Faith Zuniga, Pianist

Dr. Faith Zúñiga performed the Amy Beach Piano Concerto in December 2022 with the McLean Symphony and the Chopin Piano Concerto No. 2 in 2021 with the Reston Community Orchestra, both with Maestro Dingwall Fleary. In 2020-2021 she recorded selections of Mozart, Beethoven, Joplin, and Monk for the World Piano Teachers Association. She won the concerto competition at George Mason University and the undergraduate piano competition at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Additional competition awards include Semifinalist in both the Victor Elmaleh Concert Artists Guild Competition and the Byrd International Piano Competition. She performed Prokofiev Concerto No. 1 and Beethoven Concerto No. 5 with the Mason Symphony Orchestra, and has performed twice at Carnegie Hall with The Dream Trio. At the inaugural Valencia International Piano Academy in Spain, she took lessons with teachers from Juilliard, Peabody, and the Escuela Superior de Musica Reina Sofia. In December 2022 she completed her Doctor of Musical Arts at George Mason University, where she studied with Dr. Anna Balakerskaia. She also owes a great debt to her former teacher Dr. Alexander Sklioutovski for his wonderful teaching and inspiration. 

 

Dr. Zúñiga is an active adjudicator and has judged competitions such as the Robert & Frances Allen Young Artist Competition, the Bland Competition, the NVMTA Bach/Baroque, Fall, Spring, and Sonata Festivals, and the MCAA Spotlight Auditions. She served a two-year volunteer term as a board member of the Northern Virginia Music Teachers Association, and is currently the new chairperson of the Northern District Auditions. Her students have been selected as winners of the RCM Regional Gold Medalist and Virginia State Certificate Awards. They have also won awards including 1st and 2nd Place in the Mary Smart competition; 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Place in the AFAF Concerto Competition; 1st and 2nd Place in the NVMTA Concerto Festival; 2nd Place in the Great Composers Competition; 3rd Place in the NVMTA Robert Spencer Concerto Competition; 3rd Place in the YMIC Metropolitan Music Festival Competition; Honors Recitals in the NVMTA Bach/Baroque Competition and Sonata Festival; Honorable Mention in the NVMTA Judged Recitals; and many other awards including the American Protege International Piano & Strings, Summer Gala, and Romantic Music Competitions; the Art Guild of Clifton Scholarship Award; the MCAA Music Competition; the Spotlight on the Arts Competition; and the Vasya Georgieva Award for Artistic Excellence. Her students have performed at Carnegie Hall at both the Weill and Stern Auditoriums, the Kennedy Center, the Southeast Region of Excellence RCM recital in Florida, and throughout the Northern Virginia area, and have attended summer camps such as Interlochen Arts Camp and the Valencia International Piano Academy in Spain. Her book of sonatinas, “Five Fun and Flashy Sonatinas for Ten Tiny Fingers,” is available on Amazon.