More than 60 IUSD students were nominated for the OC Register’s Artist of the Year Awards. These students were selected as nominees for their talent, technique and heart.
IUSD’s nominations span into each category, which includes theater, dance, instrumental music, vocal music, film and TV, media arts and fine arts.
Each year, junior or senior high school students across the county can either apply for or a teacher may submit a nomination to be recognized for their excellence within their respective art disciplines. Based on the most recent data collected by the California Department of Education, 77,931 juniors and seniors were enrolled in Orange County in the 2023-2024 school year, indicating that this year’s class of nominees represents the top 1.2% of all juniors and seniors in the county.
Following this initial nomination, a panel of arts educators will choose 16 semifinalists in each discipline to move on to a round of in-person interviews with arts professionals and arts faculty from Orange County universities. The semifinalists will be announced on April 20. Each discipline's top finalists and Artist of the Year will be announced on April 27.
This year’s nominees by discipline are:
Dance
Srikrithi Sivasubramanian, Irvine High School
Elise Kong, Northwood High School
Louise Macatula, Northwood High School
Caleigh Nystrom, Northwood High School
Sophia Yang, Northwood High School
Zhongxuan An, Portola High School
Hailey Van, Portola High School
Amy Matsumoto, Woodbridge High School
Theater
Elisa Bae, Northwood High School
Hannah Davidson, Northwood High School
Ginee Hong, Northwood High School
Kamron Jamali, Northwood High School
Nikki Mila de la Roca, Northwood High School
Olivia Outwater, Northwood High School
Charlie Parris, Northwood High School
Kathleen Shumate, Northwood High School
Kyra Lynn Silver, Northwood High School
Meiwen Zajtmann, Northwood High School
Andrea Morales Concepcion, Portola High School
Kayla Henderson, Portola High School
Kimberly Wang, Portola High School
Jiaqi (Kiki) Yang, Portola High School
Francisco Ochoa, University High School
Instrumental Music
Xavier Mao, Irvine High School
Drew Maragay, Northwood High School
Lucas Nguyen, Northwood High School
Amicus Carrasco, Portola High School
Amy Lantz, University High School
Francis Lung, University High School
Josh Koines, Woodbridge High School
Sihyun Noelle Kim, Woodbridge High School
Amin Nahas, Woodbridge High School
Oooju Robinson, Woodbridge High School
Seri Ochi, Woodbridge High School
Vocal Music
Maddox Kreil, Irvine High School
Chloe Schiffman, University High School
Film & TV
Charlie Petersen, Irvine High School
Keon Rezazadeh, Northwood High School
Noah Villanueva, Northwood High School
Fine Arts
Sophie Do, Northwood High School
Hannah Gu, Northwood High School
Hyunjung Lee, Northwood High School
Angelina Lu, Northwood High School
Dante Polivka, Northwood High School
Claire Wu, Northwood High School
Sumin Kim, Portola High School
Cara Lin, Portola High School
Rachael Park, Portola High School
Jane Ryu, Portola High School
Leah Sim, Portola High School
Siyu Wu, Portola High School
Wenfeng (Kevin) Zhou, Portola High School
Pablo Matías Hernández Martínez, Woodbridge High School
Sophia Tang Nagel, University High School
Corrine Wu, University High School
Media Arts
Davyn Lee, Portola High School
Emily Law, Northwood High School
Keeks Zhang, Northwood High School
Mateo Andre, University High School
Uyen Diep, University High School
Shobi Loewenstein, University High School
Matthew J. Yoon, University High School