Three other DoReMi students also won gold medals.
In the solo competition, Calvo played Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto In E Minor Third Movement.
She dedicated her performance to her grandfather, the late Francisco Castro Ada, who had been her inspiration and whose passion for classical music lives on in her.
Ada is the CNMI’s first lt. governor.
“I’m very happy and proud for the success which I owe to my mother, my family and to my teachers,” Calvo said.
She felt “so honored and proud” to be the first local student of DoReMi School of Music who excelled in the Guam competition.
She said her hard work paid off.
“Work hard, believe in yourself, keep on persevering” — that’s her message to other children aspiring to be good musicians.
Esther Ada, her mother, said her daughter plans to study music in college and eventually become a music teacher.
Calvo has been playing the violin for 10 years. She enrolled at DoReMi under the tutelage of Ao Zhang, the school president and music director, when she was six years old.
In 2009, Calvo played the violin with the Saipan Southern High School Band and with the Pacific Winds Band in the Friends of the Arts’ musical production of “My Fair Lady.” Calvo is a junior student at SSHS.
Zhang said not a lot of people on Saipan can play the violin.
He described Calvo as a very good and fast learner.
“Our school teaches high-level music,” he said.
Zhang said his students’ “success is also the success of the school and we want to impart and share more of our skills with the people of the CNMI.”
The other three gold medalists who represented DoReMi were Zhen Yu Su, 14, Alan Yu Tudela, 10, and Xiao Mei Su, 16.
Tudela topped the young artists competition while sister and brother Xiao and Zhen topped the ensemble competition.
The 2011 Tumon Bay Music Festival took place from March 4 to 12.
The participants represented community, church, military and education institutions on Guam, the CNMI and the Western Pacific region.
