Rymer Second at Enescu

New England Conservatory cellist Tony Rymer ’11, ’13 M.M. has won the €10,000 Second Prize in the George Enescu International Competition, held September 6--27 in Bucharest, Romania. Cellist Eun-Sun Hong (South Korea), won the € 15,000 First Prize at the and Sarah Rommel took the 5000 Euro Third Prize.

A native of Boston’s Dorchester neighborhood, Tony attended NEC at Walnut Hill School as a pre-college student, and then enrolled at NEC, where he studied with Paul Katz and Laurence Lesser. As a Project STEP scholarship student from 1996-2007, Tony was awarded the Kravitz scholarship in 2007. One of the first recipients of the Jack Kent Cooke Award on From the Top, Tony performed on the radio show in June 2005 with the Project STEP string quartet.

He is featured on Katz’s CelloBello website in many lessons both with Katz as well as with Pieter Wispelwey who led a masterclass on the Schubert “Arpeggione” Sonata. Winner of the 2009 Spinx Competition senior division and a four-time laureate in the junior division, Rymer has performed major concerti to critical acclaim with the Atlanta Symphony, Boston Pops, Cleveland Orchestra, Detroit Symphony, and Pittsburgh Symphony, among others. 

Reached for comment, he said, “Performing with the George Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Ovidiu Bălan was a wonderful experience and an emotional way to end 11 days of practicing like a maniac. Though it was stressful to prepare the Dvorak Concerto with just two days’ notice and one rehearsal with orchestra, once it was time to perform I had fun!”

The Concerto Finals were held Sunday in a Gala Ceremony Concert in the Romanian Athenaeum’s Grand Hall, with participation of the Philharmonic and Bălan, one of Eastern Europe’s most celebrated conductors. The Cello Final was broadcast live on a screen placed in front of the Athenaeum, on TVR 2 and TVR HD TV stations, as well as online on the Enescu Festival and Competition website. You can watch it here.

The Jury, presided over by Lluís Claret, included renowned international musicians such as Marin Cazacu, Frans Helmerson and Vladimir Malinovski as members.   “