Classical Music News

New York’s 2024 Naumburg International Cello Competition Announces Candidates

October 15, 2024

2 MIN READ

The competition's semi-final and final round will be streamed on The Violin Channel on October 18 & 20

Established in 1926 by banker and amateur cellist Walter Wehle Naumburg, the Walter W. Naumburg Foundation and its competitions support young classical musicians to launch their professional careers.

The semi-final round will take place on October 18 at Manhattan School of Music's (MSM) Greenfield Hall and on October 20, the final round will be held at MSM's Neidorff-Karpati Hall. Both rounds will be streamed LIVE on The Violin Channel.

The competing candidates include:

Andrew Byun
Michael Song
Sam Chung
Shengyu Meng
Zhihao Wu
Jonathan Swensen
Constantin Siepermann
Geirþrúður Anna Guðmundsdóttir
Yushi Izumi
Daniel Hamin Go
Tae-Yeon Kim
Shun-Ming Yang
Aaron Wolff
Edward Luengo
Chase Park
Jakob Taylor
Andres Sanchez
Connor Kim
Alexander Hersh
Amy Goto
James Kim
John-Henry Crawford
Megan Yip
Josh Halpern
Johannes Gray
Lila Holyoke
Sydney Lee
Robin Park
Rainer Crosett
Olivia Marckx
Miriam Smith
Gabriel Martins
Peter Eom
Leland Ko
Elena Ariza
Mei Hotta
Julia Lee

The jury for the preliminary round includes Thomas Demenga, Steven Doane, David Geber (Jury Chair), Bonnie Hampton, Philippe Muller, and Hannah Roberts.

This year’s cello edition will award the first prize winner $25,000, two fully subsidized NYC recitals, and a commissioned work. Second prize is valued at $15,000, while third place is awarded with $10,000.

The foundation's competition cycles through various instruments every year. The editions have featured piano, saxophone, chamber music performance, voice, composition, violin, classical guitar, viola, clarinet, flute, and conducting.

Previous winners have included VC Artist Tessa Lark, VC Artist Merz Trio, Louis Kaufman, Li-Wei Qin, Clancy Newman, Robert Mann, Berl Senofsky, Joseph Silverstein, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, Leonidas Kavakos, Axel Strauss, and Frank Huang.