Performances and Testimonials

Kailash Brumwell, Piano

Junior Scholarship Winner 2022

When a 10-year-old child in a floppy tee shirt came bouncing on stage to audition for a Marin Music Chest scholarship this spring, the judges, including me, were not impressed. Most of the other young musicians had dressed in coats and ties or fancy dresses. They showed a very serious demeanor, about to perform serious classical music. But when smiling, unassuming 10-year-old Kailash Brumwell began to play the piano, we started gasping. He breezed through the allegro movement of Friedrich Kuhlau’s Sonatina –a required piece – and then took off on his optional selection, La Chasse by Franz Liszt, considered one of the most difficult classical composers to perform.

On May 1 Kailash will receive a scholarship of $1100. from the Music Chest, and on May 15 he will also perform with the Music Chest’s Young Artists. A resident of Novato, and a fifth-grade student at San Domenico, a private K-12 school in San Anselmo, Kailash started playing the piano before he could talk. He would hear a song or a tune on the radio or on TV, and could play it on his toy piano at the age of two. So his parents got him a $50 Casio digital keyboard and he mastered that. Today they have a grand piano for him in the living room.

“He would mimic what he heard,” said his mom, Thato Brumwell, a hospitalist MD at Marin Health. She is a native of Lethoso, in Southern Africa, and a graduate of Harvard and UCSF medical school. She is not a musician. His father, Mark Brumwell, a sustainable resource management specialist, is an amateur clarinetist. “I tried to teach him some chords,” Brumwell said, “but he pushed me out of the way. He played them in perfect time.”

For his part, Kailash is at ease with his gift and is not sure what to call it – he doesn’t like the word “talent.” Extremely articulate, he is also completely comfortable as a musician, both classical and reggae. At the piano he looks relaxed and amused ripping off arpeggios and intricate passages in Bach’s French Suite or a Chopin nocturne. He easily memorizes almost every piece he plays. He is also studying guitar and voice, and he has an electric drum set in his bedroom.

But, he says, he enjoys singing Jamaican reggae even more than playing classical piano. For the past few years he has performed with Don Carlos, a well-known Jamaican composer and singer, forgetting the piano and singing in a young voice that hasn’t changed yet. He also likes jazz, and Indian classical music. He studies with Jennifer Grant at the Rising Phoenix Piano Studio in San Anselmo, who adds a spiritual ingredient to her instruction, and who so far has been able to keep up with her extremely gifted student. But she is not sure for how long.

He is not one-dimensional. He likes and does well at math, he enjoys basketball and he likes to play in the street near his home with neighborhood kids. He also spends time with his 8-year-old sister, who often shadows him. He listens to vinyl records (better than CDs he says) at home. On his bed were two Harry Potter novels, which, he said, he is re-reading.

“Music goes through my head,” he says, trying to explain his natural abilities. “Music and math are universal languages.” Eventually he wants to become a professional musician. But for now he is happy performing before audiences – at school and elsewhere.

Watch Kailash play Chopin:Fantasie-Impromptu, Op. 66 on YouTube
Hear Kailash sing at the Right Vibes Festival in Santa Cruz

Article written by Spencer Michels, board member of the Marin Music Chest, a clarinetist, and a retired correspondent for the PBS NewsHour.

Alexandra Kiryakina, Harpist

Junior Scholarship Winner 2021, 2020, 2019

Alexandra Kiryakina is currently 13 years old, and has been one of our Junior Scholarship award winners for the past three years. Scholarships of $1,100 each were awarded to junior musicians ages 10 – 13 years old.

“I live in Novato and am in the 7th grade at Novato Charter School. I play the harp and recently started playing guitar. I also play violin on a beginner level with my school orchestra. I started my music career as a pianist at the age of five and transitioned to harp at seven. I was attracted to harp as an instrument when I saw a family friend, Olga Rakitchenkov, San Francisco Opera Orchestra’s principal harpist, playing it in the orchestra pit of the San Francisco Opera House.

My favorite composer is Tchaikovsky, and currently my favorite piece of music is Waltz by Shostakovich, but this changes frequently. My future plans include attending UC Berkeley or New York for college, and in the meantime, playing and writing music. Currently I am working on my Certificate of Merit, level 8.

It is great to know how many talented young musicians there are in the Bay Area. I appreciate how Music Chest supports and promotes our music education so that we can carry on our love of music. Thank you so much for the opportunity!”

Alex Kosorukov, Pianist

Alex plays J.S. Bach: Prelude and Fugue in G Major BWV 680

Alex Kosorukov, Pianist

2020 Jr. Scholarship Winner

Alex Kosorukov was one of our 2020 Jr. Scholarship award winners in early March 2020. Scholarships of $1,100 each were awarded to junior musicians ages 10 to 13 years old.

"I was born and raised in California. I live in Kentfield and attend Kent Middle School. I have been studying piano with Meikui Matsushima since I was five years old. I have been doing both school and piano lessons virtually for almost a year now. I like Chopin and Liszt. I hope to expand my repertoire and knowledge of music. In addition to getting better at piano, my near future plans include learning guitar and improving my computer programming skills."

Isabella O’Brien, Flute

2020 Junior Scholarship Winner
and winner of the coveted Robert Greenwood Award

"Being awarded the Music Chest Scholarship was so exciting! It was thrilling to have a sense of achievement. I realized through the preparation that I really like French music. I am now more brave and enthusiastic about performing, and I feel much more confident as a musician. Playing the flute is very important to me and receiving the scholarship was a huge encouragement."

Benjamin Wu, Cello

2019 Sr. Scholarship award winner
and a musician in the 2019 Young Artists Concert

"For me the Music Chest has been a fantastic experience. Besides being a great performance opportunity, I've been inspired by meeting other Marin musicians, and have been able to network with kids who share my interests. The Music Chest also kick-started my work as a freelance musician by providing me with my first paying music performance: The Young Artists Concert. Thanks so much."

Allegra Chapman, Pianist

2003 Scholarship award winner
and played in the winners' concerts 2001-2004

"As a young piano student growing up in Marin, I looked forward each year to the Marin Music Chest competition. I competed and played in the winners’ concerts for four years in a row from 2001-2004. I was a painfully shy kid who suffered from performance anxiety but wanted nothing more than to play the piano all day every day and to share music with people. Marin Music Chest gave me a welcoming environment where I felt safe and encouraged, but also challenged to play my best. Even more than that, Marin Music Chest gave me a sense of community in music. Each year, I would see MMC’s board members, audience members, collaborative pianists, photographers, and other competitors (some of whom became friends). The support I felt from the whole Marin Music Chest community showed me that I could have a joyful life in music.

With the help of my awards from Marin Music Chest, I was able to apply to music schools out of state. I went on to receive my BA and BM from the Bard College Conservatory of Music and my masters from The Juilliard School. I still pinch myself now that I get to spend my time spreading the joy of music through performing, presenting, and teaching. I’m a member of the Delphi piano trio and the voice-piano duo Chordless (with soprano Sara LeMesh, another Marin Music Chest alumna). In 2017, I also co-founded a San Francisco-based music festival with Bard College called Bard Music West which has presented three festivals and a concert series of emerging composers. As an educator, I’ve taught piano and chamber music around the U.S. and in Xi’an, China. I currently teach privately and coach at the San Francisco Conservatory’s Pre-College.

Thank you, Marin Music Chest, for supporting me in my early years, and for all that you do for young musicians!"

Chris Boyadjiev, Flute

4-year Scholarship Winner, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019

"The Marin Music Chest has been the most inspirational performance experience for me in the last five years. It gave me an incredible strength and courage as a young boy to work hard and follow my dream of becoming a professional musician. What was amazing to me as a 12 year old boy was that with the first scholarship award I received, I was able to purchase my first flute headjoint. I played with it at many auditions and was accepted as a member of three orchestras - Marin, Young People’s and San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra and Marin County Honor Bands.

The generosity and support of Marin Music Chest helped me and made it possible for me to attend and participate in numerous international masterclasses such as Sir James Galway Flute Festival in Switzerland, Juilliard Summer Winds Program, Beyond The Masterclass, Northern California Flute Camp and Burkart Academy in New York among others. The financial assistance also helped me pay for my private flute lessons with teachers at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and be accepted as a student in the Pre-College Program.

Most importantly, it is an absolute honor for me to perform at the winners and young artists concerts with my friends and colleagues musicians and share the love of music with our big family of music supporters.

Each year as I learn the new flute repertoire for the competition and prepare for the audition, I think of all those amazing musicians that came before me, that performed and were part of this incredible music community in Marin. I feel so inspired and encouraged to give my very best performance and help keep this organization growing, so that other young musicians in the future would have that same incredible experience and opportunity as me, for which I am forever grateful! It is my hope that one day in return I can help support young musicians achieve their dreams.”