Argus Quartet, Pianist Dominic Cheli Share Joint First Prize in CAG Competition

The 2017 Concert Artists Guild Victor Elmaleh Competition culminated Wednesday evening, October 18, at CAG's Winners Showcase Concert, featuring performances by the winners of the annual international competition.

The jury awarded a Joint First Prize to the Argus Quartet and pianist Dominic Cheli. Violinist YooJin Jang was also named a Winner of the Competition, which is CAG's 67th annual event.

All musicians join the CAG artist roster and receive two-year management contracts. They will all make their New York debuts during the 2018-19 concert season on the CAG Presents concert series.

The winners were chosen through a rigorous selection process. Over 260 applicants to the 2017 Competition submitted recordings which were independently evaluated by two professional musicians. Based on these critiques, 92 applicants were invited to the semifinal round in New York. Seven panels of judges evaluated the semifinalists and selected 12 to advance to the Final Round, which took place at Merkin Hall on October 17.

The members of the Jury for the Final Auditions were:

Michael Barrett

Conductor and Pianist, Artistic Director of New York Festival of Song and Moab Music Festival

Mary M. Briggs

President and CEO, Hilton Head Symphony Orchestra, SC

Paquito D'Rivera

GRAMMY award-winning clarinetist and saxophonist, composer

Welz Kauffman

President and CEO, Ravinia Festival

Rossen Milanov

Conductor, Music Director of Columbus Symphony, Princeton Symphony, and the Chautauqua Institution

André-Michel Schub

Pianist and Faculty, Manhattan School of Music

Fred Sherry

Cellist and Faculty, Juilliard, Manhattan, and Mannes Schools of Music

Nadia Sirota

Violist, member of yMusic, soloist, and host of WQXR's Meet the Composer Podcast

Hanako Yamaguchi

Director, Music Programming, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts

The Argus Quartet was the First Prize Winner of the 2017 M-Prize Chamber Arts Competition. The Quartet has received grants from Chamber Music America, Tarisio, and the Caramoor Center to support its efforts to commission works by living composers, and begins an appointment as the Graduate String Quartet in Residence at The Juilliard School in fall 2017.

Pianist Dominic Cheli is a Naxos recording artist originally from St. Louis, Missouri. He was the winner of the 2017 Music Academy of the West Concerto Competition and performed Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Academy's Festival Orchestra. Dominic currently studies at the Colburn Conservatory of Music in Los Angeles, California with Fabio Bidini.

Violinist YooJin Jang was the first prize winner of the 2016 Sendai International Music Competition. She also won first prize at the 2013 Munetsugu Angel Competition, for which she received the 1697 "Rainville" Stradivarius on loan for two years. Born in Korea, she is currently pursuing a doctorate degree at the New England Conservatory, where she has also earned Master of Music degrees and Graduate and Artist Diplomas, all studying with Miriam Fried.

Since 1951, Concert Artists Guild has helped more than 500 young musicians launch concert careers. Winners of CAG's annual competition receive comprehensive management support, including a debut recital in Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, concert bookings, opportunities through the CAG Commissioning Program and CAG Records label, marketing, publicity, and mentorship. Notable alumni artists include violinists Ani Kavafian and Jennifer Koh, soprano Martina Arroyo, pianist Barry Douglas, clarinetists David Krakauer and David Shifrin, flutists Carol Wincenc and Marina Piccinini, Imani Winds, Grammy-winning ensembles Pacifica and Parker String Quartets and the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, and MacArthur Fellows Claire Chase and Eighth Blackbird.