Fischoff Chamber Music Competition Names 2025 Winners

Juilliard’s Katarina String Quartet has won the senior string division and the Cerus Quartet was awarded gold in the senior wind division

Founded in 1973 and hosted by the Fischoff National Chamber Music Association, the annual Fischoff Competition has since welcomed over 8,000 promising musicians from numerous US states and nationalities.

The Katarina String Quartet has won both the Grand Prize and Gold Medal with prizes totalling $20,000, including a Double Gold tour and a concert engagement at the Emilia Romagna Festival in Italy next summer. 

The 2025 medalists and prize winners are:

Senior String Division

• Grand Prize & Gold Medal: Katarina String Quartet | The Juilliard School
• Silver Medal and Horszowski Trio Prize for String Division Piano Ensemble: Trio Eris | New England Conservatory 
• Bronze Medal: Trio Timia | Schulich School of Music, McGill University

Junior String Division

• Gold Medal and Horszowski Trio Prize for String Division Piano Ensembles: Aves Trio | Young Chamber Musicians
• Silver Medal: Doxa Quartet | The Colburn School
• Bronze Medal: Quartetto Speranza | Midwest Young Artists Conservatory
• Kenneth Geoffroy Memorial Award: Benediction Trio | South Bend, IN

Senior Wind Division

• Gold Medal: Cerus Quartet | University of Michigan
• Silver Medal and Lift Every Voice Prize: Blitz | Indiana University
• Bronze Medal: Halite Quartet | Michigan State University

Junior Wind Division

• Gold Medal: Arcturus Quartet | Independence High School, TX
• Silver Medal: Astraea Quartet | Lake Travis High School & James Bowie High School, TX
• Bronze Medal: Reinecke Trio | National Symphony Youth Fellowship Program, DC
• American Brass Quintet Brass Ensemble Prize: The Bone Rangers | @Merit School of Music

The strings division jurors included Daniel Avshalomov, Anne Francis Bayless, Gershon Gerchikov, and Margaret Kampmeier, plus Timothy Lovelace, Jesse Mills, and Renee Skerik. 

The jury for the wind divisions comprised Kevin Cobb, Judith Mendenhall, Doug O’Connor, and Denise Tryon, as well as Tony Baker, Matt Landry, and Susan Nelson. Additionally, the Lift Every Voice Prize jury included William Eddins, Jennifer Grim, and Muneko Otani.