Yuki Ito is RCM String Player of the Year
At a gala performance at Cadogan Hall, cellist Yuki Ito has been crowned RCM String Player of the Year. He scored a hit with performances of Cassado's Toccata after Frescobaldi and Rachmaninov's Cello Sonata in G minor, performed with fellow RCM student Kumi Matsuo.
Judge Nicola Loud declared that while she was "very impressed at the standard of playing of all the finalists in the RCM String Player of the Year competition", and after much deliberation, selected Yuki as the winner because "he gave a complete performance, demonstrating both technique and wonderful musicianship". She also announced Stepan Lavrov as the winner of the Ian Stoutzker Violin Prize, awarded to the best violinist.
For his prize, Yuki Ito gets to perform a concerto with the Southbank Sinfonia in 2010, using an instrument of his choice from online auction house Tarisio. He declared "I am most delighted to win this special competition. I look very much forward to performing with the Southbank Sinfonia, and I am honoured to have the privilege to perform on a Tarisio instrument."
RCM Head of Strings Mark Messenger commented: "Once again the excellence of the playing at the RCM String Player of the Year competition at the Cadogan Hall emphasised the wealth of string talent that we have here at the RCM, and which we have been privileged to hear this year throughout London’s major concert venues and abroad."
