YCAT success for George and Ben
Thursday 23 May 2019
Royal College of Music (RCM) pianist George Harliono and RCM Junior Department alumnus Ben Goldscheider have been announced as Young Classical Artists Trust (YCAT) Artists 2019.
George and Ben were selected for representation at YCAT’s Final Public Auditions held at Wigmore Hall on Thursday 16 May 2019. They performed alongside five other finalists, chosen from more than 100 applicants, in front of a jury consisting of senior representatives from Askonas Holt, Saffron Hall, Enticott Music Management, Decca Classics, Verbier Festival, Snape Maltings and YCAT.
A top prize-winner at the 2016 Grand Piano Competition in Moscow, George has appeared as a soloist with orchestras across Russia. In 2017 he became one of the youngest students ever to take up a four-year scholarship at the RCM for a BMus degree, studying with Professor Vanessa Latarche. He has been invited to perform alongside Denis Matsuev and Lang Lang, and worked with conductors Valery Gergiev, Alexander Sladkovsky and Anton Lubchenko.
George comments: ‘I am really excited to have been selected as an official YCAT artist. This is a great step for me and I am really looking forward to working with the experienced team at YCAT.’
After studying horn at the RCM Junior Department, Ben Goldscheider was a Concerto Finalist in the BBC Young Musician Competition, performing with the BBC Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican. Highlights since then include his debut at the BBC Proms in 2018 and appearances as a soloist with many international orchestras. He is currently studying at the Barenboim-Said Academy in Berlin.
Ben comments: ‘I have been fortunate enough to work with YCAT for the last three years as a result of the BBC Young Musician competition, so to continue this relationship with a higher goal as I enter my final year of education is a very positive step for me. I am very grateful for this opportunity!’
YCAT provides essential opportunities, guidance and support to talented young artists at the start of international performing careers. George joins many RCM alumni YCAT Artists, including cellist Jamal Aliyev, violinists Daniel Roberts and Benjamin Baker, cellist Christopher Graves, bassoonist Amy Harman, mezzo soprano Anna Huntley and pianist Alexander Ullman.
Both George and Ben have also been selected to take part in the prestigious International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow this summer. The competition will be broadcast live on Medici TV in June.
