Other participants

• 1. Lionel Martin, Germany
• 2. Mikhail Makhnach, Belarus
• 3. Arsenii Stavytskyi, Ukraine
• 4. Ivan Pshenichnikov, Russia
• 5. Augustas Gocentas, Lithuania
• 6. Che-Wei Kuo, Taiwan
• 7. Bence Bánkövi, Hungary
• 8. Raphaela Paetsch, Switzerland
• 9. Megan Yip, United States
• 10. Mingyue Zhao, China
• 11. Kamil Mukhametdinov, Switzerland
• 12. Anna Skladannaya, Russia
• 13. Krystyna Wiśniewska, Poland
• 14. David Ezhov, Russia
• 15. Aihao Zheng, China
• 16. Serafim Volkov, Russia
• 17. Florian Pons, France
• 18. Kotryna Šiugždinytė, Great Britain
• 19. Mara Lobo, Portugal
• 20. Gaudas Paulius Krištaponis, Lithuania
• 21. Kyung Jun Lee, South Korea
• 22. Timur Kolodyazhny, Russia
• 23. Despond Zoltan, Switzerland
• 24. Constantin Macherel, Switzerland
• 25. Christine Caroline Lamprea, United States

Participant data

Name of the educational insititution	New England Conservatory, Boston
Accompanist	yes

Chinese Cellist Aihao Zheng, originally from Shanghai Conservatory of Music Middle School, China, has been studying and performing in the New England Conservatory in Boston since 2013. Aihao is now pursuing his Master of Music in Cello Performance at the New England Conservatory under Paul Katz and Laurence Lesser. At age 14, Aihao traveled to Germany to take part in an art exchange program with a full scholarship. On May 9th, he held a recital at the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra Rehearsal Hall. He was principal at the cello section of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music Middle School orchestra. In 2012, he got a full scholarship for going to Morningside Music Bridge in Canada. From 2015 to 2017, he performed with Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra as their principal cellist. In 2016, Aihao won the first prize of NEC Tecchler-Forster Cello Competition, receiving a chance to play the William Forster II 1795 cello for one year. In 2017, his piano trio group was selected to play at the 150th Anniversary Chamber Music Gala Concert at NEC. In the same year, he performed as a soloist with the Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra under Maestro Benjamin Zander in the Harvard Sander Theater as BPYO’s concerto competition winner. In 2018, Aihao was the finalist of the Mika Hasler competition. He has been invited to perform in the Beijing Super Cello festival in the National Museum Concert hall as a soloist, and in the same year, he was selected to the 2018 Prague Spring international Cello competition. Aihao has had master classes with Mula Na, Luis Claret, Desmond Hoebig, Johanne Perron, Yeesun Kim, John Kadz, Andres Diaz, Gary Hoffman, David Strange, Pieter Wispelway, and Ralph Kirshbaum.

I ROUND

1. Carlo Alfredo Piatti | "12 Caprices for Solo Cello" · Op. 25
   • No. 6
2. Johann Sebastian Bach | Cello Suite No. 3 · C major · BWV 1009
3. Arvydas Malcys | Narcissus for Solo Cello

II ROUND

1. Johannes Brahms | Cello Sonata No. 2 · F major · Op. 99
2. Vladas Jakubėnas | Serenade for cello and piano
3. Bohuslav Martinů | Variations on a Theme of Rossini · Op. 290

III ROUND

1. Edward Elgar | Concerto for Cello (F. Thomas version for string orchestra) · E minor · Op. 85