Finalists Announced at New York’s 2024 Barbash Bach String Competition

Four artists have been selected to compete in the Finals on October 17, 2024

Open to international string players 16 to 30 years of age, the Lillian and Maurice Barbash J.S. Bach String Competition focuses entirely on the unaccompanied string Partitas, Sonatas, and Suites of J.S. Bach.

The 2024 finalists are violinists Anna Okada, Isabelle Durrenberger, and Emily Richardson; and cellist Julia Lee.

The Finals will be held at Stony Brook University’s Staller Center Recital Hall at 1 PM (ET) on Thursday, October 17, and will stream live here on The Violin Channel.

Violinist Anna Okada has been selected as an alternate who will perform in the event if one of the Finalists cannot participate.

The 2024 Grand Prize Winner will receive $5,000, plus a number of performance invitations, and second prize is awarded with $1,000. 

The Grand Prize Winner will also perform as a soloist at the annual Island Symphony Bach Festival which will be held on January 25, 2026, at St. Peter’s By-the-Sea Episcopal Church in Bay Shore, New York. The winner will receive an additional $1,000 for this performance. 

The jury will comprise violinists Ingrid Matthews and Soovin Kim; violist Katherine Murdock; cellist Colin Carr; and harpsichordist Arthur Haas.

Finalist Anna Okada is a graduate of Whitman College and Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where she studied with Stanley Ritchie. Together with violinists Lydia Becker, Sarah Bleile, and Julia Connor, Anna is a founding member of the Berwick Fiddle Consort, which focuses on the shared traits and roots of historical performance practice and traditional fiddling. Anna and SeungAh Hong form Duo Gem, a duo dedicated to historically informed performances of cello and violin duets of the Baroque and Classical periods. Anna is also a member of Las Aves, a research-oriented ensemble that produces historically informed programs of Renaissance and early Baroque chamber music.

Violinist Isabelle Durrenberger is a 2023-25 fellow of Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect program. The upcoming season will see her perform with the Boston Chamber Music Society, Jupiter Chamber Players, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, The Knights, and the GRAMMY-nominated ensemble A Far Cry.

A prizewinner of the Antonio Janigro International Cello Competition and recipient of the Mary Alice Cox Award, cellist Julia Lee has performed with the Ocala Symphony and University of Florida chamber orchestra. Among Lee’s collaborators include Clive Greensmith, Noah Bendix-Balgley, Catherine Cho, Robert McDonald, and Inon Barnatan.

Violinist player Emily Richardson received her bachelor's and master's degrees at Rice University, studying with Paul Kantor. A finalist in the 2021 Mika Hasler Competition, she has performed as a soloist with the Las Vegas Philharmonic, Fairbanks Symphony, Ottawa Chamber Symphony, Pacific Palisades Symphony, Henderson Symphony, and Crossroads Chamber Orchestra.