The Rockefeller University » Zlatomir Fung with Dina Vainshtein

The youngest cellist ever to win First Prize at the International Tchaikovsky Competition, the 24-year-old, Zlatomir Fung, has already proven himself a star among the next generation of world-class musicians. Of Bulgarian and Chinese heritage, Mr. Fung was born into a family of mathematicians and began playing cello at age three. He studied at The Juilliard School under the tutelage of Richard Aaron and Timothy Eddy, where he was a recipient of the Kovner Fellowship. A winner of the 2017 Young Concert Artists International Auditions and the 2017 Astral National Auditions, Mr. Fung has taken the top prizes at the 2018 Alice & Eleonore Schoenfeld International String Competition, the 2016 George Enescu International Cello Competition, and the 2015 Johansen International Competition for Young String Players, among others. He was selected as a 2016 US Presidential Scholar for the Arts and was awarded the 2016 Landgrave von Hesse Prize at the Kronberg Academy Cello Masterclasses. Mr. Fung was announced as a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship Winner in 2022 and awarded an Avery Fisher Career Grant in 2020.

Dina Vainshtein, a daughter of two pianists, studied with Boris Berlin and Arthur Aksenov at the prestigious Gnessin Russian Academy of Music in Moscow. Ms. Vainshtein received the Special Prize for the Best Collaborative Pianist at the 1998 International Tchaikovsky Competition. She has collaborated with violinists Miriam Fried, Yura Lee, Karen Gomyo, Chad Hoopes, Caroline Goulding, Zina Schiff, Alexi Kenney, and Angelo Yu; cellists Natasha Brofsky and Amit Peled; as well as the Borromeo String Quartet. Ms. Vainshtein moved to the United States in 2000 to attend the Cleveland Institute of Music, where she worked with Vivian Hornik Weilerstein and Donald Weilerstein. She has performed at Alice Tully Hall, Weill Recital Hall the Caramoor Festival, Music@Menlo, Ravinia Festival, and the Music Academy of the West. For nearly a decade, Ms. Vainshtein has been affiliated with the New England Conservatory and the Walnut Hill School, where she teaches chamber music. At both institutions, she worked with acclaimed conductor Benjamin Zander in his renowned interpretation classes.