20-year-old violist Pearl de la Motte won the grand prize of $5,000, plus a host of performance opportunities
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The 39th Irving M. Klein International String Competition was held from 1 to 2 June 2024 at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music’s Sol Joseph Recital Hall. The competition is open to string players aged 15 to 23, with eight semi-finalists performing recitals of Bach, various concerto and sonata repertoire, plus the commissioned work by John Wineglass.
20-year-old New York violist Pearl de la Motte won the grand prize, which included $5,000 cash, funded this year by the MOCA Foundation, with performance contracts with the Peninsula and Santa Cruz Symphonies, San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, Gualala Arts Chamber Series, Music in the Vineyards, among others. The total prize package is valued at $15,000.
18-year-old Wisconsin cellist Amelia Zitoun won the second prize, given by Ruth Short in memory of Elaine H. Klein of $3,500 cash. It is valued at $5,500 with a performance with the San José Chamber Orchestra.
The third prize went to 18-year-old Alabama violinist Francis Tsai of $2,500 cash, given in memory of Milton Preves by Judith and David Anderson.
Two fourth prizes of $1,500 each were awarded, one given to 17-year-old Texas cellist Hannah Jeong by Maria Klein in memory of Jerry Lee Klein and one given to 23-year-old Korean violinist Yeji Lim.
The award of $500 for best performance of the commissioned work by John Wineglass was given to Pearl de la Motte, viola, and the award of $500 for the best performance of solo Bach was given to Francis Tsai, violin.
Each semi-finalist not awarded a named prize received $1,000: Evelyn Joung, cello, Wanxinyi Huang, viola, and Christian Luevano, bass.
The jury included Barbara Day Turner, music director of San José Chamber Orchestra, violinist and San Francisco Chamber Orchestra principal conductor, Jory Fankuchen, Daniel Stewart, music director of the Santa Cruz Symphony, Hal Robinson, former principal bass of the Philadelphia Orchestra on faculty at the Juilliard School and the Curtis Institute of Music, this year’s commissioned composer, John Wineglass, Mark Kosower, principal cellist of the Cleveland Orchestra, and Paul Yarbrough, former violist and co-founder of the Alexander Quartet.
The 2023 competition was also won by a violist, Emad Zolfaghari. Previous winners in recent years include cellist Gaeun Kim, violist Yuchen Lu and violinist Gabrielle Després.
Read: Dmytro Udovychenko wins the 2024 Queen Elisabeth Violin Competition
Read: Competitors announced for 2024 Joseph Joachim Violin Competition
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