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    Artist of the Year winners take center stage at Chapman University
    • May 8, 2025

    Winners of the Orange County Register’s 12th annual Artist of the Year program sang, danced, acted and discussed their work at a ceremony Wednesday evening, May 7 in Chapman University’s Memorial Hall.

    Six of the seven winners appeared at the event. Allie Molin of Mission Viejo, a jazz trumpeter who won the instrumental music category, was in New York on Wednesday to perform at Lincoln Center. Molin provided a video of her performing with a jazz combo.

    The evening reflected the broad diversity of the winners, featuring a modern dance work by Piper Rovsek of Newport Beach, who won the dance category, a dramatic monologue by theater winner Isabella Kim of Fullerton and an opera aria by Fullerton’s Madison Becerra, who was named Artist of the Year in the vocal music category.

    Fine arts Artist of the Year Helen Zhang discussed how the imagery in her paintings explores themes of resilience and vulnerability, inspired in part by her experience of being deaf in one ear. Film and TV winner Noah Villanueva of Irvine screened his short film “Pocketwatch,” which deals with the quest for impossible perfection. Jennifer (Doyeon) Kim of Tustin, the Artist of the Year for media arts, displayed products she had designed, such as tactile scarves for autistic people, as a form of personal empowerment and advocacy.

    The seven winners were drawn from a field of 923 high school juniors and seniors who were nominated by schools, arts organizations and private instructors. Panels of high school teachers narrowed the list to 112 seminfalists. Panels of arts professionals and faculty members from local colleges then selected the Artists of the Year and 29 finalists. Semifinalists and finalists were also honored at Wednesday’s ceremony.

    Artists on Wednesday were introduced by several leaders from Orange County’s arts community, including representatives of Chapman University and the Segerstrom Center for the Arts, whose sponorships make the program possible, and Arts Orange County, which serves a fiscal partner for the Artist of the Year program.

    If you would like to support Artist of the Year with a donation, you can contribute here. Donations will be made to Arts Orange County on behalf of Artist of the Year.

     Orange County Register 

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