The 25 in the Tchaikovsky Competition cello finals
mainAmosov Fyodor / Russia
Warenberg Alexander Simon / the Netherlands
Gerassimez Wassily / Germany
Gray Edward Johannes / USA
Cañón-Valencia Santiago / Columbia
Kim Ga Eun / South Korea
Kloeckner Caspar Benedict / Germany
Kobekina Anastasia / Russia
Cohen Weissert Elia / Israel
Croisé Christoph / Switzerland
Lee Jeonghyoun / South Korea
Mun Taeguk / South Korea
Rummukainen Senja Elina / Finland
Sato Haruma / Japan
Swensen Jonathan Algot / Denmark
Sendetskii Ivan / Russia
Skanavi Ivan / Russia
Ueno Michiaki / Japan
Fung Zlatomir / the USA
Fernández Lara Rolando De La Guadalupe / Mexico
Ferre Martínez Alfredo / Spain
Haga Sandra Lied / Norway
Chen Yibai / China
Choi Ha Young / South Korea
Yuya Mizunо / Japan
I’ve only ever heard of Cañòn-Valencia Santiago in this list of 25 cellists. Also, only two competitors from the US. What does that say about the state of culture in the US?
“What does that say about the state of culture in the US?”
Absolutely nothing.
It says nothing about the US and more about how you’re not up-to-date with the current cello scene. A lot of big guns on this list.
Zlatomir Fung is from New England
And how many countries are there in the world?
Santiago Cañón-Valencia of Colombia looks to be the “big gun” of this list. He’s a superb player with quite a career already
Benedict Kloeckner has a fairly significant career already as well. This will be the second go-round in the Tchaik for Santiago, a player of spectacular virtuosity, impressive hair and jewelry and, to this point at least, very minimal emotional connection to the music he plays. But perhaps things will be different this time around, with the chance of four years of seasoning and growth (n.b. ‘Colombia’ mis-spelled in the SD post- perhaps in the original press release as well?)
Yes, Colombia was spelled wrong in the press release. Love your description of Santiago. Yes spectacular hair and I’d add, remarkable retro glasses!
Jeong Hyoun (Christine) Lee and Santiago Cañón-Valencia were both finalists in the Queen Elisabeth Competition a couple of years ago. Have seen some impressive video performances by Kloeckner while browsing around on YouTube.
But whether we’ve heard of them or not is rather beside the point. Competitions are about discovering and giving a stage for emerging talent. Good luck to all.
Jonathan Swensen is the son of violinist/conductor Joey Swensen. (This is significant of nothing.)