Performing Arts Scholarship Foundation

Performing Arts Scholarship Foundation Non-profit organization assisting young musicians in Santa Barbara County. Dedicated volunteers provide all administrative responsibilities.

To do the greatest good with its funds, PASF devotes its entire resources to performing arts recipients.

To our board, our donors, our supporters.The 2026 PASF Music Competition happened because of you.Every scholarship award...
06/04/2026

To our board, our donors, our supporters.

The 2026 PASF Music Competition happened because of you.

Every scholarship awarded, every student who stood on that stage, every moment of music that filled Lehman Hall this April 26 traces back to the people and organizations who believe in what this foundation does.

To our board members who give their time and expertise. To our individual donors and corporate supporters who fund these scholarships year after year. To the teachers, families, and community partners who help young musicians find their way to us.

Thank you. Truly.

$21,000 in scholarships were awarded this year to ten remarkable finalists. That money changes things: lessons continued, instruments upgraded, summer programs attended, futures expanded.

None of it happens without you.



Deborah Marks Bertling Erin Bonski Edie Baily DeVine Peter Bertling Noel Lucky Kristine Pacheco

Annabelle Zhang | Piano, Age 12Honorable Mention | Adult Instrumental DivisionCongratulations, Annabelle.She is twelve y...
05/28/2026

Annabelle Zhang | Piano, Age 12
Honorable Mention | Adult Instrumental Division

Congratulations, Annabelle.

She is twelve years old and competing in the adult division. That alone deserves a moment.

Annabelle won 1st place in the PASF Junior Instrumental Division last April, which advanced her to compete at the senior level this year. She has been earning awards consistently since 2021, and the pace has not slowed: a MTAC win this past fall, 1st place at the So Cal Junior Bach Festival this winter. She studies with Vera Kong and attends Laguna Blanca School.

Honorable Mention in the adult division at twelve. We look forward to what comes next.

Congratulations, Annabelle.

Skylar Abello | Violin, Age 11Honorable Mention | Junior Instrumental DivisionCongratulations, Skylar.She has been playi...
05/27/2026

Skylar Abello | Violin, Age 11
Honorable Mention | Junior Instrumental Division

Congratulations, Skylar.

She has been playing violin since she was four years old. That's seven years of lessons, recitals, and growth for a student who is only eleven. Skylar lives in the Santa Ynez Valley, attends Trivium Charter School, and studies with Mary Beth Woodruff of Santa Barbara Strings. After earning Honorable Mention at PASF last year, she put those funds toward a new violin, upgrading from the ½ size she had been performing on to a ¾ violin. She then accomplished the 40-hour challenge of rehearsal hours over the summer.

She is growing into a more formidable violinists.

This summer she heads to the LA Suzuki Institute. We have a feeling this will not be her last time on this stage.

Congratulations, Skylar.

Leon Guo | Piano, Age 17Honorable Mention | Junior Instrumental DivisionCongratulations, Leon.Eleven years of piano, a s...
05/26/2026

Leon Guo | Piano, Age 17
Honorable Mention | Junior Instrumental Division

Congratulations, Leon.

Eleven years of piano, a string of MTAC awards since 2022, five years of SBMC scholarships, and a return to the PASF finals after earning Honorable Mention in 2024. Leon studies with Lana Bodnar and has been building something consistent and real. He also found time this spring to be part of Dos Pueblos High School's mock trial team, which just claimed its fifth consecutive County 1st prize. This fall he heads to UCLA.

Leon is the kind of student who shows up in multiple rooms and makes a difference in all of them.

Congratulations, Leon!

Noelle Hadsall | Piano, Age 172nd Place | Adult Instrumental DivisionCongratulations, Noelle.Noelle has been playing pia...
05/26/2026

Noelle Hadsall | Piano, Age 17
2nd Place | Adult Instrumental Division

Congratulations, Noelle.

Noelle has been playing piano since she was five and her record of achievement runs long: the SB Bach Festival, the Paderewski Festival Cultural Exchange Tour in Poland, 1st place in the Paderewski Festival Piano Competition, and 1st place in the PASF Junior Instrumental Division in 2021, the win that placed her in the adult division today. She studies with Pascal Salomon and is VP of the Jazz Choir at Dos Pueblos High School.

Noelle also teaches piano at YouthMuze, the Santa Barbara nonprofit founded by former PASF competitor and pianist Grace Hu that provides free music instruction and tutoring by teen musicians to young students across the area.

Grace Hu founded YouthMuze to make music education free and accessible.

Noelle is now one of the people making that happen.

That is exactly the kind of legacy this foundation exists to build.

Amelia Checketts | Soprano, Age 162nd Place (tied) | Junior Vocal DivisionCongratulations, Amelia.This is Amelia's secon...
05/26/2026

Amelia Checketts | Soprano, Age 16
2nd Place (tied) | Junior Vocal Division

Congratulations, Amelia.

This is Amelia's second time as a PASF finalist. A junior at Dos Pueblos High School, she studies voice with Agatha Carubia and has been putting in the work both inside and outside the classroom. Last summer she attended the Classical Voice and Opera Summer Program at Interlochen School for the Arts. Back at DP, she has performed in the Advanced Jazz Choir, appeared as a soloist in the Advanced Theater Showcase in January, and was part of the cast of "Mama Mia" last spring.

She keeps stacking experience, and it shows. Her teacher, Agatha Carubia, is a four-time PASF award winner herself, having competed from 1983 through 1987. The tradition runs deep.

Aria Bonski Evans | Soprano, Age 172nd place (tied) | Junior Vocal DivisionCongratulations, Aria.A senior at Bishop Dieg...
05/26/2026

Aria Bonski Evans | Soprano, Age 17
2nd place (tied) | Junior Vocal Division

Congratulations, Aria.

A senior at Bishop Diego High School, Aria studies voice with Isabel Bayrakdarian at UCSB and has spent her summers seeking out the best training she could find. In 2024 she attended the SF Conservatory of Music Vocal Academy, immersing herself in technique, movement, acting, and stage work. Last summer she went further, completing a six-week program at the Boston University Tanglewood Institute where she earned college credit, took private lessons, and performed alongside the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

That's not a resume built by accident. That's a singer who takes her craft seriously.

Seungyoo Kim-Jung | Violin, Age 142nd Place | Junior Instrumental DivisionCongratulations, Seungyoo.Seungyoo has been st...
05/22/2026

Seungyoo Kim-Jung | Violin, Age 14
2nd Place | Junior Instrumental Division

Congratulations, Seungyoo.

Seungyoo has been studying violin for six years with Nina Bodnar. She is a 10th grader at Dos Pueblos High School and serves as Concertmaster of the Santa Barbara Youth Symphony, a role she has held while also winning the SBYS Concerto Competition two years running. She received the Avonell Jackson Memorial Scholarship through MTAC in both 2024 and 2025 and has performed in masterclasses with SBS Concertmaster Jessica Guideri and with Kristin Lee in the Santa Ynez Valley Concert Series and at SBCC. She also serves on the Board of Directors of YouthMuze as Associate Newsletter Director, the Santa Barbara nonprofit founded by former PASF competitor Grace Hu that provides free music instruction and tutoring by teen musicians to young students in the community.

This is her second time on the PASF finalist stage. She placed 2nd in 2025 and 2nd again in 2026. She is fourteen years old, already leading an orchestra, and hoping to join the new High School Intensive at the Music Academy of the West this summer. That stage will know her name too.

Lydia Plaut | Viola1st Place | Adult Instrumental DivisionCongratulations, Lydia.Lydia arrived in Santa Barbara less tha...
05/21/2026

Lydia Plaut | Viola
1st Place | Adult Instrumental Division

Congratulations, Lydia.

Lydia arrived in Santa Barbara less than a year ago carrying two degrees and a resume that spans continents. She earned her Bachelor of Music in Viola Performance from New England Conservatory and her Master of Music in Viola Performance and Suzuki Pedagogy from Cleveland Institute of Music. She has performed with the National Arts Center Orchestra in Canada, was a Fellowship Student at the Aspen Music Festival in 2025, and played as substitute violist with the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra.

She is now here, teaching and building something new. First place at PASF 2026 is a fine way to introduce herself to this community.

Nikki Seppala Kurnik | Soprano, Age 161st Place | Junior Vocal DivisionCongratulations, Nikki on your 1st place finish i...
05/21/2026

Nikki Seppala Kurnik | Soprano, Age 16
1st Place | Junior Vocal Division

Congratulations, Nikki on your 1st place finish in the Junior Vocal Division!

Nikki studies with Brett Mutinelli, herself a four-time PASF award winner who competed on this same stage from 1989 through 1992. Brett earned her Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance at UCSB, went on to start the Young Singers Club in Santa Barbara in 1998 and has been teaching private voice ever since.

In the past year alone, Nikki placed 2nd in the Junior Vocal Division at PASF 2025, then won 1st place at the Musical Theatre Competition of America in Los Angeles this past February, having placed 2nd in that same competition in 2024. She was selected by Classical Singer Magazine as an All-State Singer for California and will travel to Boston next month for a convention where students compete for scholarships to top classical and musical theater programs. This month she opened as Johanna in "Sweeney Todd" at San Marcos High School.

Congratulations Nikki.

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