Fung Wins Johansen

NEC Prep cellist Zlatomir Fung has added yet another competition triumph to his impressive list of credits. On March 21, he won first prize in the cello division of the 2015 Johansen International Competition for Young String Players in Washington D.C. He took home a $10,000 award.  In addition, he is eligible for performance engagements including a Winners’ Recital in Washington, DC, and solo appearances with orchestra. Winners are also eligible for a full scholarship to the Brevard Music Center program.

Zlatomir, who has studied with Nancy Hair, Emmanuel Feldman and Christopher Rathbun at NEC, is an avid chamber music player and currently performs with two different Prep ensembles. At the Prep Contemporary Festival on Feb. 1, he played two duo works: Elliott Carter’s Figment I and John Harbison’s Abu Graib, as well as performing in a quartet playing Jonathan Weiss’s String Quartet.

A resident of Westborough, MA who is home schooled, the 15-year old cellist has won the gold medals at the 2014 Stulberg String Competition and the 29th Irving Klein Competition. He placed second in the cello division of the 20th International Brahms Competition in Portschach, Austria in 2013, and in 2012 was the silver medal winner of the cello division of the Seventh International Tchaikovsky Competition for Young Musicians in Montreux-Vevey, Switzerland. He has appeared on NPR’s From the Top three times, as well as Performance Today.

Zlatomir was also the winner of the 2014 Aspen Music Festival Lower Strings Concerto Competition, 2014 Boston Symphony Concerto Competition, the Harvard Musical Association High School Achievement Awards Prize, NEC Prep School Concerto Competition, the Walden Chamber Players, New England Philharmonic, and Music Worcester Competitions. He has soloed with Symphony Pro Musica, the New England Philharmonic, the Cambridge Symphony Orchestra, the Brockton Symphony, the Concord Orchestra, the Boston Civic Orchestra, the Lowell Philharmonic, the Nashua Chamber Orchestra, the Quincy Symphony, Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra and the Lausanne Sinfonietta.

As a chamber musician, Zlatomir has performed with the Walden Chamber Players and the Arneis Quartet, as well as A Far Cry. He has also studied at the Heifetz International Music Institute, the Indiana Summer Strings Academy, Luzerne Music Center, Greenwood Music Camp, and MusicAlp. He took part in the Aspen Festival in the summer of 2014.

Outside of music, Zlatomir enjoys philosophy and literature, and plays chess competitively.