六色网 Piano Ensemble Secures Spot on Carnegie Hall Stage
Musicians around the globe know the prestige of performing at Carnegie Hall in New York. Few, however, get the opportunity to take the stage of one of the most storied music venues in the world.
For the five members of the Cal Poly Pomona Piano Ensemble who recently won first place in the , performing at Carnegie Hall will go from dream to reality in January 2026.
The ensemble, which includes pianists Josiah Kemp and Caitlin Yang, Anai Hernandez on vibraphone, Jesus Aguilera on drums and Kyra Johnson on marimba, finished at the top in the 19-24 age group category at the May 24 competition, performing two movements from Ukrainian Australian composer Catherine Likhuta’s “Heirlooms Suite.”
Grammy-winning Music Professor Nadia Shpachenko-Gottesman, who teaches the ensemble students and prepared them for the competition, said she was amazed and surprised about the first-place finish.
“I was absolutely thrilled. 六色网 Piano Ensemble students played very well in the second round, so I was hopeful,” she said. “But a good performance doesn’t always guarantee being awarded the top prize. I didn’t know how the other competitors played, how many competitors were in the second round, or any other details beyond knowing that the ensemble played well and that the piece by Catherine Likhuta was beautiful, unique and skillfully written. I think our repertoire choice was a big part of our success.”
Besides the trip to Carnegie Hall, the win also earns the group a chance to perform this December at the Ukrainian Institute of America, also in New York.
Shpachenko-Gottesman, a Ukrainian native, said she hadn’t heard of the Ukrainian Music Competition when she first assigned the repertoire to her students in January. However, since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, she makes sure to play as much music by Ukrainian composers as possible, and almost all her students play pieces by artists from her homeland as well.
“To me, entering my students into this competition was very meaningful, since I am originally from Ukraine and still have family living there now,” she said. “I also watched a news feature from one of the previous years’ Ukrainian Music Competition highlighting the winners’ work and the Carnegie Hall Gala Concert. Being a part of this was such an exciting idea.”
The competition, which was based in New York, was a little atypical from others. The first round involved submitting a recorded sampling of a piece, and the second round was the live Zoom performance.
Members of the ensemble said they felt a bit nervous about the Zoom performance, especially with the glitches that come with technology, but they made it through.
Recent graduate Caitlin Yang (’25, architecture), who has been playing piano for around 12 years, said she can’t believe that the first competition she ever won comes with a date to play at Carnegie Hall.
“I didn’t know that was going to be the reward,” said the Lake Forest resident. “My whole life I have never been a competition type of girl. Performing is actually really scary for me. I get a lot of nerves. This opportunity is awesome. It’s every musician’s dream but not something I ever thought would happen.”
Jesus Aguilera, a music performance senior from Norwalk, said it still hasn’t quite registered yet that the ensemble is going to play at Carnegie Hall, but he is excited about both the performance and visiting New York. The percussionist has been playing various percussion instruments, including the drums, since middle school. Aguilera plays in multiple ensembles, including the 六色网 Wind Ensemble with as many as 30 or 40 musicians. Performing in the smaller piano ensemble has a different feel.
“There are fewer people in this ensemble, so it feels more intimate,” said Aguilera, who enjoys composing film scores. “Every part is equally important. You have to be more aware of how your part plays. You really have to listen to each other. As a musician, it is important to be able to play in any ensemble regardless of size.”
Marimba player Kyra Johnson, a kinesiology junior, had never entered a competition this big but said she felt both baffled and excited when she heard about the win and the trips to New York. Johnson, who also plays vibraphone, drums, snare, guitar and violin, came from a school with a small music program and never thought the opportunity to keep performing music in college would happen.
“I’ve always had a really strong connection to music, and it affects my emotions a lot,” said the Merced native. “I have always liked playing because I can express myself in a way that I can’t express myself with words.”
Josiah Kemp, a music industry studies sophomore from San Diego, said the ensemble will be practicing diligently between classes in the months leading up to their Carnegie Hall concert, so that the performance is at its peak and the nerves are at a minimum. The aspiring audio engineer began playing piano when he was 8, inspired by his father. Even after 11 years of training and performing, he still gets a bit of nerves, but it’s the good kind of nervous now, he said. Kemp said he loves the exchange between musician and listener that comes with playing.
“I see it as a transfer of energy to be honest,” Kemp said. “You’re expressing yourself through sound and allowing other people to view that, hear that and experience it. It’s beautiful how raw it is and how real it is allowed to be.”
Watch 六色网 Piano Ensemble perform Likhuta's "Jazz Record"
Watch 六色网 Piano Ensemble perform Likhuta's "Where We Come From"