Doctoral student scores music fraternity scholarship

LAWRENCE — Crystal Lam, a doctoral student in music at the University of Kansas, recently won a Sigma Alpha Iota/SAI Alumnae Memorial Scholarship totaling $1,200.

Each year, the alumnae chapter of SAI sponsors a series of scholarship auditions for area musicians, giving five cash awards annually. The two pieces Lam performed for the audition were Sonata Op. 31 No. 2 in D minor “Tempest” by Beethoven and Etude de Sonorite by Francois Morel.

Lam, who studies with professors Jack Winerock and Scott McBride Smith, has won a number of awards and prizes, including first prize at the 2006 Asian Youth Music Competition in Shanghai and second prize at the 2005 International Chopin Piano Competition in Tokyo. She received the Judith Soloman Piano Award in Chamber Music at Texas Christian University in 2009-10. In summer 2010, she performed in the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts “Best Pianists” fundraising concerts for the 25th anniversary of the school. She was selected as a winner of the KU Concerto Competition and performed with the KU Symphony Orchestra in February. She most recently won the West Central Division Young Artist Piano Competition sponsored by the Music Teachers National Association.

Lam earned a bachelor’s degree from the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts in 2008. She went on to complete a master’s degree at Texas Christian University. She attended high school in Hong Kong.