Nine Finalists Selected as Classic Cello’s Second Round Concludes
Organised by CMDI, and led by President Konstantin Ishkhanov, the inaugural edition of Classic Cello has been unfolding in the UK capital since the 26th of March, and will be running until the 6th of April. Starting out with 40 cellists, gathered together from all four corners of the world, the contest has now whittled them down to a select list of nine, representing the very finest cello talents of their generation.
Listed in alphabetical order by surname, these finalists are:
● Artyom Ioanisyan (Armenia)
● Jung A. Kim (South Korea)
● Noah Lee (USA)
● Vesper Park (South Korea)
● Yi Joon Park (South Korea)
● Elliot Sloss (Canada)
● Francesco Stefanelli (San Marino/Italy)
● Hayk Sukiasyan (Armenia)
● Mikayel Voskanyan (Armenia)
Over the Second Round, each of the musicians presented a recital performance at the Royal College’s celebrated Amaryllis Fleming Concert Hall, interpreting one work from a set list that included pieces by Henriëtte Bosmans, Ludwig van Beethoven, Sergey Prokofiev, Henriette Renié, and Mieczyslaw Weinberg, as well as any compositions of their choice up to 25 minutes in duration. Now, for this concluding phase, they will be taking to the stage alongside theacclaimed Philharmonia Orchestra, London, under the baton of distinguished Spanish conductor Tomàs Grau.
“It’s amazing to be here”, said finalist Francesco Stefanelli. “The Amaryllis Fleming Concert Hall is truly amazing. The First Round venue was great as well but this one is super special because we see videos online about this hall, and we hear about it a lot, so it was a special moment for me to play here. This round was challenging from one point of view because it was longer and the pieces I chose were more challenging, but somehow I was more worried for the First Round because you had three completely different genres. Here it was a recital, so I could focus completely on that. Now I’m looking forward to the final! It will be the first time I get to play Elgar with an orchestra so I’m very excited about that!”.
For this stage, which will run from the 4th to the 6th of the month, each cellist will be presenting two full concertos; one from a predetermined list that includes Edouard Lalo’s Cello Concerto in D minor, Edward Elgar’s Cello Concerto in E minor, Op. 85, and Robert Schumann’s Cello Concerto in A minor, Op. 129, and another from the pen of Classic Cello’s Composer-in-Residence Alexey Shor, with participants being required to choose from one of the renowned contemporary composer’s three cello concertos.
“We’ve just finalised a complete week at the Classic Cello competition, and it’s been a wonderful week”, declared juror Ursula Haselböck. “We have listened to many aspiring young cellists, the level is incredibly high, and it’s been wonderful to be with so many esteemed jury members here. You can feel that everyone is very committed to this competition. Now after the second round it’s interesting to have listened to the candidates twice, once with solo performances and piano, and now with an entire one hour recital. It was very interesting to hear them from all sides, and to see them putting together a programme is another very interesting aspect. They had a lot of free choice for this round, and the range of pieces chosen was very interesting, with many small pieces and some even selecting entire sonatas. For me it’simportant to see how they put together programmes because that’s something that a professional musician should know how to do.”
“Now, we will soon get to see them with the Philharmonia”, she continued. “A winner of a competition like this has to fulfil many requirements, including of course playing with an orchestra. This is a different way of presenting yourself and some contestants are very young so I don't know how often they’ve already played with an orchestra, so I’m very excited and very eager to see what awaits us in the Final Round."
At the close of this upcoming final phase, the jury panel, comprised of Artistic Director and Jury Chairman Alexander Chaushian, alongside Julian Lloyd Webber (UK), Florian Leonhard (UK), Deborah Borda (USA), Paul Hughes (UK), Dorran Alibaud (France), Ursula Haselböck (Austria), James Williams (UK), Kathryn Enticott (UK), Angela Dixon (UK), and Michael Haefliger (Switzerland), will be crowning the most accomplished cellist from this gifted cohort, who will be walking away with a First Prize of €50,000. The remaining finalists will all take home a share of the competition’s prize fund of more than €130,000, while all the contestants present in this stage will be in for a chance to win any of the numerous Special Prizes and Awards that are on offer.
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