Prizes Awarded at San Francisco's Klein International String Competition

17-year-old American cellist James Baik has been awarded 1st prize at the 2019 Irving M. Klein International String Competition

17-year-old American cellist James Baik has this week been awarded 1st prize at the 2019 34^th Irving M. Klein International String Competition – in San Francisco.

A student of Hans Jørgen Jensen, James is a former 1st prize winner at the DePaul Concerto Competition and the Walgreens National Competition.

He will receive US $13,000 – plus a number of solo orchestral debuts.

2nd and 3rd prizes were awarded to 23-year-old cellist Dakota Cotugno and 22-year-old violinist Julia Mirzoev.

4th and 5th prizes were awarded to 20-year-old bassist Gabriel Polinsky and 19-year-old cellist James Hettinga.

Open to string players aged 15 to 23, the Klein is widely recognised as one of America’s most important development prizes – with previous 1st prize winners including Jennifer Koh, Vadim Gluzman, Jennifer Frautschi, Robert deMaine and Frank Huang – and VC Artists Tessa Lark, Nikki Chooi and Zlatomir Fung.

The 2019 jury comprised: Cathy Basrak, Daniel Carlson, Carlos Simon, Amir Eldan, Ian Swenson, Barbara Day Turner – and VC Artist Nikki Chooi.