Juilliard's Katarina String Quartet Wins 2025 Fischoff Chamber Music Competition

May 13, 2025, 10:23 PM · Congratulations to the winners in the 52st annual Fischoff Chamber Music Competition, in which dozens of ensembles from around the world competed last weekend (May 9-11) at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana!

Out of 59 competing ensembles from around the world, Katarina String Quartet, from The Juilliard School in New York City, won the Grand Prize Medal ($15,000 award) as well as the Gold Medal in the Senior String Division. Cerus Quartet, a saxophone quartet from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, MI, won the Gold Medal in the Senior Wind Division.

The Katarina String Quartet.

Formed in 2022 at McGill University’s Schulich School of Music under the tutelage of André Roy, the Katarina String Quartet is currently serving as the Graduate Resident Quartet at The Juilliard School. The group has worked extensively with members of the Alban Berg, Pacifica, Danel, Dover and Juilliard String Quartets and takes its name from Katarina Guarneri — wife of the legendary violinmaker Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesu - who is said by some scholars to have worked on her husband’s violins during the most productive years of his career. Inspired by Katarina, the quartet seeks to celebrate the people behind the canonized figureheads of classical music.

In addition to prize money, Katarina String Quartet and Cerus Quartet will participate in the Fischoff Double Gold Tour of the Midwestern United States this fall, performing concerts and outreach. Katarina String Quartet's Grand Prize win also includes an invitation to become a Showcase Ensemble at the Chamber Music America (CMA) Annual Conference; performances at the prestigious Emilia Romagna Festival in Italy; and participation in residencies with Friends of Chamber Music of Troy, New York, and the American University of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates.

Here are the final results of the 2025 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition:

SENIOR STRING DIVISION

GRAND PRIZE ($15,000) and GOLD MEDAL ($5,000 and Double Gold Tour)

Katarina String Quartet
The Juilliard School, New York City, New York

Jeanel Liang, violin
Jérôme Chiasson, violin
Celia Morin, viola
Maya Enstad, cello

SILVER MEDAL ($4,000)

Trio Eris
New England Conservatory, Boston, Massachusetts

J. McDonald, violin
Annie SeEun Hyung, cello
Andrew Jun Chen, piano

BRONZE MEDAL ($3,000)

Trio Timia
Schulich School of Music of McGill University, Montreal, Canada

June Lee, violin
François Lamontagne, cello
Itamar Prag, piano,/li>

Lift Every Voice Prize ($1,500)
Best performance of a work by a historically underrepresented composer within the chamber music world.

Trio Unio
Seoul, South Korea

Young Sun Choi, piano
Eunji Kim, violin
Ah-Yeon Nam, cello

Horszowski Trio Prize for String Division Piano Ensemble ($1,000)
Sponsored by the Horszowski Trio, awarded to the highest-ranking piano ensemble. In addition to the cash prize, the winner will be invited to the Mimir Festival to work with the Horszowski Trio and other distinguished faculty members.

Trio Eris

Jury members for the Senior String Division included Daniel Avshalomov of the American String Quartet, Anne Francis Bayless of the Fry Street Quartet, Gershon Gerchikov of the Ariel String Quartet and Margaret Kampmeier of Princeton University. Lift Every Voice Prize Jurors were William Eddins of the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, Jennifer Grim of Zephyros Winds and Muneko Otani of the Cassatt String Quartet.

JUNIOR STRING DIVISION

GOLD MEDAL ($2,500)

Aves Trio
Young Chamber Musicians, Burlingame, California

Euisun Hong, violin
Huisun Hong, cello
Jacob Rockower, piano

SILVER MEDAL ($2,000)

Doxa Quartet
The Colburn School, Los Angeles, California

Lena Kim, violin
Jiyu Lee, violin
Kayla Kim, viola
Noah Choi, cello

BRONZE MEDAL ($1,500)

Quartetto Speranza
Midwest Young Artists Conservatory, Highwood, Illinois

Cecilia O’Malley, violin
Alison Chung, violin
Callia Murray, viola
Diego Dahle, cello

Horszowski Trio Prize for String Division Piano Ensemble ($500)
Sponsored by the Horszowski Trio, awarded to the highest-ranking piano ensemble.

Aves Trio

Kenneth Geoffroy Memorial Award ($800)
To encourage the participation of local chamber music ensembles in the Fischoff Competition, a special prize is awarded to the highest-ranking Junior Division applicant from the Michiana region (60 mile radius of South Bend).

Benediction Trio
St. Joseph High School, South Bend, IN; Penn High School, Mishawaka, IN; Kolbe Academy, South Bend, IN

Catherine Lutz, violin
Jonathan Aizigov, cello
Ignatius Caro, piano

Jury members for the Junior String Division included Timothy Lovelace of the University of Minnesota, Jesse Mills of the Horszowski Trio and Renee Skerik of the Interlochen Center for the Arts.

The Fischoff competition was founded in 1973 by Joseph E. Fischoff and members of the South Bend (Ind.) Chamber Music Society.

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Replies

Matthew Metz

May 14, 2025 at 02:56 PM · Very proud our daughter's NEC Prep CHIPS Ombre Quartet made it to the Junior quarterfinals. They had a great time in South Bend, seeing great players and music!

Richard Pairaudeau

May 14, 2025 at 03:35 PM · Congratulations to your daughter and her quartet, Matthew!

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