Northern Lights Music Festival is proud to celebrate outstanding achievements by members of our artistic community at the recent MTNA Competition National Finals.

First Place in the Young Artists Division Piano

Vitalii Khairutdinov was awarded First Place in the Young Artists Category, one of the top distinctions in the competition.

His performance demonstrated the highest level of technical command and musical artistry, placing him among the leading young pianists in the country.

Second Place in Senior Duet Piano

Northern Lights alumni Samuel Cronk and Conan Yang earned Second Place in the Senior Duet Division with a dynamic and demanding program.

Their performance included Lutosławski’s Variations on a Theme by Paganini (in a piano duet arrangement by NLMF alum  Alexander Timofeev), alongside works by Mozart and Ravel.

Samuel Cronk and Conan Yang are both past winners of the Northern Lights Music Festival’s annual concerto competition, where they each appeared as soloists with the Festival Orchestra.

All three artists—Vitalii Khairutdinov, Samuel Cronk, and Conana Yang—are students of Northern Lights Music Festival Founding  Artistic Director Veda Zuponcic. Their success at the MTNA National Finals reflects not only their individual talent and dedication, but also the strong mentorship and artistic guidance that are central to the Northern Lights experience.