BREAKING | Three Finalists Announced at 2021 Geneva Cello Competition

The Final Round will be held on Thursday 28 October with conductor Georg Fritzsch and the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande — and will be streamed LIVE here on The Violin Channel

The candidates progressing to the Final Round of this year’s 2021 Geneva International Cello Competition, in Geneva, Switzerland, are:

• Jaemin Han (15, South Korea)
  

• Bryan Cheng (24, Canada)

• Michiaki Ueno (25, Japan)

The Jury also took into account the originality, the choice of repertoire, and the variety of candidates’ performances.

For the Final Round, each of the finalists will perform either Schumann's, Elgar's, Lutoslawski's, Shostakovich's 2nd Cello Concerto, or Dutilleux's "Tout un monde lointain."

Open to cellists aged 14 to 30, this year's first prize winner will receive CHF 20,000 plus an invitation to join the competition's two-year career development program — providing valuable career advice and coaching plus concert and recording opportunities.

Approximately ten laureates from this year's competition will also be invited to join a special workshop to discuss important industry and career-starter topics with a panel of experts, including career strategies, how to get the appropriate attention of agents, presenters, and producers, and the basic know-hows of contracts, rights, and health.

36 candidates were originally selected to take part in the online opening round of this year's competition, with eight young musicians then invited to Geneva to compete in the Semi-Final and Final stages of the competition live in person.

"We will be hosting a hybrid competition this year — virtual for the first round and live in-person, in Geneva, for the semi-final and finals rounds," Didier Schnorhk, Secretary-General of the Geneva International Music Competition, told The Violin Channel.

"We this year have also lowered the application fee, to take into consideration the financial difficulties of our young artists, and we have also provided financial and technical support for all first-round candidates with the recording of their videos. This year, we have also made the decision to cover the cost of all semi-finalists invited to Geneva in October," he has said.

"As you can imagine, these are all important changes we felt necessary to support our young musicians."

As the official media and broadcast partner, all rounds of this year's competition, both virtual and live, will be streamed right here on The Violin Channel and will be available for playback.

The 2021 jury comprises Ivan Monighetti (Chair), Thomas Demenga, Michaela Fukačová, Ophélie Gaillard, Clive Greensmith, Qin Li-Wei, and Shauna Rolston.