The Rotary Club of San Marino held its annual Dan Stover Music Competition last week at a recent meeting at San Marino Community Church, with all five contestants being acknowledged as winners by the judges.
Nicole Lam of the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts (LACHSA) won the $150 first prize with her piano performance. Nicole also won half of a special “audience choice” jackpot of $438 that was voluntarily funded by those in attendance with the other half of that prize being presented to Lily Zhu of Southwestern Academy. The other contestants received $100 apiece from musical competition chair Georg Eittinger for their fine performances.
Judges for the afternoon were Julia Grier, Ashley Walters and Richard Naill.
Two of the contestants, violinists Cayla Mendoza and Mara Hermogeno, performed at the 2020 Grammy Awards as members of the LACHSA symphony orchestra.
Lam advances to the regional level of the competition, which will be held in April.
“Dan Stover would be proud of all of our musicians, judges and Rotarians for endeavoring to enrich our lives with music,” said Eittinger. “We are all hopeful that Nicole will be successful in the quest to compete and win the district prize. In past years, the district has awarded up to $5,000. Let’s see how far Nicole Lam can make it.”
Stover was an educator from Alhambra and member of its Rotary Club, who passed away in 1987. The competition was begun the next year in his honor.
Everyone’s a Winner at Rotary Music Contest
