Colombian cello master and laureate of the world's largest competitions, Santiago Cañon-Valencia, will hold a concert on Sunday 25 September at 8 p.m. in the hall of the Belgrade Philharmonic, as part of the 12th Cello Fest.
The programme will include Johann Sebastian Bach: Suite No. 2 in D minor; George Crumb: Sonata for Solo Cello; Damián Ponce de León: La ruta de la mariposa; Santiago Cañon-Valencia: Ascenso hacia lo profundo.
Tickets can be purchased at the Belgrade Philharmonic ticket office.
Santiago Cañon-Valencia is one of the most promising young cellists of his generation. Born in Bogotá in 1995, he was named a BBC New Generation Artist in 2022. He won the silver award and the Audience Favorite award at the 14th International Tchaikovsky Competition in 2019. He has been participating at international cello competitions for many years. In 2017, he won the third prize at the prestigious Queen Elizabeth International Competition in Brussels.
The Starker Foundation awarded him the prize in 2018. He also won the first prize at the Carlos Prieto International Cello Competition, the Beijing International Music Competition, the Gisborne International Music Competition and the Lennox International Young Artists Competition. He was the recipient of the main prizes in competitions such as Sphinx, Casals, Johansen, Cassado and Adam.
As a soloist, he made his debut with the Bogotá Philharmonic when he was six years old. Since then, he has performed with the most important orchestras in his native Colombia, and his international solo career includes performances with orchestras such as: the Mariinsky Orchestra under Valery Gergiev, the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra with conductor Christoph Eschenbach, the Brussels Philharmonic with conductor Stéphane Denève, the St Petersburg Philharmonic under the direction of Nikolai Alexeev, the Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Janos Kovacs and the Moscow Soloists with Yuri Bashmet, then the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra with Muhai Tang.
Santiago's most important performances in the 2021/2022 season were in Colombia and Japan, as well as solo debuts with the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Andris Poga, the Prague Philharmonic, the Radio-Television Symphony Orchestra of Spain, the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, as well as performances at the festival in Dresden, at the Casals Festival and the Moritzburg Festival.
Inspired by newer music, Cañon-Valencia premiered Carlos Izcaray's work, ‘Stringmaster’ for cello with the Alabama Symphony Orchestra, as well as Jorge Pinzón's Cello Concerto ‘Rapsodia a los cuatro elementos’ at the 2019 Cartagena International Music Festival. In addition, he premiered Ginastera's Cello Concerto No. 2 with the Columbia National Symphony Orchestra, as well as Gulda's Cello Concerto in Oakland with the Oakland Chamber Orchestra.
Besides commissioning new works and arranging, he also writes his own works. His album will be released at the end of this year. His debut CD ‘Solo’ has been internationally acclaimed by ‘The Strad’ magazine, and his recent recordings also include Russian cello sonatas and popular pieces of the cello repertoire with pianist Katherine Austin.
Since 2011, Cañón-Valencia has been sponsored by the Mayra & Edmundo Esquenazi Scholarship through the Salvi Fundation.
