The 2025 EMTA Jazz, Rags, and Blues Concert, Festival and Workshop was held this past weekend on 10-11 October 2025.

What a wonderful day of well-prepared students and helpful volunteers! Thank you so much to those who brought their keyboards for the workshop and assisted throughout the day!

Here are the results of the 2025 Jazz, Rags, and Blues Festival. Please let your students know if they received a Best of Festival and will perform at the Gala in June.

Room 1 with Masterclass Artist Elliot Gray
Best of Festival Jazz Senior: Qiancang Dai (teacher: Shaoming Greene)
Best of Festival Jazz Senior Alternate: Pax Ream (teacher: Rick Asher)
Best of Festival Blues Senior: Jasmine Garcia (teacher: Angela Michael)
Best of Festival Rags Senior: Jozef Kocaj (teacher: Roxanne Kar)
Best of Festival Jazz Junior: Alice Liang (teacher: Shaoming Greene)
Best of Festival Jazz Junior Alternate: Rayna Li (teacher: Shaoming Greene)
Best of Festival Blues Junior: Vitus Wei (teacher: Shaoming Greene)
Best of Festival Rags Junior: Colin Ip (teacher: Frances Goei)
Rags Junior Alternate: Jesse Greene (teacher: Allan Park)

Room 2 with Masterclass Artist Randy Halberstadt
Best of Festival Jazz Senior: Cash Fishburne (teacher: Frances Goei)
Best of Festival Blues Senior: Kate Nguyen (teacher: Marie Wollam-Mergler)
Best of Festival Rags Senior: Owen Greene (teacher: Allan Park)
Best of Festival Jazz Junior: Lillian Mergler (teacher: Marie Wollam-Mergler)
Best of Festival Jazz Junior Alternate: Yu Yan Perrie Lam (teacher: Yelena Balabanova)
Best of Festival Blues Junior: Philipp Kim (teacher: Vera Borodina)
Best of Festival Rags Junior: Xiwen Hu (teacher: Shaoming Greene)

Certificates/comments will be distributed at the EMTA meeting on October 14th, as well as mailed for those unable to attend.

Thank you all so much for encouraging your students to participate in this festival!

Your JRB team:
Marie Wollam-Mergler, Cathy Baylor, Valerie Gathright