On April 3^rd, 2010, a panel of judges chose 3 young musicians as award winners in Young Musicians Foundation’s 55^th Annual National Debut Competition.  The Grand Prize, including a $2,000 cash award as well as an opportunity to perform her concerto with the Debut Orchestra, was awarded to 17 year old violinist Mia Laity, who performed Sergei Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 2 in G minor.  Mia Laity began playing violin at age three and made her solo debut at age eleven, performing with the Baylor University Orchestra.  In 2007 and 2009, she appeared with the Phoenix Symphony, first as the Grand Prize winner of the Phoenix Youth Symphony Concerto Competition, and then again as the 1^st Place and Clotilde Otranto prizewinner.  An alumna of From the Top and the New York String Orchestra Seminar, Ms. Laity was also recently named a finalist in the prestigious 2010 Blount-Slawson Competition.  In Los Angeles, she is Assistant Concertmaster of the Debut Orchestra.  A former student of Arkady Fomin, Borivoj Martinic-Jercic, and Nokuthula Ngwenyama, she currently studies with Danielle Belen at the Colburn School of Performing Arts.

Other award winners include Runner-up, guitarist Tim Callobre who recently won Grand Prize in the 2010 Spotlight Awards in the Classical Instrumental category and Discovery Award winner, 14 year old cellist Matthew Chen.