BREAKING | Semi-Finalists Announced for 2021 Geneva Cello Competition

The semi-final and final stages of this year’s competition to be hosted in-person in Geneva from October 23-29 and streamed LIVE here on The Violin Channel

The eight candidates progressing to the semi-final stage of this year’s 2021 Geneva International Cello Competition, in Geneva, Switzerland, are:

• Maria Zaytseva (20, Russia)
  

• Jaemin Han (15, South Korea)
  

• Samuel Niederhauser (23, Switzerland)
  

• Bryan Cheng (24, Canada)
  

• En-Chun Lin (20, Taiwan)
  

• Min Ji Kim (26, South Korea)
  

• Michiaki Ueno (25, Japan)
  

• Maxime Quennesson (26, France)

The competition was originally scheduled for 2020 but was postponed due to the pandemic.

36 candidates were selected to take part in the opening round of this year's competition — which was held online, and streamed on The Violin Channel.

"We are hosting a hybrid competition this year — virtual for the first round and live in-person, in Geneva, for the semi-final and finals rounds," Didier Schnorhk, Secretary General of the Geneva International Music Competition, told The Violin Channel.

“To ensure complete fairness, we did financially and technically support all first round candidates with recording their videos and this year we have also made the decision to cover the cost of all semi-finalists who have now been invited to Geneva in October," he has said.

"As you can imagine, these are all important changes we felt necessary to support our young musicians during these very difficult times.”

Open to cellists aged 14 to 30, this year's first prize winner will receive CHF 20,000 plus an invitation to join the competition's two-year career development program — providing valuable career advice and coaching plus concert and recording opportunities.

Approximately 10 laureates, from this year's competition, will also be invited to join a special workshop to discuss important industry and career-starter topics with a panel of experts, including career strategies, how to get the appropriate attention of agents, presenters and producers, and the basic know-hows of contracts, rights and health.

The 2021 jury comprises Chairperson Ivan Monighetti (Russia/Switzerland), Thomas Demenga (Switzerland), Michaela Fukačová (Czech Republic), Ophélie Gaillard (France), Clive Greensmith (United Kingdom), Qin Li-Wei (China/Australia), and Shauna Rolston (Canada).

The Final round of the Cello Competition will be held on Thursday 28 October at Victoria Hall with conductor Georg Fritzsch and the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande.

As the official media and broadcast partner of this year's cello competition, all rounds will be streamed here on The Violin Channel and will be available for playback.

More information, visit: www.concoursgeneve.ch