Penultimate Day of Classic Cello’s First Round Comes to a Close at the Royal College of Music in London
Helmed by President Konstantin Ishkhanov and Artistic Director Alexander Chaushian, the competition, which is organised by CMDI Group, has been making headlines within the international classical music sphere, with talented participants drawn from all around the world to vie for a prize fund exceeding €130,000, along with various Special Prizes and Awards.
“It’s a real honour to be able to come here and play for these wonderful judges”, said US contestant Carson Ling-Efird. “I just played my first round and it was a really great experience. The hall sounds really nice and I’m just really happy to be here to share music and share the work I’ve been putting into my repertoire.”
Indeed, with the First Round now well underway, audiences and jury members alike have been treated to an increasingly nuanced display of musicianship. The required programme, anchored by a Prelude from one of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Suites for Solo Cello, is serving as a strong foundation upon which competitors are building highly individual interpretations, complemented by works drawn from a richly varied list of composers including Claude Debussy, Fanny Mendelssohn, Robert Schumann, Rita Strohl, Benjamin Britten, Sofia Gubaidulina, and György Ligeti.
Overseeing the performances is an eminent jury panel chaired by Chaushian, and featuring internationally respected figures including Dorran Alibaud (France), Deborah Borda (USA), Angela Dixon (UK), Kathryn Enticott (UK), Michael Haefliger (Switzerland), Ursula Haselböck (Austria), Paul Hughes (UK), Florian Leonhard (UK), Julian Lloyd Webber (UK), and James Williams (UK).
I think this is definitely the biggest cello competition there’s ever been in the UK”, Lloyd Webber said. “I can only remember one cello competition which was in the early sixties; it was up in Manchester, and it was a very long time ago. So this is a wonderful event for the UK, and it’s great to see it at the Royal College of Music where I was a student, I'm thoroughly enjoying it!”
“There’s generally a very high standard of contestants”, he continued. Quite a varying standard I think, and the Second Round will be uniformly of a very high standard I’m sure. It’s never easy being a juror because people have worked so hard to get this far and they’re all excellent players otherwise they wouldn’t be here, but I think there is something that usually comes through very clearly, and I think that whoever wins this competition is going to be somebody special, and a truly marvellous player!”
With just one day remaining in the First Round, anticipation now is building ahead of the announcement of those who will progress to the next stage. The Second Round will take place from 31st March to 2nd April, before the competition concludes with a Final Round that shall see the finest cellists performing alongside the Philharmonia Orchestra, London, under the direction of conductor Tomàs Grau (Spain).
