The Colburn School’s Trio Azura has won the grand prize medal ($15,000) in the 51st annual Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. The Trio — violinist Duncan McDougall, cellist Yejin Hong, and pianist Yanfeng (Tony) Bai, all Colburn Conservatory students — also took home the gold medal ($5,000) in the senior string division, the Lift Every Voice Prize ($1,500) for the best performance of a work by a historically underrepresented composer, and the Horszowski Trio Prize ($600) in the senior division. In addition to the cash awards, Trio Azura will participate in the Emilia Romagna Festival in Italy next summer.
Other honors went to Colburn’s Trio de Ángeles — violinist Esme Arias-Kim, cellist Angela Rose Padula, and pianist Caden Lin, pre-college students in Colburn’s Music Academy — who won the Horszowski Trio Prize in the junior division. Winners of that award are also invited to work with the acclaimed Horszowski Trio at the Mimir Chamber Music Festival, July 1–12 at the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas.
Trio Azura and Trio de Ángeles were two of four Colburn ensembles selected from 59 groups from around the world to compete in the competition. The Corda Quartet — violinists Andres Engleman and Sarah Yang, violist Joshua Chae, and cellist Irene Choung, students in Colburn’s Community School — vied in the junior division, as did the Willow Quartet — violinist James Birch, violist Henry Woodruff, cellist Shinah (Sheena) Youn, and pianist David Choi, all Music Academy students.
Founded in 1973 in South Bend, Indiana, the Fischoff Competition is the largest chamber music competition in the world and one of the most prestigious.
