Isang Yun International Cello Competition Announces 2018 Prize Winners
Isang Yun International Cello Competition Winners Announced! Christine Jeong Hyoung Lee of Korea and Sang Eun Lee of Korea share the First Prize in the 2018 Isang Yun International Cello Competition. When the scores of an international jury of nine were tallied, the two received mathematically identical scores. Each received $25,000. Lev Sivkov of Russia received Third Prize and $10,000 for his performance of the Dvorak Concerto. Christine Jeong Hyong Lee performed the following program in the three rounds: First Round Program J. S. Bach: Prelude and Sarabande from Suite for Cello Solo No. 4 BWV 1010 Benjamin Britten: Suite for Cello Solo No. 1 Op. 72 (7th, 8th and 9th movements only) Isang Yun: Glissees for Solo Cello (1970) Second Round Program Isang Yun: EspaceⅠ(1992) L. v. Beethoven: Sonata for Cello [...]
Cellist Jeremy Tai Wins Irving M. Klein International String Competition 2017
Reposted from The Strad. The 18-year-old Bienen School of Music student receives the top prize of $13,000 and concert engagements Cellist Jeremy Tai has won first prize at the 32nd Annual Irving M. Klein International String Competition, held at San Francisco Conservatory of Music. The 18-year-old California native, who is currently studying with Hans Jørgen Jensen at the Bienen School of Music at Northwestern University, received the top prize of $13,000 and concert engagements for his final round performance of Lisa Bielawa’s Insomnia Etude #3, and works of Grieg and Prokofiev. Second prize, worth $5,500, went to 20-year-old violist Zhanbo Zheng, while third prize, worth $2,500, went to 20-year-old violinist Kyumin Park. This year’s winners were whittled down from 99 applicants from 13 countries, aged between 15 and 23, by [...]
French Cellist Victor Julien-Laferrière Wins Queen Elisabeth Competition 2017
Reposted from The Strad. "Victor Julien-Laferrière has this evening been named the winner of the Queen Elisabeth Competition 2017. The 26-year-old French cellist triumphed in finals, held throughout this week in Brussels’ Palais des Beux Arts, performing the compulsory commission by Toshio Hosokawa and Shostakovich’s First Cello Concerto with the Brussels Philharmonic conducted by Stéphane Denève. He receives a grand prize of €25,000 and concert opportunities. Second prize, worth €20,000, was awarded to 22-year-old Japanese cellist Yuya Okamoto, while third prize, worth €17,000 went to 22-year-old Colombian cellist Santiago Cañón-Valencia. 22-year-old Aurélien Pascal from France, 25-year-old Ivan Karizna from Belarus and 22-year-old Brannon Cho from the US received the €12,000 fourth prize, €10,000 fifth prize and €8,000 sixth prize respectively. The remaining six unranked finalists—Sihao He, Seungmin Kang, Maciej Kułakowski, JeongHyoun Christine Lee, Yan Levionnois and Bruno Philippe—each received [...]
Cellist Taeguk Mun wins $25,000 János Starker Foundation Award
Reprinted from The Strad 12/14/2016 South Korean cellist Taeguk Mun has won the János Starker Foundation Award, worth $25,000. Granted to cellists under the age of 30 ‘who have already begun a significant career in music’, the prize was created in memory of legendary Hungarian-American cellist and pedagogue János Starker, who died in April 2013 at the age of 88. Candidates submit an unedited video recording of six works, representing Pre-Classical, Classical, Romantic, 20th Century and Contemporary eras of Western music. A former Juilliard School student, Mun is currently a pupil of Laurence Lesser at the New England Conservatory in Boston. He won the Pablo Casals International Cello Competition in 2014, and the Andre Navarra International Cello Competition in 2011.
Walter W. Naumburg International Cello Competition 2015
The final round of the Naumburg 2015 International Cello Competition was held yesterday afternoon at Manhattan School of Music in New York City. The first-prize winner is Lev Sivkov. Mr. Sivkov, a native of Russia, is 25 years old and currently studies in Germany. Mr. Sivkov receives a cash award of $15,000 and two fully subsidized New York recitals. First-prize winner Lev Sivkov with pianist Evan Solomn Two cellists tied for second place. They are Jay Campbell, age 26, who is doing his post graduate studies at Juilliard, and Brannon Cho, age 21, who currently attends the Bienen School of Music, Northwestern University. Both cellists receive a cash award of $7,500. Honorable mentions were also given to the Korean cellist Jee Hay Bae, 27 years old, who studies [...]
Announcement: Postponement of Cello Competition of Beijing International Music Competition
Beijing International Cello Competition Cancelled Earlier this summer, Beijing cancelled the violin section, but not the cello section, of its international competition. So the thirty wonderful cellists from around the world who had passed the preliminary CD round have been practicing long hours all summer. To their shock and dismay, the cello competition, scheduled to begin September 8, was yesterday “postponed” with the following letter to contestants: Announcement: Postponement of Cello Competition of Beijing International Music Competition With great regret, Beijing E-Chengwen Company Limited, the organizer of Beijing International Music Competition (BJIMC) hereby announces that the Cello Competition 2015 scheduled on September 8, 2015 is postponed due to: 1. Government Policy Change—New Operational License Required BJIMC is required to apply for license of operation each time of competition to comply with government policy. [...]
What if We All Did That? — by Martha Baldwin
OK, not to blog-rant (is that a thing?) but I’m often surprised by basic behaviors I see in music students (and professionals) and it reminds me of a saying we have in our cello section: “What if we all did that?” Here are my top 3: 1. STAY!!!!!! seriously, just stay to the end people. I realize that many student recitals seem endless but leaving as soon as you’re done playing is, simply put, rude. I’ve seen entire rows of extended family get up and leave noisily after the first performer (their kid) is finished and I’m shocked. Really? No one else matters? Your child is so special that this entire recital is there just for his/her 4 minutes of glory? People notice these things. As a side benefit - [...]
Queen Elisabeth Competition Adds 2017 Cello Discipline!
Reposted from the Queen Elisabeth Competition In 2017, the Queen Elisabeth Competition will hold a competition devoted to the cello. The decision to launch a new competition, dedicated to the cello, was a natural one, taken after meeting with a number of outstanding young cellists and against a background of worldwide enthusiasm for the instrument today. Despite this enthusiasm, it seems that the international scene has lacked a major competition devoted to the cello; the cellists approached by the Competition over recent months have reacted very favourably to the idea of establishing a competition along the same lines as the others organised by the Queen Elisabeth Competition. The incorporation of this new discipline is sure to receive a very warm welcome from music professionals, from our extensive public, and from the [...]
New England Conservatory Cellist Tony Rymer Wins Second Prize in Enescu Cello Competition
Cellist Eun-Sun Hong (South Korea), has won the 15,000 Euro First Prize at the 2014 Enescu Cello Competition in Bucharest, Romania. New England Conservatory cellist Tony Rymer (USA) received the 10,000 Euro Second Prize and Sarah Rommel of USC (USA), the 5000 Euro Third Prize. Eun-Sun Hong has performed with important international orchestras such as The Seoul Philharmonic, Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, Russia Philharmonic, and the South Korean Chamber Orchestra. At only 25, she won the Third Prize in the Tschaikovsky International Competition. Eun-Sun Hong Cellist Tony Rymer has already performed major concerti to critical acclaim with the Atlanta Symphony, Boston Pops, Cleveland Orchestra, Detroit Symphony, and Pittsburgh Symphony, among others. A native of Boston, Tony attended the Walnut Hill Arts School and then NEC, where he studied many years with CelloBello founder Paul Katz, and [...]
Competitions ≠ Success: A Student Perspective — by Lev Mamuya
Not all competitions are created equal. There are good ones and bad ones, and good and bad reasons for entering. Many kids are raised to be competitive, both musically and in school. Kids can feel pressure to do competitions from parents, teachers and peers. Sometimes it is easy to fall into the trap of thinking success can only be measured by winning competitions and that a career in music and admission to a good school are impossible without numerous wins. Competitions are good for many things, but they should not define success. They often consist of just one performance, on one particular day; success is something you achieve over many years through work and dedication. Since most competitions, at the most, will be three rounds over a short period of time, [...]