Markham Music Festival Gala Concert 2007

It was an afternoon of delightful music performances and award presentation at the Gala Concert and Award Ceremony 2007 on Sunday April 29th, 2007 at the Markham Theatre for Performing Arts. By the end of the ceremony, more than one hundred top performers from all age groups and classes have been awarded with medallions, trophies and scholarships in recognition of their outstanding play in the Markham Music Festival 2007. We are very honoured to have Frank Scarpitti, Mayor of Town of Markham and Tony Wong, Regional Councillor in attendance in support of our event.  In addition, we are very pleased to have TD Canada Trust as our event presenting sponsor once again. Their active participation of our festival is greatly appreciated by the Markham Music Festival Committee as the festival would not have been possible without their generous support over the years. Also in attendance to celebrate our twelfth anniversary event were Paul Rizzi (TD Canada Trust Branch Manager), Henry Lee (Euromusic), Peter Li (Sing Tao Daily, GM), James Lin (World Journal, Marketing Director),  Sinha Kim (Locher Evers International) and Diana Ing (RCM examiner).  Once again, a very special thank-you goes to Rita Tsang, President and Chief Executive of TourEast Holidays for her generous prize donation of a round-trip ticket to Asia valued CAD$2,000.  The TourEast grand prize went to the winner of the Markham Music Festival Trophy Ricker Choi.

Ricker Choi, the recipient of the prestigious Markham Music Festival Trophy and Age Achievement Award (Open), won 1st place in both the Grade 11(ARCT) List E class and the Open Age Achievement class and 2nd place in the Grade 11 (ARCT) Chopin Class.

Ricker Choi started learning the piano when he was 13 years old, completing the ARCT Diploma in Piano Performance at 18. Upon entering York University's Schulich School of Business, piano study was halted for a number of years until 2005 when he started studying piano again with Boris Zarankin. Ricker is also the 2005 winner of the Best of Festival Award at Yip's Music Festival.

Ricker is currently working as a Senior Business Analyst at Algorithmics Inc., holds an MBA from York University, and is an FRM / CFA Charter Holder. He enjoys reading, travel, and music in his leisure time.

We all at Markham Music Festival wish to extend our most sincere gratitude to all participating sponsors and donors of this great musical event for their continuing support and congratulate all winners of the MMF 2007 music competition.

Honour Roll of MMF 2007