Susan Merdinger, Founder and Artistic Director of Sheridan Music Studio is pleased to announce the two winners of the Scott Joplin Memorial Scholarship Award for 2020. Based on merit alone, this award includes a scholarship valued at approximately $1500 to each student.  The competition for this scholarship is offered to serious students of piano who represent minorities or persons of color, and there is no fee to apply.

Indian-American pianist, Annika Huprikar, has been a piano and composition student of Susan Merdinger for the past 5 years and recently graduated from Deerfield High School as the Valedictorian of her Class of 2020. She became a National Merit Scholar and also won the prestigious Coca-Cola Scholarship. While in High School she was a Winner of numerous local, state and national awards, including the ILMEA Prize in in Composition. She also performed in Carnegie Hall twice and soloed with orchestras twice during her high school years. She  was also honored as a Winner at the INTEL Science Fair, for her award-winning original design of an App to help children develop better nutritional habits. After her acceptance to many prestigious Ivy-League Colleges and  Universities and Music Conservatories, such as Cornell, Columbia, Duke, Rice, Berklee College of Music and Carnegie Mellon Schools of Music and Computer Science, Annika decided to matriculate at Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a Computer Science and Music Major. She plans to pursue a career in Computer Science, Music Technology, and as a composer/performer. Annika will continue to study piano privately with Susan Merdinger for the Fall Semester of her Freshman year, as a recipient of the Scott Joplin Memorial Scholarship Award.

Rosalba (Rosa) Salinas is a pianist of Mexican descent, who was born in San Antonio, Texas and moved with her family to Chicago in 1982.  She studied with Jirina Serwas at American Music World (1997-2007) and continued classical and piano improvisation at Sherwood Conservatory of Music at Columbia College (2008-2011) under the instructions of Dr. Thomas Jefferson.  She subsequently began studies with Susan Merdinger and has continued studying on and off until the present. Rosa currently serves as the pianist of the Lakeview Hispanic Church, having been a pianist at dozens of churches since 1998. She has also been a piano teacher at the Ravenswood Montessori School, where she discovered her gift of teaching. Currently, she is on faculty at The Family Piano Company in Golf Mill, IL and at Sheridan Music Studio- Chicago, where she is currently accepting Beginner to Intermediate students. Ms. Salinas is nearing completion of a Certificate in Piano Pedagogy at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, Canada, and is continuing to pursue a career in piano pedagogy after many years working as a Administrative Assistant and Paralegal for the Jurisprudence Health Law Group, and as a HACCP certified Lab Technician Assistant in the General Packaging Products factory. This Scott Joplin Memorial Scholarship will enable Rosa to continue her studies with Susan, in order to further her piano teaching career and church music ministry.

Merdinger says of these two students, “Annika and Rosa are truly deserving of this honor and recognition because of their true talent, passion and commitment to music as well as the incredible hard work that they have demonstrated in their piano studies. They will each have a great impact in the field of music due to their talent and dedication.”

The Annual Scott Joplin Memorial Scholarship Award will be presented once a year, with a deadline of July 1st. There is no fee to apply, and it is open to high school and college students.