2021 WINNER
SULIMAN TEKALLI, Violin (USA)
Violinist Suliman Tekalli has established his voice as an exciting and versatile concerto soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician. As the top-prize winner of the Seoul International Music Competition and prize winner in the Sendai International Music Competition, International Violin Competition "Rudolfo Lipizer Prize," and the Henryk Szeryng International Competition, Suliman has performed throughout the US, Canada, Central America, Europe, and Asia, appearing on the stages of Carnegie Hall, Seoul Arts Center, Wigmore Hall, and the Kennedy Center among others. His performances have been broadcasted on KBS World TV in Korea, CBC Radio 3 in Canada, and WQXR and NPR in the US.
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An exponent of chamber music, Suliman has made appearances at numerous festivals, including Music@Menlo, Yellow Barn, and the Banff Centre. He has collaborated and performed with eminent musicians suchs as Gil Shaham, Miriam Fried, Cho-Liang-Lin, Donald Weilerstein, Paul Watkins, Wu Han, David Shifrin, and Robert McDonald. Mr. Tekalli has also served as concertmaster of numerous critically acclaimed conductorless ensembles including the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the Sphinx Virtuosi, and the International Sejong Soloists, the latter of which he is currently a principal member.
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As a composer, arranger, and performer, Suliman has transcribed and orchestrated classical and contemporary works for groups such as the grammy award winning Catalyst String Quartet, Carnegie Hall's Ensemble Connect, and Sejong. In 2013, he gave the world premiere of his composition "Mephistoccata" from his solo violin suite Fables at the Montreal International Music Competition, receiving the Maurice and Judith Kaplow Prize for Uncommon Creativity from the Cleveland Institute of Music that same year.
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As an alumnus of Carnegie Hall's Ensemble Connect, Mr. Tekalli is a strong advocate of teaching artistry and bringing classical music to underserved communities. He served as a Teaching Artist at the Edward R. Murrow High School in Brooklyn, as well as performed and taught at numerous Title I schools throughout the NYC area. Through the auspices of the Center of Musical Excellence, he served as Artist in Residence at the State Theatre New Jersey where he brought interactive performances to grade schools of all levels, rehabilitation centers, senior homes, and homeless shelters. He continues his work through his support of projects like Chime for Children which bring musical performances to children in hospitals.
As a CME Artist, Suliman has appeared as a soloist performing with the Vienna International Orchestra in Austria as well as in chamber music concerts in Vienna and Prague. Recent projects have included recordings on the recently released CD CME Presents Art of Transcription, which features his own violin and piano transcriptions as well as for mixed instrumentation. He currently performs on a 2016 Joseph Curtin and resides in New York City.
2018 WINNERS
GABRIELLE CHOU, Piano/Violin (Taiwan/USA)
Gabrielle Chou, a pianist and violinist seeking to defy genres and break barriers, is currently pursuing her D.M.A. at the The Graduate Center, CUNY, having received both her B.M and M.M. from The Juilliard School. She recently performed with the Juilliard Orchestra for Alan Gilbert’s last concert in Geffen Hall, as a violin soloist performing Faure’s Requiem at Carnegie Hall with Distinguished Concerts International New York, and as a piano soloist playing Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with the National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan at the Taipei National Theater and Concert Hall.
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Gabrielle has been a prize winner at top international competitions, including the Yamaha International Senior Piano Competition, Schimmel International Piano Competition, and Chopin Foundation Scholarship (in two consecutive years). She was a solo piano fellow at the 2016 Music Academy of the West, and has attended multiple festivals as both pianist and violinist.
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An adjunct professor at Baruch College’s Weissman School of Arts and Sciences, Gabrielle also took part in the Music Academy of the West’s MERIT program as a teacher, mentor, and chamber coach. She is an avid proponent of new music and contemporary collaborations, having worked with ballet dancers on Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet with an on-stage orchestra, and premiering new student works by composers from Juilliard, Curtis Institute, and Yale School of Music while at The Next Festival of Emerging Artists. Gabrielle is a member of the Miami-based chamber orchestra Nu Deco Ensemble, and the New York-based collective SPEAKmusic. She is passionate about including music by living female composers and music with electronic elements in her programs.
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MATTHEW COHEN, Viola (USA)
One of the most sought-after violists of his generation, Matthew Cohen has devoted his career to presenting the viola as an instrument equally worthy of fantastic solo works. Having received his B.M. from Cleveland Institute of Music, A.D. from Colburn Conservatory of Music, and M.M. from The Juilliard School (where he received a Kovner Fellowship), Matthew made his debut at Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium as a soloist at the age of 15, performing Tomas Svoboda’s Sonata No. 2 for orchestra and string quartet with the Portland Youth Philharmonic.
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His recent performances include York Bowen’s Phantasy for Viola and Piano at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall, Hummel’s Potpourri with the Gstaad Festival Orchestra (his European debut), Bartok’s Viola Concerto with the I Virtuosi Italiani orchestra, and the world premiere of composer Garry Schyman’s viola concerto Zingaro with the Los Angeles Jewish Symphony. Matthew has received top prizes at multiple international competitions, including the Cita de Cremona International Viola Competition, 2016 Juilliard Concerto Competition, Vivo International Music Competition, and Primrose International Viola Competition, where he received the “Best Performance of Commissioned Work” prize.
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As a chamber musician, Matthew has performed alongside distinguished artists and ensembles, and has been featured in numerous concert series and chamber music societies, including the Heifetz Celebrity Series, Colburn Chamber Players, and Camerata Pacifica, with whom he was a guest artist on their 2015 southern California tour, performing all six of J.S. Bach’s Brandenburg Concerti.
2017 WINNERS
MOYE CHEN, Piano (China/USA)
Born in Beijing, Moye Chen earned his Bachelor and Master’s Degrees from the Shanghai Conservatory of Music and his Artist Diploma from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. He is currently a candidate for a Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the University of Illinois under the supervision of William Heiles.
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Praised by The Cincinnati Enquirer as playing with “combined bravura and artistry” for his performance of Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and by Frequent Business Traveler as “majestic and lyric” for his recital at Carnegie Hall in 2015, Moye has performed extensively as a concert pianist in the United States, Europe, Asia and Australia. He has been a prize-winner at numerous competitions including the XI Sydney International Piano Competition (Australia), the LVIII Cincinnati World Piano Competition (USA), the XVI International Piano Competition Spanish Composers(Spain), the VIII International Iowa Piano Competition (USA), the II Dallas International Piano Competition (USA), and the IV Seattle International Piano Competition (USA). A versatile performer, he has been awarded the prestigious Kate Neal Kinley Memorial Fellowship, the Vladimir and Haewon Feltsman Piano Foundation Scholarship and the June and Charles Ross Piano Fellowship.
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Moye has been an exclusive recording artist for Universal Music since 2016 and was signed to Decca in 2017.
EUNTAEK KIM, Piano (Korea/USA)
Euntaek Kim, native of Incheon, South Korea, has established himself as one of the most promising young talents of his generation. Hailed by the New York Times as “nimble,” and “colorful,” and by La Libre Belgique as “sovereign,” and “luminous,” Mr. Kim won prizes from many prestigious competitions, the 2001 Oberlin International Competition and the 2002 International Tchaikovsky Competition for Young Musicians, among many others.
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Euntaek was admitted to the preparatory division of the Korean National University of Arts at age nine. At twelve, he took his first conducting lesson and gave his first public piano recital in Seoul, presented by the Kumho Asiana Cultural Foundation. He now holds Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in piano performance from The Juilliard School, and an Artist Diploma in piano performance from the Yale School of Music.
Euntaek has appeared in solo recitals as well as a chamber musician at venues such as the Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, the Steinway Hall, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Kumho Art Hall, to name a few. He has appeared as a soloist with several orchestras around the world, including the Xiamen Philharmonic, the Korean National University of Arts Chamber Orchestra, the Lexington Philharmonic, Dubuque Symphony Orchestra, and the Louisville Youth Orchestra.
MATYAS NOVAK, Piano (Czech Republic)
Matyas Novak has made a name for himself as one of the most promising pianists of his time through his extraordinary harmonic expression, vast repertoire and unique way of key-stroking. He currently studies at the Pardubice Conservatoire in Hradec Kralove, in the class of Jitka Fowler Fraňková. He is also a student at the renowned piano academy “Incontri col Maestro” in Imola, Italy, where he studied with Vovka Ashkenazy and Boris Petrushansky.
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Matyas is a winner of numerous piano competitions, including First Prizes at the Bradshaw & Buono International Piano Competition, International Jenö Takács Piano Competition for Young Pianists, Aci Bertoncelj International Piano Competition, Evangelia Tjarri International Piano Competition, International Piano Competition Pro Bohemia, and XX Ibiza International Piano Competition, among others. He has performed in Czech Republic, Germany, Austria, Poland, Luxembourg, Serbia, Spain and Italy.
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Matyas is a proud member of the PETROF Art Family.
2015 WINNERS
BRANNON CHO, Cello (USA)
Born in 1994, Brannon Cho began playing the cello at age seven with Marnie Kaller. He attended the Meadowmount School of Music, where he met Professor Hans Jørgen Jensen, with whom he still studies today at Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music.
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The 2018 winner of the prestigious Paulo Cello Competition, Cho’s other notable prizes include sixth place at the Queen Elizabeth Competition in Brussels in 2017, the Grand Prize at the 2010 ASTA National Solo Competition; First Prizes at the 2015 Minnesota Orchestra Young Artists Competition, 2015 Mondavi Center Founders Competition, 2015 Skokie Valley Symphony Young Artists Competition, and 2012 Johansen International Cello Competition; and Second Prizes at the 2015 Naumburg International Cello Competition, 2013 National YoungArts Foundation, and 2012 Stulberg International Competition. He competed in the renowned International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 2015.
Cho made his sold-out Carnegie Hall recital debut in the spring of 2019, sponsored by CME as one of its International Performing Arts Grant winners. He has performed as a soloist with several orchestras, most notably the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, Boston Civic Symphony, and the Pyeongchang Music Festival Orchestra. An avid chamber musician, Cho has performed with Christian Tetzlaff, Gidon Kremer, Philip Setzer, Stephen Williamson, Barbara Westphal, and went on a chamber music tour with Joshua Bell to New York City, London, Washington D.C., and Miami.
He plays on a rare cello made by Antonio Casini in Modena, Italy in 1668.
BOMSORI KIM, Violin (Korea)
Winner of the 62nd ARD International Music Competition, Bomsori Kim is internationally regarded as one of today’s most vibrant and exciting violinists. She is a prize winner of a number of prestigious international violin competitions such as the Tchaikovsky International Competition, the Queen Elisabeth Competition, the International Jean Sibelius Violin Competition, the Joseph Joachim International Violin Competition Hannover, the Montreal International Musical Competition and the Sendai International Music Competition. Kim received astonishing success at the 15th International Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition, winning both Second Prize and the Critic’s Prize, as well as nine additional special prizes.
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Kim is the 2018-2019 Artist and Soloist in Residence for the Poznan Philharmonic Orchestra in Poland. She will be also on tour in Europe, Asia and USA with Polish pianist Rafal Blechacz. North American highlights of the upcoming season include her debut performance with the Lincoln Symphony Orchestra and recital appearances at the Maestro Foundation and La Jolla Music Society’s Rising Star Series.
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A native of South Korea, Kim is a graduate of Seoul National University, where she studied with Young Uck Kim. She also earned her Master of Music Degree at The Juilliard School, where she is currently pursuing her Artist Diploma, as a full-scholarship student of Sylvia Rosenberg and Ronald Copes. With the support of Kumho Asiana Instrument Bank, she currently plays on a 1774 violin by Joannes Baptista Guadagnini.
2014 WINNERS
Awarded as winners of the Birte Moller Young Artists Award
ALESSANDRO MAZZAMUTO, Piano (Italy)
Pianist Alessandro Mazzamuto is “one of the most inspiring, extraordinary pianists that I have had the joy to hear” writes Martha Argerich. He is “no virtuoso of show, no ruthless technician, but a pianist absorbed in the music who plays with as much spontaneity as poetry,” claims Pizzicato Magazine. winner of International Classical Music Awards’ 2013 Young Instrumental Artist of the Year, the 26-year-old Sicilian pianist has won more than 60 national and international competitions.
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Alessandro received a standing ovation from the sold-out crowd at his New York debut at Carnegie Weill Recital Hall on June 29, 2015. He also performed to a sold-out crowd at the Tokyo Metropolitan Opera house, with the Tokyo New City Orchestra.
JIAYAN SUN, Piano (China/USA)
Praised by the New York Times for his “revelatory” performances, and by the Toronto Star for his “technically flawless, poetically inspired and immensely assured playing,” pianist Jiayan Sun has performed frequently with The Cleveland Orchestra, The Hallé Orchestra, the Chinese and RTÉ (Ireland) National Symphony Orchestras, the Fort Worth and Toledo Symphony Orchestras, the Toronto and Aspen Concert Orchestras, the Suwon Philharmonic Orchestra, and he has conducted from the keyboard the Meiningen Court Orchestra. His performances have been broadcast by the BBC, the RTÉ, China Central Television, and classical music radio stations in North America. He has performed at and participated in the Verbier Festival, the Gstaad Menuhin Festival, the Klavier-Festival Ruhr, the Aspen Music Festival, the Sarasota Music Festival, PianoTexas. Under the mentorship of Sir András Schiff, he was invited to give a number of solo recitals in Europe as part of Schiff’s “Building Bridges” project for the 2017-2018 season.
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Mr. Sun has been awarded prizes at many of the major international piano competitions, including the third prize at the Leeds International Piano Competition, the second prize at the Dublin International Piano Competition, the fourth prize and the audience prize at the Cleveland International Piano Competition, the first prize at the inaugural CCC Toronto International Piano Competition, and others. Playing early keyboard instruments and studying historical performance practice has played a significant role in Mr. Sun’s musical activities, with critically acclaimed appearances with the American Classical Orchestra in Alice Tully Hall.
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Hailed from Yantai, China, he received the Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from The Juilliard School. He continues his studies at Juilliard as a doctoral candidate under the tutelage of Yoheved Kaplinsky and Stephen Hough. His other mentors include pianists Malcolm Bilson, Richard Goode, Robert Levin, and harpsichordist Lionel Party. His devotion to the art of composition led him to study with the composer Philip Lasser.
As the Iva Dee Hiatt Visiting Artist in Piano at Smith College, he is presenting Beethoven’s complete piano sonatas chronologically in a series of eight recitals in the 2018-2019 season.
REED TETZLOFF, Piano (USA)
Young American pianist Reed Tetzloff has distinguished himself as one of the brightest stars of a new generation of musicians. He enthralls audiences with his “magical tone” (The Cincinnati Enquirer) and “ebullient” virtuosity (Grammophone Magazine). His rhetorical approach to the music he performs, along with a warmly charismatic stage presence, are trademarks of his communication with an audience.
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Reed made his Lincoln Center debut with the Mannes Orchestra at Alice Tully Hall, and his New York solo recital debut at Merkin Hall, both in 2012. He has also performed concerti with the Cincinnati Symphony, the Lake Superior Chamber Orchestra, the Mississippi Valley Orchestra, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Moscow Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra, the Queens Symphony, the Rochester Philharmonic, the Tbilisi Symphony, and the Wayzata Symphony.
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After being named one of twelve semi-finalists at the XV International Tchaikovsky Competition in 2015, Reed's performances were widely acclaimed in Russian media, which dubbed him “the lyric hero of the competition,” and noted by music connoisseurs across the globe. He has also won prizes from competitions such as the American Protege, Beijing International Music Festival and Academy, Bradshaw and Buono, Cincinnati World Piano Competition, Cleveland International Piano Competition, Five Towns Music and Art Foundation, Schimmel, and the Tbilisi International Piano Competition. At Mannes College the New School for Music, he won the two largest awards available to pianists: the Concerto Competition and the Nadia Reisenberg Competition.
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In 2017 he completed a major multi-city tour of Belgium, and performed for The Chopin Foundation of the United States, the Drozdoff Society’s Impromptu Classical Music Series, The Young Musicians’ Forum of Schenectady, and as guest artist for the Minnesota Music Teacher’s Association Annual State Convention. He also released his debut recording, Sounds of Transcendence, on Romeo Records, sponsored by CME.
VIJAY VENKATESH, Piano (USA)
A native of Orange County, California, pianist Vijay Venkatesh has been hailed in concert review for his “sublime phrasing, tremendous and powerful virtuosity, beautiful lyricism, and mature and sensitive interpretation” in performances “equaling that of Radu Lupu, Itzhak Perlman, and Andres Segovia.”
At age 14, he made his orchestral debut with the South Coast Symphony. In addition, he has performed with the Symphony Orchestras of Vienna, Roanoke, Eastern Connecticut, YMF Debut, Pasadena, Rio Hondo, Transylvania, Brevard Festival and the Brevard Music Center. He has collaborated with such celebrated conductors as David Stewart Wiley, Toshiyuki Shimada, Ken Lam, Robert Lehrbaumer, Kimo Furumoto, Vijay enthusiastically shares his love of music as an avid outreach performer and fundraiser. He has performed in a variety of schools throughout California to spread awareness of classical music and raised over $15,000 to benefit school music programs and charities.
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Vijay won the Grand Prize in the 2016 Classics Alive Artists Competition in Los Angeles, and has joined the roster of Classics Alive Artists.
NICHOLAS YOUNG, Piano (Australia)
Nicholas Young is emerging as one of Australia’s most versatile young musicians. Currently based in Salzburg, Nicholas is working on the Masters study at the Universität Mozarteum Salzburg. A Young Steinway Artist, he has performed in prominent musical venues including the Sydney Opera House, Mozarteum Weiner Saal and many others. While maintaining an intense study of classical repertory, he has an equally strong interest in promoting the music of today. With his change of base from Australia to Austria, Nicholas looks forward to engaging further with composers and performers in Europe in the discovery, creation and realization of new masterworks.
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Nicholas made his Australian debut at the Sydney Opera House in February 2017, and currently tours with his classical music group, Ensemble Françaix.