Nancy F. Walker Scholarship
2025 WINNERS
Matinée Musicale Cincinnati Awards $54,000 in Scholarships!
A group of talented high school and collegiate musicians walked away with thousands of dollars in scholarship money after impressing judges during the eighth annual Nancy F. Walker Memorial Scholarship Auditions. Sponsored by Matinée Musicale Cincinnati, the awards program awarded a total $54,500 in scholarships to classical instrumental and vocal students.
The event, held March 1, 2025, at Greenhills Community Church in Parkdale, was open to area high school and college juniors and seniors, drawing 44 applicants from local colleges and public, private and home schools. Students performed before a panel of distinguished judges, who provided feedback to participants and also determined the winners. Cincinnati Fusion Ensemble’s Music Institute hosted the event.
The winners in the college categories took home $10,000 prizes, while the high school champions each won $4,000. Second-place ($4,000 and $2,000), third-place ($3,000 and $1,000) finishers won scholarships as well as did Encouragement Award recipients ($500). To date, the program has awarded more than $300,000.
The scholarship honors Nancy Fuldner Walker, a musician, teacher and arts advocate who led Matinée Musicale Cincinnati for over four decades until her death in 2017. The organization established the scholarship to continue Walker’s legacy of supporting young musicians.
The complete list of winners is below:
High School Instrumental Winners
1st: Keliang Yao, piano (Teacher: Logan Skelton)
2nd: Vivian Chang, violin (Teacher: Hong Cheng)
3rd: Grace Kim, flute (Teacher: Randolph Bowman)
Encouragement Award: Sarah Hu, piano (Teacher: Richard VanDyke)
Encouragement Award: Kaede Suzuki, piano (Teacher: Jackson Leung)
High School Vocal Winners
1st: Genevieve Howard, soprano (Teacher: Talia Zoll)
2nd: Blake Sisney, tenor (Teacher: Karl Resnik)
3rd: Adelaide Linser, soprano (Teacher: Karl Resnik)
Encouragement Award - Ezren Derkson-Malone, bass-baritone (Teacher: Catherine Keen)
Encouragement Award - Christopher Velasco, baritone (Teacher: Brad Caldwell)
Encouragement Award - Catherine Mazzella, soprano (Teacher: Melanie Woodruff)
Encouragement Award - Aadharshini Sriram, soprano (Teacher: Talia Zoll)
Encouragement Award - William Wittekind, bass-baritone (Teacher: Karl Resnik)
College Instrumental Division
1st: Ava Shedd, violin (Teacher: Won-Bin Yim)
2nd: Chang Lu, piano (Teacher: Sara Daneshpour)
3rd: Aidan Bolding, cello (Teacher: Alan Rafferty)
College Vocal Division
1st: Alex Herron, tenor (Teacher: Elliot Madore)
2nd: Leah Yackanech, soprano (Teacher: Elliot Madore)
3rd: Samantha Pape, mezzo-soprano (Teacher: Gwendolyn Coleman)
Encouragement Award – Meg Booker, soprano (Teacher: Dr. Kimberly Lazzeri)
Encouragement Award – Lucas Maceroni, baritone (Teacher: Dr. Quinn Patrick Ankrum)
Click below to see our past winners!
Nancy Fuldner Walker, memorialized by these scholarships, was a musician, music teacher and strong advocate for all music and arts organizations. She provided able leadership to Matinée Musicale for more than four decades before her death in October 2017. Matinée Musicale Cincinnati honors her legacy of support and encouragement of young musicians through these scholarships.
*ELIGIBILITY
Students who reside or attend school in Butler, Clermont, Hamilton, and Warren counties in Ohio; Boone, Campbell, and Kenton counties in Kentucky; and Dearborn County in Indiana are eligible to receive scholarships.
QUESTIONS?
Please contact Kathy Adams at matineemusicalescholarships@gmail.com.
