Former UCLA piano student takes talent to Miss California pageant

Shanice Aaron unwraps a cardboard care package from her mother brimming with healthy snacks, sparkling cosmetics and a pair of sky-high heels.

The contents are not just gifts, but preparation materials to help transform Aaron into a pageant queen. After submitting her application in August, Aaron was selected as one of 120 young women who will be competing in Long Beach Dec. 5-6 for the title of Miss California USA.

However, Aaron is not in California: She lives in New York. The L.A. native and former UCLA piano performance student transferred to New York City this year to pursue conservatory piano training at the Mannes School of Music at The New School. Though she’s thousands of miles away, Aaron said she feels strong ties to the sunny state, leading to her decision to partake in the Miss California competition, her first pageant.

Aaron said she was initially inspired to compete in pageants after seeing the positive traits of past winners.

“When I looked at the other winners of (Miss California), they all seem very confident in themselves, and they know who they are,” Aaron said, “I just want to be that kind of girl who doesn’t show negativity.”

For Aaron, distance has been a hurdle for competing. She said she had to jump on a plane back to the City of Angels at the beginning of October for an orientation to get acquainted with the other participants and past winners. She will have to take another week off school after Thanksgiving to meet with her hair and makeup stylist and interview coach.

Fortunately, she said her professors have been very understanding of her taking time away from school to compete.

“At Mannes, the professors are very helpful because they want their musicians attending competitions,” Aaron said. “They’ve been taking (the pageant) very seriously.”

Hectic travel schedules aside, Aaron said the biggest adjustment for her has been maintaining a strict regime of personal upkeep. She compares the rigorous preparation to that of being a UCLA athlete, carefully watching her diet and fitting in hot yoga sessions between classes.

Aaron said she watches and reads up on daily news and politics to prepare herself for interview rounds, and she regularly practices strutting in the heels her mother sent her to perfect her catwalk.

“I’m most worried about tripping,” Aaron said. “I’ve seen accidents happen where girls did fall, but they just acted really confident and like nothing happened, so that’s what I’m trying to take note of.”

One aspect of competing that Aaron is not concerned about, however, is taking the stage. Since starting piano lessons 11 years ago, Aaron has performed before audiences countless times as a piano student at UCLA and performer at the Bowdoin International Music Festival. She will be tackling her biggest stage yet during her Carnegie Hall debut this coming March as a winner of the American Protégé International Competition of Romantic Music.

Aaron’s private teacher of six years, Anli Lin Tong, said training as an advanced classical pianist has instilled valuable performance skills in Aaron.

“In a pageant … I can only imagine having to try to keep your focus and being able to hold your own on stage no matter the pressure,” Tong said. “I think that comes from the years and years of classical training.”

Tong said she thinks the judges understand the kind of talent, effort and dedication it takes to be a classical musician. Another of Tong’s previous students won the Miss Talent title at the Miss Asian America pageant in San Francisco in August.

“Pianists are expected to learn and perform thousands of notes as a soloist from memory,” Tong said. “Some really steely nerves are required.”

Aaron’s mother, Mika Horiika, initially put her daughter in piano lessons. While Aaron was in high school, her mother drove her two hours each way to private piano lessons twice a week. Aaron’s mother has been supportive throughout her Miss California endeavors.

“When I saw the other girls participating, they were all so well educated, smart and carried themselves really elegantly,” Horiika said. “I’m really glad to have (Aaron) be among them.”

Horiika said no matter the outcome, she hopes her daughter will build confidence, poise and professionalism as a participant.

Thus far, Aaron said her biggest takeaway from preparing for the pageant has been learning to not compare herself to the competition.

“There are so many pretty girls, so many pretty dresses, but you have to find your own style,” Aaron said. “It’s just like with performing at the piano, you have to find yourself and own it.”