Violinist
Sibelius, Violin Concerto in D minor, Op 47: 1. Allegro moderato

Pianist
Prokofiev, Piano Concerto No. 3 in C major, Op. 26: 1. Andante – Allegro

Cellist
Shostakovich, Cello Concerto No. 1 in E-Flat Major, Op. 107: 1. Allegretto

Pianist
Mozart, Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, KV 466: 1. Allegro

Finals
Conductor

American conductor Benjamin Manis made his debut at San Francisco Opera in 2024 with Francesca Zambello's production of Carmen. Later this season he returns to Utah Opera for Madame Butterfly and Rice University for The Ghosts of Versailles. Manis was formerly the Associate Conductor of the Utah Symphony and Resident Conductor of Houston Grand Opera, where he led performances of Romeo et Juliette, Carmen, and Tosca. Other important recent debuts include the Rhode Island Philharmonic and the Grand Teton Music Festival, where he was appointed Resident Conductor by Music Director Donald Runnicles. He lives in Chicago with his wife, Emily, and dog, Banjo. 

Semi Finals & Finals
Concert Violinist

Hailed by the New York Times as “a brilliant soloist,” who “played with extraordinary precision and luminosity,” violinist Fabiola Kim enjoys a dynamic and versatile career as a soloist, chamber musician, recording artist, and pedagogue. Her recent album, “1939,” with the Munich Symphony and Kevin John Edusei, has received international acclaim from BBC magazine, The Strad Magazine, Gramophone, American Record Guide and many others. Ms. Kim made her concerto debut with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra at the age of seven, just three years after beginning to play the violin. Ms. Kim is the winner of various awards and competitions, including being the youngest in history to win the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra’s Concerto Competition. Other competition wins include the Aspen Music Festival Violin Concerto Competition, The Juilliard Concerto Competition, Livingston Symphony Orchestra Young Artists Concerto Competition, the Kumho Prodigy Music Award, an award given to the most promising young musicians in Korea, and also was a prize winner at Corpus Christi International Competition and the Irving M. Klein International Competition for Strings.

Semi Finals & Finals
Concert Pianist
Eastman School of Music, Piano Chair

Alan Chow has performed in recital and in concert with orchestra in nearly all 50 states, as well as throughout Asia and in Europe. He has been presented at New York’s Lincoln Center and Merkin Hall and Chicago’s Symphony Center and Ravinia, the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. and Vienna’s Mozart Haus. He has also appeared as soloist with the National, Pan Asian, Utah, Oakland, Kansas City, and Omaha Symphonies and the Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Tulsa Philharmonics. Competition honors include Mr. Chow winning First Prize at the Concert Artists Guild International Competition and the Silver Medal and Audience Favorite Prize at the Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition. Other awards include First Prizes in the UCLA International Piano Competition and the Palm Beach Invitational International Piano Competition.

Semi Finals & Finals
Concert Pianist

Lydia Artymiw has emerged as one of the most compelling and individual pianists of her generation. For over forty years, she has consistently earned rave reviews, firmly establishing herself as a unique artistic personality with rare communicative gifts. Critics have praised her artistry and highly original interpretations, her warmth, intelligence, poetic gifts, thoughtfulness, versatility, and most of all, her distinctive and beautiful sound. Artymiw has excelled in all aspects of her career: as soloist with orchestra, in solo recitals, and in extensive chamber music collaborations with some of the most acclaimed musicians of our time. Her recordings have also received critical acclaim, earning Gramophone’s “Best of the Year” and Ovation’s “Recording of Distinction” awards.

Round 1
Concert Pianist
Cleveland Institute of Music

Concerto highlights include San Francisco and New World symphonies, Kirov (Mariinsky) Orchestra, Moscow State Symphony, Winnipeg Symphony, Hudson Philharmonic, Charleston Symphony, Harrisburg Symphony, Orquesta Sinfonica de Concepción and Turku Philharmonic Orchestra. Rabotkina has collaborated with Michael Tilson Thomas, Valery Gergiev, Vladimir Feltsman, Julian Kuerti, JoAnn Falletta, Benjamin Shwartz, and Giancarlo Guerrero. As a soloist, she has given recitals at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, Kennedy Center, Weill Recital Hall and Merkin Concert Hall in New York City, Ravinia’s Rising Stars, and Dame Myra Hess in Chicago. Her appearances abroad include China, Denmark, Switzerland, Germany, France, Mexico and Japan.

Rabotkina joined the piano faculty at the Cleveland Institute of Music in 2024, where she also serves as the Director of Academy Piano Studies.

Round 1
Concert Violinist

Er-Gene Kahng is a violinist and educator whose work came to the fore through her advocacy of American composer, Florence Price.  Her recording of Florence Price’s Violin Concertos (Albany Records, 2018) has been cited and praised as an important contribution to American classical music.  Er-Gene serves as concertmaster with the Fort Smith Symphony, and is a former member of Chineke!, the first majority BAME (Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic) orchestra in Europe, whose motto is “championing change and celebrating diversity in classical music.”

Er-Gene serves as Department co-Vice Chair, and Professor of Violin at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. She is also a Voting member of the Recording Academy and a member of the award-winning group, Khemia Ensemble.  She is a former Visiting Wolfson Fellow at the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, UK.

Er-Gene aims to continue the work of equity, diversity, inclusion and belonging by exploring the ways contemporary American classical music can intersect with, and highlight, forgotten narratives of the past and thus shape the musical values of the present and future. 

Round 1
Conductor

Described by Yannick Nézet-Séguin as “a musician who lives the music”, American conductor Conner Gray Covington performs an unusually broad repertory of symphonic, opera and film repertoire ranging from Classical to the present day.  During his four-year tenure with the Utah Symphony as Associate Conductor and as Principal Conductor of the Deer Valley Music Festival he conducted nearly 300 performances of classical subscription, education, film, pops, and family concerts as well as tours throughout the state. Previously, he was a Conducting Fellow at the Curtis Institute of Music where he worked closely with the Curtis Symphony Orchestra, with whom he made his Carnegie Hall debut, and the Curtis Opera Theatre while being mentored by Philadelphia Orchestra Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin. Conner is a five-time recipient of a Career Assistance Award from the Solti Foundation U.S. and was a featured conductor in the Bruno Walter National Conductor Preview presented by the League of American Orchestras.