Three cellists will compete for the €15,000 top prize in Bucharest, Romania
Following the cello semi-finals of the George Enescu International Competition at Bucharest’s Romanian Athenaeum on Sunday 8 September, the following three cellists will proceed to the final: US cellist Haddon Kay, 24, Japanese cellist Yo Kitamura, 20, and Italian cellist Ettore Pagano, 21.
The final will take place at the Romanian Athenaeum on 10 September. The competitors will perform a concerto with the Romanian National Radio Orchestra, conducted by Jonathan Bloxham. Both Kay and Kitamura will perform Dvořák’s Cello Concerto in B minor, while Pagano will play Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto no.1
The finalists are competiting for a €15,000 net top prize. Special prizes includes the Serafim Antropov Prize for the best performance of George Enescu’s Cello Sonata no.2 (€3,000 net), a prize offered by the Purcari Winery for the highest ranked competitor from the Republic of Moldova (€2,000 gross), a prize for the best performance of the mandatory work (€2,000 net) and the Audience Award (€1,000 net). The second prize is €10,000 net and third prize is €5,000 net.
Chinese-American cellist Haddon Kay is a master’s student at Northwestern University in Illinois, US, where he studies with Hans Jørgen Jensen. He has also participated in the Queen Elisabeth Competition and is the winner of the Concerto/Aria Competition at Northwestern University. He is a founding member of the Galvin Cello Quartet, with which he won the Concert Artists Guild’s 2022 Victor Elmaleh Competition.
Japanese cellist Yo Kitamura is a graduate of the Berlin University of the Arts, where he studied with Jens Peter Maintz. He is a first prize winner of the 2023 International Johannes Brahms Competition and the 2023 Japan Music Competition, and a second prize winner at the 2022 Khachaturian International Competition.
Italian cellist Ettore Pagano is a past student of the Chigiana International Music Academy and the Stauffer Academy, where he studied with Antonio Meneses. He is a first prize winner of the 2022 Khachaturian International Competition, 2020 International Johannes Brahms Competition and 2019 Filharmonica della Scala Scholarship Competition.
The cello jury of the 2024 George Enescu International Competition is presided by Arto Noras and comprises Marin Cazacu, Enrico Dindo, Leonid Gorokhov, Charlotte Lee, Dan Prelipcean, Valentin Răduțiu, Meehae Ryo and Raimun Trenkler.
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