Esme Arias-Kim and the Civic Orchestra of Chicago (Photo: Elliot Mandel)
Chicago classical music label Cedille Records has named seven Chicago musicians semifinalists in the Chicago label’s second Emerging Artist Competition.
Cedille’s competition is open to early-career artists, under age 35, who are from or reside in the Chicago area and have not yet released a commercial recording with them as the featured player. The winner will receive a contract for a debut solo album, a prize that Cedille values at $70k.
The semifinalists are violinists Esme Arias-Kim and Rabia Brooke, oboist Oliver Talukder, and pianists Boris Krivoshein, Tamila Salimdjanova, Wenting Shi, and Seho Young.
Arias-Kim, Brooke, and Talukder have all previously appeared on Introductions, WFMT’s weekly showcase of pre-college musicians.
2021 competition winner Julian Velasco’s Cedille album As We Are
On May 17, the semifinal will take place behind closed doors at the Spertus Institute’s Feinberg Theater. The field of seven will be narrowed to four finalists. The final round will be held the next day, May 18, also at Feinberg, in an event that will be free, open to the public, and livestreamed online.
The competition judges will be James Ginsburg, the label’s founder and president, as well as Henry Fogel (who hosts Collectors’ Corner on WFMT), pianist Jorge Federico Osorio, composer Stacy Garrop, Third Coast Percussion member Sean Connors, and former COT music director Lidiya Yankovskaya. Rounding out the panel is WFMT music director Oliver Camacho.
The label’s first competition took place in 2021, with saxophonist Julian Velasco the winner. Cedille released Velasco’s album, As We Are, in 2022.
For more information, visit cedillerecords.org.
