Brannon Cho has won the sixth International Paulo Cello Competition (IPCC). The American cellist takes home a first prize of €20,000, and joins an elite group of laureates that includes concert hall favourite Kian Soltani.
Unsurprisingly, this was not Cho’s first foray into the international competition scene. His résumé includes a sixth place finish at the 2017 Queen Elisabeth Competition, second prize at the 2015 Naumburg International Cello Competition and third prize at the 2013 Cassadó International Cello Competition.
At IPCC, Zlatomir Fung (also from the US) finished joint second with South Korea’s Minji Kim (South Korea), both collecting €15,000; while fourth prize was split between Bryan Cheng (Canada), Leonardo Chiodo (Finland) and Timotheos Petrin (Greece).
Taking place across three cities – Helsinki, Lahti and Espoo – IPCC ran from 15-25 October. Other previous winners of the quinquennial competition are Xavier Phillips (1991), Hai-Ye Ni (1996), Enrico Bronzi (2002) and Andreas Brantelid (2007).