Chamber Music in Yellow Springs is proud to announce the two finalists of their 40th Annual Competition for Emerging Ensembles: TrioEris and Cerus Quartet. Theses ensembles, selected by a panel of professionals, will each perform for one half of the concert on April 27th at the First Presbyterian Church of Yellow Springs.
The competition is one of the signature programs of the all-volunteer non-profit, and is designed to recognize and support new talent. Following the April 27 concert, three judges will choose the winners of the $4,000 first prize and the $3,000 second prize. While they decide, CMYS will conduct a poll for the $500 Audience Favorite Prize.
Trio Eris
Trio Eris, New England Conservatory’s Professional Trio-in-Residence, is united by a genuine love of collaboration, and a deeply personal approach to music-making. The trio comprises violinist K.J. McDonald, cellist Annie SeEun Hyung, and pianist Andrew Jun Chen, students of Donald Weilerstein, Laurence Lesser, Vivian Weilerstein and HaeSun Paik.
Originating from three distinct musical and personal backgrounds, the trio was introduced to one another in 2023 under the guidance of Merry Peckham and quickly developed a sense of camaraderie over the course of a serendipitous video call. The trio has since had the opportunity to work with Vivian Weilerstein, Laurence Lesser, Don Weilerstein, Laurie Smukler, and Areta Zhulla, and has performed in masterclasses for Robert McDonald, Claudio Martínez Mehner, Itzhak Perlman, Ara Gregorian, and Lucy Chapman. Trio Eris has attended IMS Prussia Cove and the Perlman Music Program’s Chamber Music Workshop. Recent season engagements include performances at Rockport Music, Martha’s Vineyard Chamber Music Society, Jordan Hall, and the Panama Jazz Festival.
Cerus Quartet
Founded in 2020, the Cerus Quartet focuses on showcasing the dynamic, versatile sound worlds of the saxophone quartet, programming everything from contemporary compositions to transcriptions of traditional repertoire.
Demonstrating a strong commitment to collaborating with diverse contemporary composers, Cerus has premiered new works by Karalyn Schubring, Jennifer Higdon, and Joey Karz, with an exciting new piece by Ryan Lindveit forthcoming. The quartet was awarded First Prize in the 2024 MTNA National Chamber Music Competition, silver medal in the 2023 Fischoff Chamber Music Competition, and First Prize and Michigan Prize in the 2023 Briggs Chamber Music Competition.
They have had the privilege of performing from coast to coast and internationally, most recently with concert and community engagements at the Walla Walla Chamber Music Festival in Washington state. Cerus Quartet is rooted in Ann Arbor and is composed of Roberto Campa on soprano, Laura Ramsay on alto, Kyle Kato on tenor, and Samuel Dishon on baritone.
Since the first Competition in 1985, we have retained a focus widely recognized to be unique among chamber music competitions. The Competition, as a companion part of a well-established chamber music concert series, intends to foster the development of new chamber music ensembles. Promoting new groups as performing ensembles is an essential part of our goal of sustaining chamber music concert series like ours. Competitors must perform a 30-minute program of their own choosing, an unedited video-recorded performance, and with all the same ensemble members. Recordings made during the last three years are permissible as long as the video recordings were made with the current ensemble members. Finalists often remark that they greatly appreciate being able to perform music they select rather than being judged on comparative performances of standard repertoire. In this way, we believe we are able to hear our Finalists at their best. Seeking to recognize the best new ensembles with a likelihood of having careers as professionals, our Competition has featured ensembles of differing instrumentation in the majority of our 39 competitions. This approach has proven to be successful with over 50% of our Finalist ensembles still performing today. We look forward to receiving your entry materials and to selecting this year’s Competition Finalists.
For questions regarding the competition, please contact the competition chair, Linda Menz, lindamenz@gmail.com.
To keep up with the latest information, follow us on our competition Facebook page
First Prize – $4,000
Second Prize – $3,000
People’s Choice Award – $500