Benefit Concert

Celicia Thendean, 18, began piano studies at age 4 with her mother and Prof. Anna Poklewski, later advancing with Ilana Vered. She has performed with the Brunensis Virtuosi Orchestra, Livermore-Amador Symphony, SEEN Orchestra, Palo Alto Philharmonic, Korea Seocho Philharmonia, and twice with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra. Celicia has earned top prizes in numerous competitions, including the Piano Texas International Festival Concerto Competition, Arthur Fraser International Piano Competition, Claudette Sorel Piano Competition, Vancouver Symphony Orchestra Young Artist Competition, Philadelphia International Music Festival, and is a three-time MTAC VOCE State Winner. She was inducted into the prestigious Young Artists Guild in 2025 and received a scholarship from the Chopin Foundation in 2024. She has participated in esteemed programs including the Juilliard Summer Piano Program, Piano Texas, Music Fest Perugia, Southeastern Piano Festival, Philadelphia International Music Festival, Edward Auer Summer Workshop, and the Vivace Music Festival where she earned the Vivace Award in 2020, which led to a performance in Wilmington, North Carolina alongside Marina Lomazov, Joseph Rackers, and Ara Gregorian. In addition to piano, Celicia plays cello, oboe, english horn, and clarinet—reaching MTAC Panel Honors on cello and earning the position of concertmaster for the All-Northern Honor Band on oboe.

Fonny Chandra started playing piano at the age of four. She gave her first performance at that age in a children’s television program. By the age of 9, she had appeared in many concerts and television programs. In the same year, she joined Yamaha Junior Original Concert (JOC), an organization that teaches music composition to talented young musicians. She composed several pieces while studying in JOC. She made several appearances throughout Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia. In 2004, she won Notre Dame de Namur Concerto Competition and performed Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Redwood Symphony. In summer 2006, Ms. Chandra was invited, and attended Bosendörfer Piano Academy in Vienna. Ms. Chandra has over 17 years of teaching experience in piano lessons. Some of her students have been accepted in music conservatories in China. In 2002, she gave a piano workshop to piano teachers in Surabaya, Indonesia, and became one of the co-founders of Quatro Music Education School there. In 2007, with her teacher Ms. Anna Poklewski, and her colleague Ms. Bianca Roesli, she founded the Anna Poklewski Academy of Music. https://www.annapoklewskiacademyofmusic.com/piano-instructors

Mark taught orchestra, band, jazz, and choir for 35 years at Amador Valley High School, San Mateo High School, and Pleasanton Middle School. In the last decade, the Amador Valley High orchestras have performed at the California Music Educators State Conference 4 times. Mr. Aubel has been named “Teacher of the Year” twice in his career, including locally for the Pleasanton Unified School District. He has performed with Jamey Aebersol, Lou Rawles, Clay Aiken, and many others. He is currently active throughout the state as a guest conductor, adjudicator, professional musician, published composer, and mentor for new music teachers.

Chiara Thendean is a 16-year-old violinist from Pleasanton, California. She currently studies with Mrs. Wenyi Shih. She started playing violin at the age of 6 under a local teacher, Mrs. Lisa Xu. A year later, she was accepted into the San Francisco Conservatory of Music Pre-College Program, where she participated for three years under the tutelage of Mr. Davis Law. Here, she was exposed to her first orchestral experiences playing in SFCM’s pre-college youth orchestra. In 2021, she won the Grand Prize at the Indonesian International Young Musician Competition. In 2022, she debuted playing the first movement of Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto with the Virtuosi Brunenses Orchestra at MusicFest Perugia in Italy. A year later, she had the opportunity to play the Bach Double Concerto alongside my former teacher, Chloe Kiffer, in the same festival. In middle school, she participated in the 2023 and 2024 California Junior High School All-State String Orchestra and Symphonic Band. As a freshman in high school, she was invited to be a guest conductor for Harvest Park Middle School’s Wind Ensemble in their performance at the California All-State Music Education Conference. In 2025, she participated in CODA’s Honors Symphony. Currently, she is in her school’s Wind Ensemble I. She played with the Kootenay Quartet at the Heifetz Music Festival, and at home, she has played with the Harmonious Three and the Dolce Trio. The Dolce Trio performed at the 2023 East Bay Chamber Music Festival and won first prize at the US Open chamber music competition.

Ewen Tsai began her music studies at an early age  learning piano and  cello in Taiwan.  She holds double master degrees in  both Music Performance and Education from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA and earned her bachelor’s degree in Music from Washington State University with President’s Honor Roll.  Ewen has over 20 years teaching experience, has been on both string and music education faculty at various institutions, and won awards for her research on the Integrated Music Curriculum. Ewen’s arrangements have been performed worldwide, including 100 Cello Concert in Taiwan (2020) and Cello Paradiso in the 49th Istanbul Music Festival (2021). Ewen’s students have won top honors in many competitions, evaluations and orchestra auditions.   Ewen enjoys performing all genres of music and cooperating with various arts forms including dance and exhibitions. To further enhance her musical career, Ewen actively participated in masterclasses and workshops, including Mischa Maisky (cello), Jennifer Culp (cello), Forrest Kinney (composition), Pablo Ziegler (composition). From 2012-2019, Ewen represented North California to perform in the annual MTAC convention. In 2016-2020, Ewen was elected two terms Music Teachers’ Association of California Branch President,  hosted and coordinated concerts, competitions, student recitals, masterclasses and lectures.   (The Music Teachers’ Association of California®, incorporated in 1897, is a professional organization dedicated to the pursuit of excellence in music education. With over 6,000 teachers, Certificate of Merit® (CM) is the most participated music evaluation program in the United States.)

Amador Valley High School and Harvest Park Middle School musicians comprise the Strand Symphony. In addition, The Livermore Choir will perform vocal selections. The talent and dedication of these artists is a gift to our community.