MISSION:
To expand cello student repertoire with the commission of new pedagogical concert works and etudes representing diverse musical styles and cultural backgrounds.
Cello Teaching Repertoire Consortium exists to support the creation of new music for cello students by expert string players, to organize masterclasses connecting perfomer-composers with teachers and students, and connect cello students to a living tradition of contemporary music that helps them to grow as cellists and musicians.
CTRC aims to support creating intermediate- to early advanced-level teaching pieces that help students to build core techniques of perpetual motion, lyrical playing, thumb position, shifting, vibrato, double stops, and advanced bowing patterns. Rather than introducing new, unidiomatic challenges, or primarily challenges of interpretation, these works will challenge students to master their instruments with core instrumental techniques in diverse musical styles. The commissioned pieces will be written by composers with advanced knowledge of cello technique and appropriate pedagogical sequencing in order to create works that can supplement or replace historical pedagogical stand-by pieces, and give students and teachers fresh compositions they can share in recitals and at contests.
CTRC 2026 TIMELINE, TARGET STUDENT LEVEL
This year we are commissioning Zlatomir Fung to write one 5-7 minute concert etude targeting Suzuki Books 6-8. More details will be available as the composition progresses.
Zlatomir Fung
CTRC 2026 Commissioned Composer
Cellist Zlatomir Fung burst onto the scene as the first American in four decades (and youngest musician ever) to win First Prize at the International Tchaikovsky Competition Cello Division. He has since garnered accolades, critical acclaim and standing ovations at performances around the world, becoming recognized as one of the preeminent cellists of our time. Astounding audiences with his boundless virtuosity and exquisite sensitivity, the 26-year-old has already proven himself a star among the next generation of world-class musicians.
Highlights of the 2025-2026 season include a recital at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall in March and a return to the Aspen, Ravinia and La Jolla Music Society Festivals. He appears with the Fort Worth Symphony under conductor Peter Oundjian and with the Nashville, Albany, Knoxville and Pacific Symphonies, Sacramento and Reno Philharmonics and Sarasota Orchestra. Appearances outside the U.S. include the Pohang International Music Festival in Korea and Guiyang Symphony Orchestra in China; Belgrade Philharmonic in Serbia; Melbourne Symphony; and a recital at Wigmore Hall in London.
In April 2025, Signum Records released Fung’s debut album, Fantasies, a collection of opera fantasies and transcriptions for cello and piano to enthusiastic reviews.
Fung served as artist in residence with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in the 2023-2024 season, appearing in four London performances. Other recent debuts include the New York Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, Orchestre National de Lille, and BBC Philharmonic, as well as the Baltimore, Dallas, Detroit, Seattle, Milwaukee, Utah, Rochester, and Kansas City Symphonies. He has performed at major festivals, including Ravinia, Blossom, Aspen, Bravo Vail and Grant Park in the U.S. and Verbier, Dresden, Leoš Janáček International and Tsinandali Festivals and the Cello Biennale Amsterdam in Europe.
In addition to demonstrating a mastery of the canon with his impeccable technique, Fung brings exceptional insight into contemporary repertoire, championing composers such as Unsuk Chin, Katherine Balch, and Anna Clyne. In 2023, under the baton of Gemma New and with the Dallas Symphony, Fung gave the world premiere of Katherine Balch’s whisper concerto to great acclaim as the dedicatee of the work; he gave its UK premiere in February 2024 with the BBC Philharmonic, conducted by Joshua Weilerstein.
Fung has received many distinguished prizes and awards, including the 2017 Young Concert Artists International Auditions and a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship in 2022. As a participant in WXQR’s Artist Propulsion Lab, he wrote The Elves and the Cello Maker, a radio play in which he also performed. Fung has been featured on NPR’s Performance Today and appeared six times on NPR’s From the Top. Fung joined the faculty of his alma mater, The Juilliard School, in 2024 as one of the youngest members of the faculty.
Fung performs on a circa 1735 cello by Domenico Montagnana, on loan from a generous benefactor, and the 1696 "Lord Aylesford” Strad, on loan from the Sasakawa Music Foundation (formerly the Nippon Music Foundation).
Of Bulgarian and Chinese heritage, Zlatomir Fung was born into a family of mathematicians and began playing cello at age three. Fung studied at The Juilliard School under the tutelage of Richard Aaron and Timothy Eddy, where he was a recipient of the Kovner Fellowship. Outside of music, his interests include chess, cinema, and creative writing.
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