Print Press Release

  NEWS

from Young Concert Artists, Inc.

THREE FIRST PRIZES AWARDED
IN THE 2007 YOUNG CONCERT ARTISTS
INTERNATIONAL AUDITIONS 

New York, New York — Three Winners were chosen in the Finals of the 2007 Young Concert Artists International Auditions at the 92nd Street Y on Sunday, January 28.  The YCA Winners were chosen from twelve Finalists, who were selected out of almost 300 applicants hailing from 29 countries. 

The winners are Sasha Cooke, 24-year-old American mezzo-soprano; Benjamin Moser, 25-year-old German pianist; and Louis Schwizgebel-Wang, 19-year-old Swiss pianist.   Mr. Moser and Mr. Schwizgebel-Wang had previously won First Prizes in the Young Concert Artists European Auditions in Leipzig, Germany, which are co-sponsored by Young Concert Artists and the Hochschule für Musik und Theater “Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy.”

Each winner is awarded a $5,000 career development grant, and will be presented in debut recitals in the 2007-2008 Young Concert Artists Series in New York at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall and in Washington D.C. at the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater, and at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston.  The three Winners join the roster of Young Concert Artists, Inc., which offers three-year-plus management contracts for services, concert engagements, publicity, and career development.  Young Concert Artists has been discovering and launching the careers of extraordinary musicians since 1961. 

The members of the Jury for the Final Auditions were Leif Bjaland (conductor), Peggy Bouveret (voice), Pamela Frank (violin), Ani Kavafian (violin)*, Lorenzo Muti (conductor), André-Michel Schub (piano), Geoffrey Simon (conductor), James Sinclair (conductor), Ilana Vered (piano)*, Robert White (voice), and Susan Wadsworth (Chairman).  The Semi-Finals Jury included Michael Barrett (conductor, piano), Ken Noda (piano, voice), Marcy Rosen (cello)*, and Jeffrey Swann (piano)*.

The other nine Finalists were awarded Second Prize and a cash award of $1,000.  They were Evgheny Brakhman, 26-year-old Russian pianist; Celeste Golden, 22-year-old American violinist; Bella Hristova, 20-year-old Bulgarian violinist; Sophia Jaffé, 25-year-old German violinist; Susan Jang, 17-year-old American violinist; Victoria Martirosyan, 22-year-old Armenian pianist; Tamara Mumford, 25-year-old American mezzo-soprano; Esther Park, 22-year-old Korean pianist; and Sergey Sobolev, 24-year-old Russian pianist.

The Young Concert Artists International Auditions are unlike a competition: there are no rankings, and any number of winners in a wide range of instruments and voice can be selected. The criteria are musicianship, virtuosity, communicative power, individuality and readiness to begin a concert career.  

Major underwriting support for the 2007 Young Concert Artists International Auditions was provided by the Alexis Gregory Foundation and Catherine G. Curran.
 

Biographies of the 2007 Winners:

24-year-old mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke’s First Prize of $5,000 is sponsored by the Fergus Fund.  At the Auditions, she was also awarded the Rhoda Walker Teagle Prize, which will sponsor her New York debut at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall; the Mortimer Levitt Career Development Award for Women Artists; the Swiss Global Artistic Foundation Award, which includes a concert engagement in Europe; the Embassy Series Prize (Washington, DC); the Orchestra New England Soloist Prize; and the University of Georgia Performing Arts Center Prize. 

Ms. Cooke is currently a member of The Metropolitan Opera Lindemann Young Artist Development Program.  Her other awards include Third Prize in the 2006 Licia Albanese-Puccini Competition and First Prize in the 2005 Bach Vocal Competition sponsored by the American Bach Society and The Bach Choir of Bethlehem.  She received her Bachelor’s Degree from Rice University and her Master’s Degree from The Juilliard School. 

25-year-old pianist Benjamin Moser’s First Prize of $5,000 is sponsored by the Sander Buchman Memorial Fund.  At the Auditions, he was awarded the Jerome L. Greene Foundation Prize, which will sponsor his New York debut at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall, and the Alexander Kasza-Kasser Prize, which will sponsor his Washington, D.C. debut at the Kennedy Center.

He was also named recipient of the first Ruth Laredo Memorial Award, created in memory of the beloved pianist and YCA alumna, as well as the Miriam Brody Aronson Award, the Slomovic Orchestra Soloist Prize, the Gulbenkian Foundation Concert Prize for a concert in Paris, and the Saint Vincent College Concert Series Prize (Pennsylvania).  Mr. Moser won First Prize in the 2004 Arthur Schnabel Piano Competition in Berlin.  He currently studies with Klaus Hellwig at the University of the Arts in Berlin.

19-year-old pianist Louis Schwizgebel-Wang’s First Prize of $5,000 is sponsored by the Paul A. Fish Memorial Fund. He was also awarded the Peter P. Marino Debut Prize, which will sponsor his New York debut at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall.  Other prizes awarded to him at the Auditions include the Brownville Concert Series Prize (Nebraska), the Chamber Orchestra of the Triangle Soloist Prize (North Carolina), the Princeton University Concerts Prize, the Usedom Music Festival Prize (Germany), and the Vancouver Recital Society Prize. 

Mr. Schwizgebel-Wang has appeared as soloist with l’Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and the Basel Symphony Orchestra during their 2004 tour of China, and was the top prizewinner in the 2005 Geneva International Competition and the 2003 Concours Suisse de Musique pour la Jeunesse.  He is currently a student at the Geneva Conservatory, where he studies with Pascal Devoyon and Jean-Jacques Balet.

Prizes still to be awarded are the John Browning Memorial Prize; the Peter Jay Sharp Prize; the Summis Auspiciis Prize; the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival Prize; the Buffalo Chamber Music Society Prize; the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts Prize (Illinois); the Lied Center of Kansas Prize; the Naples Philharmonic Soloist Prize; and the Pasadena Symphony Soloist Prize.
 

* Alumnus/a artist of Young Concert Artists

Press Contact:  Sam Clapp, Publicity Associate Telephone:  (212) 307-6655  sam@yca.org