Pianist Anne Liu wins grand Musical Merit prize

Carmel Valley pianist Anne Liu recently won the $14,000 grand prize and the Aspen Summer Festival Scholarship at the 2018 Musical Merit Scholarship competition.

Anne, a 16-year-old rising senior at Canyon Crest Academy, was awarded her honor at the awards concert held on June 3 at San Diego First United Methodist Church. Since 1946, the Musical Merit Foundation of Greater San Diego has held the yearly competition for instrumentalists and vocalists.

The competition has three rounds for contestants in a variety of instruments, ages 16-24, and vocalists ages 18 to 32. For the preliminary and semi-final rounds, the contestants compete in each individual instrument or vocal category and the judges choose the most distinguished musicians from each category.

For the final round, the finalists from all the categories compete together and Anne took home the top prize.

Anne started playing piano at the age of 4. She currently studies piano performance with Director Ethan Dong and Ariel Yang at Opus 119 Conservatory of Music. She previously studied piano with Inessa Litvin.

Anne is a finalist winner of the 2018 National YoungArts and received U.S. Congressional recognition for this honor. She has performed extensively throughout the U.S., China and Italy. She has been featured as a soloist to perform with the South Coast Symphony, San Diego Great Chamber Orchestra, Southern California Philharmonic, and will collaborate with the La Jolla Symphony in the 2018-2019 season.

Anne hopes to inspire others with her music and share her passions around the world.