Concert Artists Guild Announces 2014 Winners of the Victor Elmaleh Competition

The 2014 Concert Artists Guild Victor Elmaleh Competition culminated last night, Thursday evening, October 16, 2014 with the announcement of three winners of the annual international CAG Competition: Korean violinist In Mo Yang (First Prize); Chinese pianist Fei-Fei Dong, and American trumpeter Brandon Ridenour. All three join the CAG artist roster and receive two-year management contracts.

At the end of a concert at The Greene Space featuring the winners, Concert Artists Guild President Richard Weinert announced to a large crowd of CAG supporters and music professionals that the jury had awarded First Prize to violinist In Mo Yang, which carries with it The Victor and Sono Elmaleh Award of $5,000. Pianist Fei-Fei Dong received the Victor Elmaleh Piano Prize.

Born in Seoul in 1995, In Mo Yang started his violin studies at the age of five. He won second prize in the senior division of the 2014 Yehudi Menuhin International Competition for Young Violinists and fourth prize at the 2012 Joachim International Violin Competition Hannover in Germany at the age of seventeen. He currently studies with Miriam Fried at New England Conservatory in Boston, where he is pursuing a Bachelor of Music Degree as a recipient of the Laurence Lessor President Scholarship.

Chinese pianist Fei-Fei Dong is quickly building a reputation for her poetic interpretations, and for charming audiences with her "natural beauty of tone" (Cincinnati Enquirer) and "winning stage presence" (Dallas Morning News). Deeply committed to sharing her joy for music and connecting with communities, she engages students and audiences through school and outreach concerts and master classes. Ms. Dong has appeared with the Aspen Music Festival, Hong Kong, Juilliard, Shanxi, Sehnzhen, and Youngstown Symphony Orchestras; at the Warsaw Philharmonic Concert Hall and the Louvre Auditorium; and has been featured multiple times on New York's WQXR radio station. Current highlights include her solo recital debut at Alice Tully Hall; her trio debut at the Kennedy Center as part of its Conservatory Project; recitals at the Kravis Center and Salk Institute; and appearances with the orchestra of Fort Worth, Hudson Valley, and Corpus Christi.

As a virtuoso trumpeter, composer, arranger, and educator, Brandon Ridenour has been recognized as one of the most multi-talented artists of his generation. Through his wide-ranging activities as a soloist and chamber musician, combined with his passion for composing, Brandon enjoys performing and recording a unique array of repertoire that includes many of his own arrangements and compositions. In 2006, at the age of 20, Brandon became the youngest member ever to join the prestigious Canadian Brass, a position he held for seven years. Brandon is a graduate of The Juilliard School and an alumnus of The Academy, a two-year fellowship program with Carnegie Hall, Juilliard, and the Weill Music Institute.

The winners were chosen through an extremely rigorous selection process. Nearly 300 applicants to the 2014 Competition submitted recordings which were independently evaluated by two professional musicians. Based on these critiques, 93 applicants were invited to the Semi-Final Round in New York. Six panels evaluated the Semi-Finalists and selected 12 to advance to the Final Round.

The members of the Jury for the Final Auditions included:

Edward Arron, cellist
Michael Barrett, pianist & conductor
Jenny Bilfield, President & CEO, Washington Performing Arts
Tammey Kikta, Assistant Director for Artistic Services, Krannert Center for the Performing Arts
Amy Lam, Artistic Programmer, Boston Celebrity Series
Stuart Malina, Music Director, Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra, Principal Guest Conductor, Florida Orchestra Anne-Marie McDermott, pianist
Maria Piccinini, flutist
Sylvia Rosenberg, violinist
Matias Tarnopolsky, Executive and Artistic Director, Cal Performances
Joan Tower, composer

Founded in 1951 with a mission to discover, nurture & promote young musicians, Concert Artists Guild has helped several hundred young musicians start careers over the past sixty years. And the range of artistry has been great: from the heart of the tradition to the cutting edge. Notable alumni artists include violinist Jennifer Koh, clarinetists David Krakauer and David Shifrin, flutists Carol Wincenc and Marina Piccinini, Imani Winds, the Grammy-winning ensembles eighth blackbird, Pacifica and Parker String Quartets, and MacArthur Fellow flutist and arts entrepreneur Claire Chase.

CAG provides support to a roster of talented artists during the critical and formative time between completion of formal studies and the achievement of an established career. Artists are selected through a rigorous multi-round annual competition open to traditional and non-traditional instrumentalists, ensembles and singers. CAG offers comprehensive management services including concert bookings and tour management, commissioning and recording opportunities and marketing and publicity support. Competition winners are also presented on the Concerts in New York at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall.

The NewMusic/New Places initiative presents CAG artists in non-traditional venues such as bars, clubs, and galleries, introducing diverse audiences to concert music. The CAG Records label enables roster musicians to get their music onto disc and into the marketplace. The CAG Commissioning Program ensures that classical music continues to be a living art form by fostering collaborations between performers and composers.

Victor Elmaleh is chairman of World-Wide Group, a real estate development firm. He is a major contributor to a wide range of activities devoted to classical music, including sponsorship of Concert Artists Guild's annual Victor Elmaleh Competition. Mr. Elmaleh, an amateur classical pianist and aficionado, noted water colorist and painter, and former squash champion also supports The Victor Elmaleh Collection of recordings by rising stars of the piano world.