VC ARTIST

VC Artist and Colombian cellist Santiago Cañón-Valencia is a prolific soloist, composer, commissioner, recording artist, painter, and photographer. A 2022 BBC Next Generation Artist, Santiago was born in Bogotá in 1995 and made his orchestral debut as a soloist when he was six years old with the Orquesta Filarmónica de Bogotá.

After a summer of recitals in the U.K., Germany, Italy, Spain, and Korea, Santiago launches his 2024-2025 season with the Camerata Pacifica on a California tour with VC Artist Paul Huang and Gilles Vonsattel. He performs as a featured soloist across Europe, including concerts with the Orchestra of Extremadura led by Juan Pablo Valencia in Spain and the Niederbayerische Philharmonic conducted by Ektoras Tartanis in Germany. In North America, he returns to the Phoenix Symphony with conductor Julian Rachlin and Symphony Nova Scotia with conductor Holly Mathieson in Halifax, Canada. He also makes his debut in a recital presented by The Phillips Collection with pianist Victor Asunción in Washington, D.C.

Santiago’s 2023-2024 season highlights included his Wigmore Hall recital debut; broadcasts with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Ulster Orchestra; debuts with the Danish Chamber Orchestra and Belgrade Philharmonic; returns to the Latvian National Orchestra, RTVE Orchestra, and Belgrade Philharmonic; U.S. recitals; returns to the Alabama Symphony and the Mostly Cello Festival in Korea; and performances in Colombia to celebrate his latest album Ascenso (2022, Sono Luminus) and perform with the National Symphony Orchestra. In the summer of 2024, he celebrated the 100th birthday of Janos Starker in Korea and Japan.

Among his many accolades, Santiago won Silver Medal at the 2019 XVI International Tchaikovsky Competition; the 2018 Starker Foundation Award; Third Prize at the 2017 Queen Elisabeth International Competition; First Prize at the Carlos Prieto International Cello Competition, Beijing International Music Competition, Gisborne International Music Competition and Lennox International Young Artists Competition; and major prizes at the Sphinx, Casals, Johansen, Cassadó and Adam Competitions.

Santiago's solo career has taken him around the world to perform with such orchestras as the Mariinsky Orchestra, Frankfurt Radio Orchestra, Brussels Philharmonic, SWR Symphonieorchester, Saint Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Antwerp Symphony, Moscow Soloists Chamber Orchestra, and all of the major orchestras in Colombia.

Santiago performed in the world premiere of Carlos Izcaray's Cello Concerto Stringmaster as soloist with the Alabama Symphony Orchestra, the Colombian premiere of Ginastera's Cello Concerto No. 2 with the National Symphony Orchestra of Colombia, the world premiere of Jorge Pinzón's Cello Concerto "Rapsodia a los 4 Elementos" at the Cartagena International Music Festival, and Friedrich Gulda's Cello Concerto with the Auckland Chamber Orchestra.

As a recording artist, Santiago Cañón-Valencia enjoys immersing himself in known and unknown works, particularly in commissioning new pieces, arranging, and composing. Recordings include his debut release Solo, an album with pianist Andrea Lucchesini dedicated to Schubert and Beethoven for the Egea Label, an album of Russian cello sonatas and popular pieces of the cello repertoire with pianist Katherine Austin for the Atoll label and his latest recording, Ascenso, released in November 2022 on Sono Luminus.

Santiago Cañón-Valencia has been sponsored by the Mayra & Edmundo Esquenazi Scholarship through the Salvi Foundation since 2011.