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Parents, teachers, sponsors and friends were all treated to a delightful afternoon of classical piano tunes at the Gala & Award Ceremony 2009 held on Sunday April 26th, 2009 at the Markham Theatre for Performing Arts. Despite a late start, the audience was very enthusiastic and spontaneous to the performances and the presentation.

Numerous awards including medals and trophies were handed out to class winners during the award presentation and every prize recipient walked away with joy and a sense of achievement. The highlight of the afternoon came when all trophy winners gathered on stage for a group picture at the end of the ceremony. The six lucky prize draws brought the show to a climatic conclusion.

As in the past, we would like to extend our gratitude to TD Canada Trust (Presenting Sponsor), Tour East Holidays (Gold Sponsor) and Locher Evers International (Silver Sponsor) for being our main sponsors. It is the active participation of our sponsors and the generous donations from friends and parents that allow us to continue this great local tradition and realize our mission of nurturing musical talents in our growing community, and the Markham Music Festival Committee is indeed grateful and appreciative for that as the festival would not have been possible without their generous support over the years.

This year, we were honoured by the presence of Mr. Michael Chan, MPP Markham-Unionville in support of our event. Also in attendance to celebrate our fourteenth anniversary event were Paul Rizzi (TD Canada Trust Branch Manager), Joseph Neizer ((TD Canada Trust Branch Manager), Michael Esh (RCM examiner and MMF 2009 adjudicator), Henry Lee (Euromusic), James Lin (World Journal, Marketing Director), Peter Li (Sing Tao Daily Vice President-Operations) and Edmond Tse (Fairchild Radio General Manager). Once again, our sincere thanks go to Rita Tsang, President and Chief Executive of Tour East Holidays for her generous prize donation of a round-trip ticket to Asia valued CAD$2,000. The grand prize goes to the Markham Music Festival Trophy winner Ricker Choi who was also the winner of 2007.

Ricker Choi receiving the Markham Music Festival Trophy

Biography of MMF Trophy winner Ricker Choi

Ricker Choi, the recipient of the prestigious Markham Music Festival Trophy and Age Achievement Award (Open), and won 1st place in both the Grade 11 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 and the 2007 Winner of the Markham Music Festival.

Ricker is currently working as a Senior Project Managert 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 2009 music competition.

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 continued support and congratulate all winners of the MMF 2009 music competition for their outstanding achievement.

Markham Music Festival 2010 is tentatively scheduled to run in April 2010. Winners from respective classes and/or categories will be invited to the Gala Concert and Award Ceremony 2010. Date and location to be announced later. Application and syllabus for MMF 2010 will be available by late October 2009.

Markham Music Festival Gala Concert 2009