Winners announced in the 2021 Fischoff Chamber Music Competition

May 17, 2021, 12:56 PM · Congratulations to the winners in the 48th annual Fischoff Chamber Music Competition, in which 60 ensembles from around the world competed virtually last week, May 14-16. Top winners in the strings divisions included the University of Texas at Austin-based Risus Quartet, who are currently living in Seoul, South Korea. They won the Grand Prize Medal ($10,000 award) as well as the Gold Medal in the Senior String Division. The Burlingame, Calif.-based Aveta Trio won the Gold Medal in the Junior String Division.

Here are all the prize winners in the string divisions:

SENIOR STRING DIVISION

The Risus Quartet.

GOLD MEDAL ($3,500 & Double Gold Tour Prize) and GRAND PRIZE ($10,000 award)

Risus Quartet
University of Texas at Austin and Seoul, South Korea

Haeni Lee, violin
Jieun Yoo, violin
Mary Eunkyung Chang, viola
Bobae Lee, cello

BELOW: The Risus Quartet performs Mendelssohn's String Quartet No 6 in F minor, Mvt. II:

SILVER MEDAL ($3,000)

The Galvin Cello Quartet
Northwestern University, Evanston, IL

Sihao He, cello
Sydney Lee, cello/li>
Haddon Kay, cello/li>
Luiz Fernando Venturelli, cello/li>

BRONZE MEDAL ($2,000) Tie

Rucheri Trio
Yale School of Music, New Haven, CT; Curtis Institute of Music, Philadelphia, PA; Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Graz, Austria. They are currently living in New Taipai City, Taiwan.

Eric Tsai, violin
Chien-Hua Lee, cello
Yun Janice Lu, piano

BRONZE MEDAL ($2,000) Tie

Trio Rai
New England Conservatory, Boston, MA

Tiffany Chang, violin
Mari Nagahara, cello
Motti Fang-Bentov, piano

Jury members in this year's Senior String division included violinist Rachel Barton Pine, pianist Julio Elizalde, violist Liz Freivogel, and cellist Michael Kannen.

JUNIOR STRING DIVISION