Japan's Yo Kitamura has won the cello section of the George Enescu International Competition 2024, currently taking place in Bucharest.

In the final, he performed the Concerto in B minor for cello and orchestra op. 104 by Antonín Dvořák. He was accompanied by the National Radio Orchestra, conducted by Jonathan Bloxham.

Ettore Pagano from Italy won the second place, followed by Hadon Kay from the USA in the third.

Yo Kitamura is 20 years old and studied with Jens Peter Maintz at the University of the Arts in Berlin and Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi at the Toho Gakuen High School of Music. He won first prize at the Johannes Brahms International Competition and first at the Tchaikovsky International Competition for Young Musicians.

Ettore Pagano is 21 years old and has won numerous competitions in Italy and abroad, including the International Khachaturian Competition in Yerevan and the International Johannes Brahms Competition. In 2022, he released his first CD for Suonare News magazine.

Chinese-American cellist Haddon Kay is 25 years old and has participated in the final rounds of many international competitions, including the Chicago Symphony Young Artist Competition. Kay is a founding member of the Galvin Cello Quartet, formed in 2021 at the Bienen School of Music, with whom he won the 2022 Victor Elmaleh Competition of the Concert Artists Guild and the Silver Medal at the 2021 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition.

The jury of the Cello Section for this edition of the competition was made up of cellists Arto Noras, the president of the jury, Leonid Gorokhov, Meehae Ryo, Valentin Răduţiu, Marin Cazacu, Enrico Dindo and Dan Prelipcean, together with artist management executive Charlotte Lee and Raimund Trenkler, cellist and chairman of the board of trustees of the Kronberg Academy Foundation.

The first prize of the competition is worth EUR 15,000, the second prize EUR 10,000, and the third prize EUR 5,000. The winners are also offered the chance to perform in the 2025 and 2026 editions of the George Enescu International Festival and Competition, as well as in concerts organized during the philharmonic seasons in the country.

The Enescu 2024 Competition trophies, offered to the three young cellists, were made by the artist Mihai Băncilă.

Three special awards were also offered, in addition to the cello section awards. The Serafim Antropov Award for the best performance of Sonata No. 2 in C major for cello and piano op. 26 by George Enescu went to Yo Kitamura. The award is worth EUR 3,000. Kitamura also won the prize for the best interpretation of the imposed work - Syntrimma for solo cello by Sebastian Androne-Nakanishi. The prize is worth EUR 2,000. Ettore Pagano (Italy) won the public's choice award, amounting to EUR 1,000.

(Photo: Alex Damian, courtesy of Enescu Competition)

simona@romania-insider.com