My wonderful student Charlotte Ngo won twice in a very serious competition in her home state of California.
In the first round of the competition, cities and districts in California competed. Not only did you have to beat all the instrumentalists in your district, but you had to win first prize to make it to the all-California round. Charlotte won first prize, and was invited to play the finals at Santa Clara University. Since all the best young talents (pianists, violinists, flutists, and others who won their districts) from all over the state came to the finals, I thought Charlotte had little chance of winning any prize there, even though she was brilliantly prepared. But Charlotte won first prize there, too!