The Strad news – Ensembles announced for the Schoenfeld International String Competition chamber music division

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The ensembles competing in the chamber music division of the 2025 Schoenfeld International String Competition in Harbin, China, have been announced. The groups are: 

 

Trio Archai

Mar Valor (Spain, 25) 

Ayla Sahin (Germany, 26) 

Finn Mannion (Ireland, 23)

Trio Azura

Duncan McDougall (Canada, 23)

Yejin Hong (Korea, 28)

Yanfeng (Tony) Bai (China, 27)

Berlinsky Quartet

Dennis Gasanov (Russia, 30)

Pavel Romanenko (Kazakhstan, 33)

Fedor Kalashnikov (Russia, 28)

Mikhail Kalashnikov (UK, 34)

Dynamis Piano Quartet

Marco Norzi (Italy, 34)

Margherita Fanton (Italy, 33)

Roberto Mansueto (Italy, 35)

Marta Puig (Spain, 33)

Gallant Quartet

Gengyao Wang (China, 28)

Diguang Chen (China, 28)

Yanlin Li (China, 28)

Kaituo Liu (China, 29)

Quartetto Goldberg

Jingzhi Zhang (China, 24) 

Giacomo Lucato (Italy, 27)

Matilde Simionato (Italy, 28)

Martino Simionato (Italy, 30)

Trio Havisham 

Magdalena Riedl (Austria, 26)

Seth Collin (UK, 23)

Zany Denyer (UK, 25)

The Horseman Quartet

Junyu Yi (China, 20)

MAI, Enze Mai (China, 19)

DENG, Zixuan Deng (China, 19)

HAO, Haoran Hao (China, 19) 

Mila Quartet 

Ke Zhu (China, 30)

Huan Ci (China, 31)

Zhangjuan Liu (China, 32)

Yanyan Lin (China, 30)

 

The chamber music division is open to piano trios, piano quartets and string quartets. The ensembles are competing for a first prize of $20,000. Other prizes include a $10,000 second prize, $5,000 third prize, $3,000 fourth prize, $2,000 fifth prize, and the prize for the best performance of a work by Beethoven, worth $2,000. 

The final round will take place on 21 July in Harbin. The ensembles will play a complete chamber work from the Classical period, one movement from a chamber work of the Romantic period and one movement of a chamber work from either the 20th century or composed after 1950. 

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