Highland Violinist Takes Top Guild Prize

Violinist Nathan Schafer of Highland won the Westmont Music Department’s 14th annual Guild Scholarship Competition and was awarded the $15,000 annual Guild Scholarship on March 7 in Deane Chapel.

This year’s incredibly talented group of musicians also included Isaac Wu, a violinist from Glendale; Ava Siebelink, a cellist from Corona; Josiah Mitchell, a baritone from Santa Barbara; Monet Pelluer, a Seattle-based soprano; and Hannah Schweiger, a violinist from Newport Beach. 

Following the recital with the six guild finalists, past Guild Scholarship winner Aaron Wu (’27) and past Guild Finalist Leah Nieman (’27) performed while the adjudicators deliberated. The panel of judges included music professors Steve Butler, Daniel Gee, Han Soo Kim, Ruth Lin, and Zig Reichwald. 

“The Music Guild awards have helped numerous highly talented students attend Westmont, and they’ve helped enhance the musical culture of our community,” says Ruth Lin, chair of the music department. “There was great camaraderie and spirit among all the student musicians. The ethos of the evening focuses on celebrating the gifts that God has granted these young adults and witnessing how they’ll honor these gifts.”

Schafer, who was joined by Westmont collaborative pianist Chika Nobumori, performed the first movements of both Henryk Wieniawski’s “Concerto No. 2 in D Minor,” and Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Sonata No. 1 in G Minor.”

Schafer, who began studying violin at the age of five, studies with Sam Fischer at the Colburn Community School of Performing Art and has been a member of the Claremont Young Musicians Orchestra since 2022.