Young Concert Artists Reveals 2024 Jacobs Fellowship Winners: Pianist Kiron Tellian and Accordionist Radu Ratoi

Young Concert Artists has announced the winners of the 2024 Susan Wadsworth International Auditions. In the final round of competition, held Sunday, October 27, 2024 at Merkin Hall at Kaufman Music Center in New York City, accordionist Radu Ratoi, 22, of Moldova, and pianist Kiron Tellian, 26, of Austria, were selected as winners and recipients of the prestigious YCA Jacobs Fellowship, a three-year program offering career support, industry connections and performance opportunities to extraordinary early-career artists. A Winners Concert will be held tomorrow: Monday, October 28, 2024 at 7:00pm at New York’s Gilder Lehrman Hall at The Morgan Library & Museum, and streamed live on The Violin Channel. Tickets are available at yca.org/tickets.

YCA President Daniel Kellogg says, “The annual Susan Wadsworth International Auditions are the heart and soul of YCA, marking the moment when we first meet and welcome the newest young artists to the YCA roster, and embark on a collaborative journey together. We had an incredibly strong group of finalists this year and heard some remarkable performances. We are thrilled to welcome these two magnificent artists to our roster as the second cohort of YCA Jacobs Fellows, and we look forward to introducing them to the YCA community tomorrow at the Winners Concert.”

Named for a generous gift from Joan** and Irwin Jacobs, the YCA Jacobs Fellowship offers artists selected through YCA’s famously rigorous audition process a holistic system of support and opportunities, including artist management services, an expanded digital portfolio, dedicated mentorship, community engagement training and unparalleled performance opportunities, helping them to develop their unique artistic voices. Preliminary rounds in this year’s competition were conducted through live auditions in New York and Los Angeles, as well as virtual auditions via video submission. From a pool of 170 applicants, 37 artists from 14 countries were selected to compete in the semi-final round held October 23-25, 2024 at Merkin Hall. Twelve of those artists from seven countries advanced to the final round.

Anchored by Young Concert Artists President Daniel Kellogg*, the jury for the semi-final and final rounds also comprised YCA founder Susan Wadsworth, pianists Inon Barnatan and Angela Cheng, violist Nokuthula Ngwenyama*, violinists Barry Shiffman* and Pamela Frank, flutist Marya Martin*, soprano Dawn Upshaw* and conductor Constantine Orbelian; along with Cristina Rocca, VP of Artistic Planning at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra; Donald Palumbo, vocal coach and former Chorus Master at the Metropolitan Opera; and Abhijit Sengupta, Director, Artistic Planning at Carnegie Hall (finals jury only). The jury makeup of artists, managers, concert presenters and conductors reflects YCA’s broad connections throughout the classical music world, which in turn is one of the key benefits for the young artists accepted into its three-year YCA Jacobs Fellowship.

The YCA Jacobs Fellowship is recognized as the world’s most comprehensive, innovative and well-resourced incubator for the brightest and most promising young artists, preparing these rising stars to lead the future of classical music. YCA Jacobs Fellows continue an illustrious legacy of YCA alumni that includes such luminaries as Emanuel Ax, Julia Bullock, Anne Akiko Meyers, Jeremy Denk, Ray Chen, Anne-Marie McDermott, Richard Goode, Dawn Upshaw, Mason Bates, Zlatomir Fung, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Kevin Puts, Pinchas Zukerman, Randall Goosby and Sasha Cooke.

*YCA alum
**in memoriam

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