Friends of Chamber Music proudly presents a gold medalist of the 2019 Tchaikovsky Competition, cellist Zlatomir Fung, with a refreshing program of fantasies and arrangements inspired the operatic music of Donizetti, Verdi, Rossini, and Wagner. Dina Vainshtein, who gained recognition at an earlier Tchaikovsky Competition in 1998, will be accompanying Fung on the piano.
This virtual event will be the fifth installment in the Friends Digital Series, an online initiative that Friends of Chamber Music has created for the 2020-2021 concert season due to the pandemic. In November 2020, the Friends Digital Series presented an exclusive solo recital recorded especially for the Friends of Chamber Music by the remarkable Finnish pianist Juho Pohjonen. In December 2020, the series introduced A Chanticleer Christmas, a highly anticipated program filmed by Chanticleer, one of the world’s most renowned all-male a cappella groups. (Friends of Chamber Music was one of only three concert organizations nation-wide that offered this program to the public.) In January 2021, the extraordinary McGill-McHale Trio brought in music for a rare combination of flute, clarinet, and piano by the Romantic and contemporary composers. In February, the Friends Digital Series introduced a virtual event that combined a performance and baking show by the Ariel String Quartet.
All virtual events presented in the Friends Digital Series are an attempt to offer audiences unique experiences in which concert videos recorded by the acclaimed artists are accompanied by the Encores, the exclusive Friends of Chamber Music’s interviews with the guest musicians.
The Friends free digital event featuring Zlatomir Fung will premiere on Tuesday, March 23. It will be available online to watch on-demand for two weeks through April 6. Immediately following the concert, Zlatomir Fung will appear in an interview conducted by Andreas Kronenberg, Friends of Chamber Music’s president; Elena Reece, Friends of Chamber Music’s artistic director; and Prudence McDaniel, a prominent cello teacher and cellist with the Marian Anderson String Quartet.
Zlatomir Fung is the first American in 40 years and the youngest musician ever to win first prize at the International Tchaikovsky Competition Cello Division. Often compared to Yo-Yo Ma, the most important cellist in the world of classical music today, Fung is poised to become one of the preeminent cellists of our time. Captivating audiences with boundless virtuosity and exquisite sensitivity, the 20-year-old has already secured himself a position among the next generation of the world-class musicians.
Since first picking up a cello at age of three, Fung has earned numerous fellowships at prestigious music schools and festivals over the world, winning first prize at every competition and audition in which he has participated. In 2020, Fung received the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant. Fung has also been featured on NPR’s Performance Today and has appeared on the From the Top program six times.
Register for the Zlatomir Fung event at the Friends of Chamber Music’s website, fcmtx.org, via the registration form: fcmtx.org/event-details/zlatomir-fung-cello/form. For any questions, contact info@fcmtx.org.
