API Alumni News
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August 2025 Edition
In this edition:
Spotlight: Class of 2025 | Kevin Tang | Musical Siblings
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Spotlight: Class of 2025
LILY POTTER has been an active participant in the Arizona Piano Institute, attending in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2023, and 2025. She has studied piano with Olga Gorelik for 14 years. She completed all levels of the Arizona Study Program from 2012 to 2024, earning Superior with Honors each year, and received the 2025 PMTA Senior Award. She actively performed piano at local senior living communities and churches and has competed in numerous piano competitions throughout her journey.
Notable achievements during her high school years include:
Thomas Karl Green Memorial Award (Senior Division) - Angelo and Micheline Addona Arizona Young Artists Piano Competition (2025)
Honorable Mention (Senior Division) - Desert Hills Piano Competition (2024)
High Commendation (Senior Division) - Dorothy Vanek Youth Concerto Competition (2024)
Honorable Mention (Div III.) - Arizona Musicfest Piano Competition (2024)
Silver Medal - PMTA Fall Festival (2024)
First Prize (Senior Concerto Division) - Angelo and Micheline Addona Arizona Young Artist Piano
Competition (2023)Gold Medal - PMTA Fall Festival (2023)
Superior Awards (Senior High Division) - PMTA Dean & Carolyn Elder Piano Competition (2023 & 2024)
Honorable Mention (Junior High Division) - PMTA Dean & Carolyn Elder Piano Competition (2022)
PTMA Summer Music Camp Scholarship (2019 & 2025)
The City of Surprise Youth Scholarship (2025)
Beyond her piano accomplishments, Lily is also an accomplished ballet dancer. She was a student of the School of Ballet Arizona for 10 years and was a Ballet Arizona Scholarship recipient from 2022 to 2025.
This fall, Lily will attend the University of Oklahoma, where she will pursue a double major in Piano Performance and Ballet.
Congratulations, Lily!
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DANIEL KANG has been an active participant in the Arizona Piano Institute, attending the program in 2016-2019 and 2023-2025. He has studied piano for 10 years under the direction of Snezana Krstic and was also a student of Dr. Jessica Yam at Rosie's House from 2020 to 2022. Daniel performed at Carnegie Hall and toured to the Dominican Republic as an orchestral keyboardist of the 2023 National Youth Orchestra (NYO2). In addition to piano, Daniel played violin with the Phoenix Youth Symphony for seven years and served as associate concertmaster for Raymonda, a collaborative production between Ballet Arizona and the Phoenix Youth Symphony. He was also his school's concertmaster and served as a first violinist in the AMEA All-State High School Orchestra for all four years of high school and performed with the 2022 YOLA National Orchestra conducted by Gustavo Dudamel.
Notable achievements during his high school years include:
First Prize (Senior Division) - Desert Hills Piano Competition (2025)
Second Prize (Senior Division) - MTNA Southwest Division Piano Competition (2024)
First Prize (Senior Division) - MTNA State Piano Competition (2023)
First Prize (Senior Division) - Opus National Music Competition (2023)
First Prize - Charleston International Piano Competition (2022)
First Prize (Senior Division) - American Talent Music Competition (2022)
First Prize - Arizona Musicfest Piano Competition (2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025)
NPR's From the Top Tim Banker Talent Development Award (2024)
Bowdoin International Music Festival (2023)
Arizona State Seal of Arts Proficiency, Violin (2025)
AP Scholar with Distinction
National Merit Scholarship Finalist (2025)
Salutatorian, Arizona School for the Arts
Daniel founded a student-run volunteer nonprofit called Bridge to Music in 2020 with his siblings Yuna and Justin to connect the community with music through various projects.
This fall, Daniel will attend Yale University, where he will major in Molecular, Cellular & Developmental Biology. He also plans to continue his piano studies at Yale.
Congratulations, Daniel!
KEVIN TANG
KEVIN TANG attended the API Summer Festival as a student about five years ago, and more recently contributed as a volunteer. This year, he was not able to join due to his studies, but to stay connected and inspire this year’s students, he made a video of a new composition he is working on, called “First Day”. As he says in his introduction: “It represents the first day of something, and the feelings that accompany it.” His piece aims to capture the excitement, and perhaps even the tinge of anxiety, of starting something new — a feeling that drives us as kids and hopefully never goes away as we grow older. With Kevin’s kind permission, we post his video here.
Musical Siblings
In June 2025, API Summer Festival regulars Daniel & Justin Kang were featured on NPR’s From the Top!
On the show, they were interviewed and performed The Nutcracker Suite, Op. 71a - VIII. Waltz of the Flowers by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893).
Check out the From The Top website➶ for listening options on the air and on the web. Or listen on Soundcloud.
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