Santiago Cañón-Valencia - NOSPR

Santiago Cañón-Valencia has been praised as one of the most promising young cellists of his generation. Born in Bogota in 1995, his major musical mentors have been Henryk Zarzycki in Colombia, James Tennant in New Zealand, and Andrés Díaz in the United States. He is currently pursuing his Professional Studies degree with Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt at the Kronberg Academy for Young soloists. Winner of the Silver Medal and “Audience Favourite” Award at the 2019 XVI International Tchaikovsky Competition and the 2018 Starker Foundation Award, Mr. Cañón-Valencia has been a fixture of the International Cello Competition scene for many years.
He was awarded third prize at the prestigious Queen Elisabeth International Competition 2017 in Brussels. He is also a First Prize winner of the Carlos Prieto International Cello Competition, Beijing International Music Competition, Gisborne International Music Competition, and Lennox International Young Artists Competition. He was also a major prize winner of the Sphinx, Casals, Johansen, Cassadó, and Adam cello competitions.
Mr. Cañón-Valencia made his orchestral debut as a soloist when he was six years old with the Orquesta Filarmónica de Bogotá.
Since then, he has appeared with all the major orchestras in Colombia and his international solo career has taken him around the world to perform with orchestras such as the Mariinsky Orchestra with Valery Gergiev, Frankfurt Radio Orchestra with Christoph Eschenbach, Brussels Philharmonic with Stéphane Denève, St Petersburg Philharmonic with Nikolai Alexeev, Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra with János Kovács, Moscow Soloists with Yuri Bashmet, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and Antwerp Symphony with Muhai Tang, among others.
Highlights of his 2021/2022 season include returning concerto performances in Colombia and Japan, debuts as a soloist with SWR Symphonieorchester with Andris Poga, Prague Philharmonia and RTVE Symphony Orchestra, and appearances at the Dresden, Casals and Moritzburg music festivals.
Passionate about new music, Mr. Cañón-Valencia was responsible for Carlos Izcaray’s world premiere of his Cello Concerto Stringmaster alongside Alabama Symphony Orchestra. Santiago also premiered Jorge Pinzón’s Cello Concerto Rapsodia a los 4 Elementos at the Cartagena Interational Music Festival 2019. He was also responsible for the Colombian premiere of Ginastera’s Cello Concerto No. 2 with the National Symphony Orchestra of Colombia as well as premiering Gulda’s Cello Concerto in Auckland, New Zealand with the Auckland Chamber Orchestra.
Recording for the Atoll label in New Zealand, his debut CD Solo has been internationally acclaimed by the Strad Magazine. Other recordings include Russian cello sonatas and popular pieces of the cello repertoire with pianist Katherine Austin. His next release will be sonatas by Beethoven and Schubert with pianist Andrea Lucchesini for the Egea label.
Mr. Cañón-Valencia has been sponsored by the Mayra & Edmundo Esquenazi Scholarship through the Salvi Foundation since 2011.