Lincoln Center’s Chamber Music Society Announces Bowers Program Artists

Ten emerging artists, including many VC Young Artists, have been selected for the three-year residency, where they will perform alongside the society’s musicians

The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center (CMS) has announced nine individual musicians and one ensemble for its highly competitive three-season residency, the Bowers Program.

Providing emerging artists with opportunities to perform, tour, and teach alongside CMS musicians, the program will enrich their paths to professional careers and to perform chamber music at the highest level.

Chosen from an international pool of 168 candidates through intensive auditions, the final 10 participants hail from seven countries and are aged between 22 and 32. 

The 2024-2027 Bowers Program participants are:

• Nina Bernat, 22, double bass, 22 (USA) | 2023 Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient
• VC Young Artist Sterling Elliott, 23, cello (USA) | 2021 Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient
• Anna Geniushene, 32, piano (Russia) | 2022 Silver Medalist, Van Cliburn International Piano Competition
• Sahun Sam Hong, 28, piano (South Korea) | 2017 Vendome Prize winner at Verbier, 2021 American Pianists Award recipient
• Lun Li, 27, violin (China) | 2021 Young Concert Artists Susan Wadsworth International Auditions First Prize winner
• Evren Ozel, 24, piano (USA) | 2023 Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient
• VC Artist Julian Rhee, 22, violin (USA) | 2020 Elmar Oliveira International Competition First Prize winner
• VC Young Artist Jonathan Swensen, 26, cello (USA / Denmark) | 2022 Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient
• Juri Vallentin, 32, oboe (Germany) | 2019 International Tchaikovsky Competition prizewinner as first oboist
• VC Young Artist Viano Quartet | 2019 Banff International String Quartet Competition first prize winner
  • Lucy Wang, 26, violin (Canada), Hao Zhou, 26, violin (USA), Aiden Kane, 27, viola (USA), Tate Zawadiuk, 25, cello (Canada)

The artists will perform with the CMS at its venues in New York, and across many U.S. cities and abroad. They will also take part in the CMS education and community outreach programs.

Additionally, they will have the chance to be part of the CMS roster, where 50% of its current members comprise Bowers alumni, current cohort members, and incoming members of the program. 

“Each musician who makes it to the Bowers auditions finals is at the top of their game. While it is enormously inspiring to hear such playing, the uniformly high level makes it all the more difficult to arrive at conclusions,” said CMS artistic directors Wu Han and David Finckel, who head the Bowers Program jury of chamber music artists and distinguished artistic administrators.

“This year our new roster of Bowers artists received enthusiastic, positive votes from the entire panel,” Han and Finckel continued. “The CMS audience has a real treat in store, and we offer these extraordinary young players our heartiest congratulations and warmest welcome.”

“[The program] was absolutely indispensable to me when I first moved to the United States,” added pianist and alum Inon Barnatan. “It was an immediate introduction to one of the top cultural centers in the world, some of the top presenters and concert halls in the country, and a connection to a group of fantastic musicians, most of whom are still in my musical life more than 15 years later.”

The Bowers Program first began in 1994, as “CMS Two.” Ever since, 101 individual artists and 11 ensembles program alumni have become world-leading artists, including Hilary Hahn, Alisa Weilerstein, Anthony McGill, and the Miró, Escher, and Danish String Quartets, among others.

“The beginning of my time in the Bowers program coincided with the massive impact of the COVID lockdown, and I was deeply moved by CMS’s fervent and continued efforts to connect us all through livestreams and the like, both as performers and as audience members,” said violinist Stella Chen, currently participating in the Bowers Program, and soon to become an alumna. “Since those early days, I’ve enjoyed playing concerts and tours with many on this spectacular roster of artists, who are not only exquisite musicians but the most charismatic people, with hearts of gold. I feel privileged to have been part of such a supportive team, not only when we were on stage performing, but also during rehearsals, travels, and many meals together. I have made both friendships and musical partnerships through CMS that will last a lifetime!”