Meet the 2025 Semifinalists
Celebrating 40 years of nurturing and championing the world’s finest young string players, the 40th Irving M. Klein International String Competition returns June 7-8 to the San Francisco Conservatory of Music at Caroline H. Hume Concert Hall. The semifinal round begins at 10AM Pacific Sat June 7th and finals start at 3PM Pacific Sun June 8th.
Audiences will view nine contestants competing for cash prizes and performance contracts in front of a live audience, as a jury of seven convenes to determine the winners. The Klein will also stream worldwide on the Violin Channel.
This year’s nine semifinalists showcase the exceptional talent from the top teachers and conservatories around the world. Selected from 130 entrants, the semifinalists are:
- Eiline Tai, cello, 17 (CA). Attends the Colburn School; studies with Clive Greensmith
- Elizabeth Poppy Song, violin, 15 (NJ). Attends Northern Valley Regional Demarest and Juilliard Pre-College; studies with Masao Kawasaki
- Joshua Kováč, cello, 17 (TN/Czech Republic). Homeschooled; studies with Daniel Veis
- Julia Schilz, violin, 22 (OH). Attends the Juilliard School; studies with Catherine Cho and Donald Weilerstein
- Julia-Xiaozhuo Wang, violin, 18 (China). Attends University of Music Performing Arts Vienna; studies with Johannes Meissl
- Miles Reed, cello, 22 (MA). Attends Oberlin Conservatory of Music; studies with Dmitry Kouzov
- Noam Ginsparg, cello, 21 (NY). Attends Bienen School of Music at Northwestern; studies with Hans Jensen
- Shengyu Meng, cello, 22 (China). Attends the Colburn School; studies with Clive Greensmith
- Yunji Jang, viola, 23 (South Korea). Attends Curtis Institute of Music; studies with Hsin-Yun Huang and Misha Amory
Click HERE for link to headshots
Violinist Francesca dePasquale, 2010 Klein First Prizewinner, is this year’s mentor and co-hosts with Klein Artistic Director Mitchell Sardou Klein.
The grand prize includes $5,000 cash, generously funded by the MOCA Foundation, with performance contracts with the Peninsula and Santa Cruz Symphonies, Gualala Arts Chamber Series, among others, and is valued at $15,000. The second prize is given generously by Ruth Short in memory of Elaine H. Klein of $3,500 cash and is valued at $5,500 with a performance with the San José Chamber Orchestra. A third prize of $2,500 is generously given in memory of Milton Preves by Judith and David Anderson. Two fourth prizes of $1,500 each are awarded, one given by Maria Klein in memory of Jerry Lee Klein and one given this year by the Tarka Quartet in memory of Ron Goldman. Each semifinalist not awarded a named prize will receive $1,000. Awards of $500 each are given for best performance of the commissioned work by John Harbison, and of the solo Bach.
About the Composer
Composer John Harbison’s concert music catalog of almost 300 works is anchored by three operas, seven symphonies, twelve concerti, a ballet, six string quartets, numerous song cycles and chamber works, and a large body of sacred music that includes cantatas, motets, and the orchestral-choral works Four Psalms, Requiem, and Abraham. He has also penned a substantial body of jazz compositions and arrangements, and cadenzas for major violin and piano concertos.
Harbison has received commissions from most of America’s premiere musical institutions, including the Metropolitan Opera, Chicago Symphony, Boston Symphony, New York Philharmonic, and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. As one of America’s most distinguished artistic figures, he is recipient of numerous awards and honors, among them a MacArthur Fellowship and a Pulitzer Prize.
Harbison has been composer-in-residence with the Pittsburgh Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, American Academy in Rome, and numerous festivals. He received degrees from Harvard and Princeton before joining the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he is currently Institute Professor, the highest honor accorded resident faculty. For many summers since 1984 he taught composition at Tanglewood, serving as head of its composition program from 2005 to 2015, often directing its Festival of Contemporary Music. With Rose Mary Harbison, the inspiration for many of his violin works (Violin Concerto, Four Songs of Solitude, Crane Sightings, Violin Sonata No. 2), he has been co-Artistic Director of the annual Token Creek Chamber Music Festival since its founding in 1989. He continues as principal guest conductor at Emmanuel Music (where for three years he served as Acting Artistic Director), and he is a past music director of Cantata Singers. An accomplished jazz pianist, Harbison founded MITs Vocal Jazz Ensemble in 2010, for which he served as coach and arranger, and he is pianist with the faculty jazz group Strength in Numbers (SIN).
Mr. Harbison has been President of the Copland Fund and a trustee of the American Academy in Rome. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and is a Trustee of the Bogliasco Foundation. His music is published exclusively by Associated Music Publishers. A complete works list can be found at WiseMusicClassical.com.
The Jury Panel
The jury will include former New York Philharmonic concertmaster, Glenn Dicterow; violist and USC and Manhattan School of Music faculty member, Karen Dreyfus; music director of San José Chamber Orchestra, Barbara Day Turner; former principal bass of the Philadelphia Orchestra on faculty at the Juilliard School and the Curtis Institute of Music, Hal Robinson; last year’s commissioned composer, John Wineglass; principal conductor of the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, Jory Fankuchen; and former associate principal cellist of the New York Philharmonic and 1988 Klein fourth place prizewinner, Eileen Moon.
About the Klein Competition
The Irving M. Klein International String Competition is open to musicians between ages 15 and 23 and has achieved international recognition as one of the most prestigious classical music competitions, recognized for the high caliber of the contestants, its unique, nurturing environment, and its commitment to the commissioning of new works.
Its award carries the prestige that has helped many top soloists gain prominence in the competitive world of classical music, including Alban Gerhardt, Francesca dePasquale, Frank Huang, Jennifer Frautschi, Jennifer Koh, Mark Kosower, Nikki Chooi, Oliver Herbert, Robert deMaine, Teng Li, Tessa Lark, Vadim Gluzman, and Zlatomir Fung.
California Music Center, the producer of the Klein, was founded in 1974 by Irving M. Klein, a virtuoso chamber musician and master cello teacher, as the sponsoring organization for a summer music institute and chamber music series for young artists. Following Mr. Klein’s passing in 1985, CMC inaugurated the Irving M. Klein International String Competition (“the Klein”) in 1986; since then, the Klein has become one of the most prestigious events of its kind, attracting entries annually from throughout the world and helping to enhance the developing careers of exceptional young players who have gone on to become renowned soloists, chamber musicians, teachers, and prominent members of the world’s finest orchestras.
The Klein Competition is supported in part by the Mervyn L. Brenner Foundation, the MOCA Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts; and is presented at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and in partnership with the Violin Channel. Learn more at kleincompetition.org
