By Aozora Ito, Staff Writer
On Sept. 21, Dustin Ngo (‘18) passed the quarterfinal for a television show, VSTAR Kids.
Although the semifinal will be aired in the next two weeks, he has already gone through the semifinal and is getting ready for the final round.
Ngo started playing the piano when he was six years old and started competing in seventh grade. Ngo spoke about his experience on his first competition in Glendale.
“I didn’t win but it was a good experience,” said Ngo. “I saw this guy better than me, so I did whatever I can to practice and get better to beat him.”
In mid-July, his father’s friend introduced him to the audition for VSTAR Kids. Usually, Ngo spends a maximum of one hour on practice, but due to the competition, he spends more than four hours every day.
It all began with a video audition that Ngo sent to the show. After passing the video audition, he aced the live audition, which made him an official competitor of VSTAR Kids.
The show consists of four rounds: elimination, quarterfinals, semifinals and the finals. Usually, the shows are pre-recorded onstage with four judges, then aired on television, except for the finals which are aired live with audiences.
Ngo plays mostly classical pieces, but he combines them with Vietnamese songs to make his original pieces.
“Most of my renditions are original. No one else’s performances are like mine because I add background music and combine different pieces together to make it unique,” Ngo said.
Currently, there are around 14 competitors ranging from the ages six to 15 years old. The final round will be held on Oct. 9 in the Saigon Performing Arts Theater.
