SFCM Will Host Winner of 2024 International Naumburg Cello Competition
The concert is on February 5, 2025 at 7:30 PM.
The San Francisco Conservatory of Music and Walter W. Naumburg Foundation will present a concert with the Foundation's newest winner, Jonathan Swensen, as part of the ongoing series “Naumburg at SFCM.” The cellist won the top prize at the Foundation's 2024 International Cello Competition. This free concert will be held February 5 at 7:30 p.m. inside the Caroline H. Hume Hall, SFCM’s largest concert venue.
Rising cello star Swensen was the recipient of the 2022 Avery Fisher Career Grant and was recently featured as both Musical America’s ‘New Artist of the Month’ and ‘One to Watch’ in Gramophone Magazine. Swensen will also give a master class February 4, at 12:30 p.m. in the Barbro Osher Recital Hall of SFCM’s Bowes Center.
Nicholas Mann, president of the Naumburg Foundation, states, “From the first note that he played at our cello competition, it was obvious to the jury that Jonathan was a young artist of special distinction whose presence on stage is commanding. He is a cellist of immense talent.”
Sin-Tung Chiu adds, “This series is very close to my family. My parents were dear friends of Robert and Lucy Mann, as myself. We had been friends since the late 1960’s. Robert was a great mentor and career advisor and I am still grateful to this day for everything that the Manns did for me.”
In 2026, Naumburg will celebrate 100 years as the world’s longest continuously running classical music competition. The Foundation and its competitions, commissions and concerts have supported young classical musicians by helping launch their professional careers. Walter Naumburg was an amateur cellist who in 1926 launched a series of competitions to help young musicians.
The connection between Naumburg and SFCM runs deep. Bonnie Hampton, a longtime former professor of the Conservatory's String and Chamber Music department, won the Naumburg Chamber Music Competition with the Francesco Trio in 1974. The Telegraph Quartet, winner of the 2016 Chamber Music Award, served as the quartet-in-residency at the San Francisco Conservatory from 2017-2023. Awadagin Pratt, a recent addition to the Conservatory's piano faculty, won the competition in 1992, and Mark Sokol, a beloved educator in San Francisco and former longtime chair of the chamber music program at SFCM, was also a Naumburg winner with his Concord Quartet.
“SFCM is thrilled to partner with an esteemed organization like Naumburg,” said Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs at SFCM Jonas Wright. “Collaborations like this further SFCM's goal of advancing the future of music."
In 2024, SFCM also held a concert with the Naumburg Foundation with the Foundation's 2024 winner, Jack (Yang) Gao and SFCM students in February in the Bowes Center's Barbro Osher Recital Hall.
This year’s concert will feature an all solo cello program with works by Johann Sebastian Bach, Zoltán Kodály and Bent Sørensen.
This West Coast recital is generously underwritten by Mr. Sin-Tung Chiu, in honor of his parents Bella and P.P. Chiu. Bella and PP Chiu have been longtime supporters of the Naumburg Foundation since 1998.
Guests are asked to reserve seats for this free concert on February 5, 2025 at 7:30 PM.
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