LIVE | Jan Vargas Nedvetsky, 18, cello

We welcome a return guest for the first live recital of the new school year: Jan Vargas Nedvetsky of Wilmette is just starting his final year at the Music Institute of Chicago Academy. He and pianist Liang-yu Wang play Tchaikovsky, Locatelli, Weir and Beethoven. Cellist Jan Vargas Nedvetsky is a Merit Scholarship Fellow at the Academy of the Music Institute of Chicago where he studies cello performance with Hans Jørgen Jensen and Oleksa Mycyk. Jan is a 2023-2024 scholarship recipient at the Academy of Music in Liechtenstein where he participates in masterclasses with Jens Peter Maintz and takes part in the intensive music weeks and activities. Previously Jan studied with Gilda Barston, Vladimir Perline, Horacio Contreras and Jihee Kim. As a solo and chamber performer, Jan has won numerous awards in competitions and soloed with orchestras in the US and Europe. In 2023 Jan made his Symphony Center solo debut with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago as a prize winner of the 2023 Crain-Maling Foundation CSO Young Artist Competition. In the 2023-2024 season, Jan performed recitals in Lake Placid; Liechtenstein; Detroit, Washington DC, Miami, Boise; and soloed with the Central Oregon Symphony Orchestra and Chicago’s Lakeview Symphony. Jan was named a 2024 YoungArts Winner with Distinction in Cello Performance. Additionally, Jan won First Prize in the 2023 Central Oregon Concerto Competition, 2023 Lakeview Orchestra Concerto Competition, 2022 Society of the American Musicians Competition, 2022 Chicago Chamber Orchestra Concerto Competition, and 2021 Chicago International Music Competition; received multiple awards in the Walgreens National Concerto Competition and DePaul National Concerto Festival, and was a finalist in the 2024 United States Marine Band Concerto Competition and 2024 Sphinx Competition. With his chamber groups, Jan has been a multi-year winner at the St Paul National String Quartet Competition and the Barnett Chamber Music Competition; and a semi-finalist at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition for four years running. He has played in solo masterclasses with Jens Peter Maintz, Richard Aaron, Jerome Pernoo, Lluis Claret, John Sharp, Richard Hirschl, Ivan Karizna, Brannon Cho, Brandon Vamos, and Edward Arron; and has been coached in chamber music masterclasses by Menahem Pressler, Ivri Gitlis, Mathias Tacke, Sang Mee Lee, Paul Zafer, and Jasmin Lin; as well as the Leipzig String Quartet, the Talich Quartet, and the Pražák Quartet. In the summer of 2024, Jan attended the Gstaad Menuhin String Academy in Switzerland, the inaugural Cleveland Institute of Music Chamber Music Intensive, and the Meadowmount School of Music in upstate New York. He has been featured on television stations including ABC, WTTW and TV Com Belgium; and is booked to perform on NPR’s From The Top. His previous appearances on WFMT include an Introductions solo recital in January 2021; as a concerto soloist in April 2023; on WFMT’s 70th Anniversary Day of Celebration in December 2021; and further chamber music appearances in August 2020, in May 2021, in August 2022, and in December 2023. He appeared on the front cover of the WTTW-WFMT Program Guide