, she had the opportunity to perform Handel’s “Acis and Galatea” in Porto, Portugal and Salamanca, Spain. Ashby will perform as Gretel in Shenandoah Conservatory’s upcoming production of Humperdinck’s “Hansel and Gretel” next month.

Pianist Lizhuo Sun ’28 (Doctor of Musical Arts in Performance) studies with Distinguished Artist-in-Residence, Chair of Keyboard Division and Professor of Piano John O’Conor, Mus.D. Sun completed his master’s studies at the Ural State Mussorgsky Conservatory (Yekaterinburg, Russia) as an honor graduate where he studied with Grigory Reznikov. His performances have taken him across major venues in Russia, China and the United States, including the Sverdlovsk State Philharmonic Hall, Beijing’s Forbidden City Concert Hall, Beijing’s National Library Concert Hall, Liaoning Grand Theatre, Shenyang Shengjing Grand Theater, and Armstrong Concert Hall in the United States. He is active in recital, concerto performances as a soloist, and collaborative performance projects. He will appear as an invited artist in an upcoming performance of the Washington Young Artists concert season. His honors include first prize, 7th International Young Pianist Competition (2021); second prize, Moscow International Music Competition (2023); first prize, Ural International Piano Duet Competition (2024); and first prize, 3rd Melbourne International Youth Music Competition (2017).

Explore the digital program to learn more about this year’s final round of the Student Soloists Competition. The Conservatory Performs 2026/27 season will be announced in July.