BREAKING | VC Young Artist Zlatomir Fung Awarded 1st Prize at 2018 Schoenfeld International Cello Comp

VC Young Artist Zlatomir Fung has been awarded 1st prize at the 2018 Schoenfeld International Cello Competition – in Harbin, China

19-year-old VC Young Artist Zlatomir Fung from the United States has just minutes ago been awarded 1st prize at the 2018 Schoenfeld International Cello Competition – in Harbin, China.

A full Kovner Fellowship student of Richard Aaron and Timothy Eddy at The Juilliard School, Zlatomir is a former 1st prize winner at the George Enescu International Cello Competition, the Johansen, Stulberg and Irving Klein International Music Competitions - and the Astral Artists and Young Concert Artist International Auditions

He will receive US $30,000.

"I'm really surprised ... and I feel extremely lucky ... " Zlatomir has told The Violin Channel.

"I feel so grateful to the jury ... my competitors here are truly so esteemed and I respect their playing so much ... this might sound cliche, but really ... any given day the result really could have gone many different ways ..." he has said.

2nd and 3rd prizes were awarded to Anastasia Kobekina from Russia and Dora Kokas from Hungary.

4th and 5th prizes were awarded to Rustem Khamidullin from Russia and Mon-Puo Lee from Spain.

In addition, Zlatomir was awarded the special prize of a solo engagement with the Poznan Philharmonic Orchestra - presented by 2018 jury member Grzegorz Kotow from Liu Kotow Artist Management.

The 2018 jury comprised: Jean-Jacques Kantorow (Chair), David Geringas (Chair), Ole Bøhn, Andrés Cárdenes, Anne Gastinel, Karine Georgian, Rudolf Koelman, Kun Hu, Grzegorz Kotow, Jakob Kullberg, Alexander Markov, Amit Peled, James Tennant, Raphael Wallfisch and Raimund Trenkler.

Former prize winners include: Julian Schwarz, Christoph Croisé, and Ja-Kyoung Huh.