Finalists Announced for NY’s Naumburg Chamber Music Competition

The competition final round will be held on September 19 at the Gilda Lehman Hall at New York's Morgan Library

The 2021 Naumburg International Chamber Music Competition finalists are:

• Balourdet String Quartet

• Ulysses Quartet

• Merz Trio

   

Hosted by the The Walter W. Naumburg Foundation since 1925, and rotating each year between predominantly violin, piano, cello, vocal and ensemble categories, previous first prize winners include Louis Kaufman, Robert Mann, Berl Senofsky, Joseph Silverstein, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, Leonidas Kavakos, Axel Strauss, Frank Huang, and VC Artist Tessa Lark.

Open this year to North American string quartets, piano trios, and conductor-less chamber ensembles of between three and eight players, with all members under the age of 34, the first prize-winning ensemble will receive USD $15,000, a fully subsidized New York recital and the premiere of a newly-commissioned work.

"We heard seven talented  chamber groups today and was indeed a joy to see that chamber music is alive and thriving even during the hardships of Covid," Nicholas Mann, President of the Naumburg Foundation today told The Violin Channel.

"The jury chose 3 groups that they thought were outstanding to play in the second round tomorrow," he said.

The Violin Channel this week caught up with Nicholas to discuss the now over 95-year-old old competition and the amazing roster of artists it’s successfully helped to launch the careers of.

This year's jury comprises Nicholas Mann, David Geber, Carol Wincenc, Samuel Rhodes, Seth Knopp, Paul Watkins, and Mark Steinberg.

The Naumburg Foundation and New York’s Town Hall will hold a special gala concert to celebrate 50 years of chamber music on October 8th. The special event to include performances by clarinetist Charlie Neidich, pianist Anton Nel, soprano Dawn Upshaw, the Eighth Blackbird, and the American, Bretano, Pacifica, Telegraph and Emerson String Quartets. The concert will be streamed LIVE on The Violin Channel.