2025 CAG Louis and Susan Meisel Competition
FINALISTS
Hailed for his “unwavering energy and precision” (La Scena Musicale), American pianist Anthony Ratinov captivates audiences worldwide, commanding the stage with “class, style, technical mastery, and solo prowess” (Beckmesser).
Ratinov is the recent winner of the 3rd Prize at the prestigious 2024 Concours Musical International de Montréal, where he was praised for his “striking confidence in taking risks” and for his ability to “go beyond the virtuoso challenge and have fun with the music” (Le Devoir). Ratinov also won the 2nd Prize at the 2025 National U.S. Chopin Competition, and in 2023 won the 2nd Prize at the Busoni International Piano Competition with his performance of Prokofiev’s Third Piano Concerto, lauded for “sporting a pianism at the highest level… with admirable dexterity and stainless precision” (L’Ape Musicale).
Anthony Ratinov, piano
Kayden Kelly is the first place Senior Division winner of the inaugural Nina Simon Competition, a 2023 Junior Cliburn Festival Artist and a 2025 YoungArts Winner for classical piano. He began playing piano at age five and made his recital debut at age 11 at the National Theater of Costa Rica for the Costa Rican Vice President. Kayden has performed three times at the Lensic Performing Arts Center in Santa Fe, and played with orchestras at the Cincinnati Music Hall, Vanemuise Concert Hall in Estonia, and the Berlin Admiralspalast in Germany. Kayden has performed in over 21 public performances in the US, Europe, and Latin America including solo piano programs recently for the New Mexico Museum Foundation Donors Circle and at the Salon de Virtuosi in New York.
Kayden has been part of the Mozartium International “Young Excellence” Academy, Curtis Summerfest, PianoTexas, Amalfi Coast Festival, Algarve Music Series, Piano Academy Eppan, Perugia MusicFest, and Aspen Music Festival.
Kayden Kelly, piano
Founded in 2020, the Cerus Quartet focuses on showcasing the dynamic, versatile sound worlds of the saxophone quartet, programming everything from contemporary compositions to transcriptions of traditional repertoire.
Demonstrating a strong commitment to collaborating with diverse contemporary composers, Cerus has premiered new works by Karalyn Schubring, Jennifer Higdon, and Joey Karz, with an exciting new piece by Ryan Lindveit forthcoming. The quartet was awarded gold medal in the 2025 Fischoff Chamber Music Competition, First Prize in the 2024 MTNA National Chamber Music Competition, and First Prize and Michigan Prize in the 2023 Briggs Chamber Music Competition.
Cerus Quartet
Described as “An enthralling young viola soloist overflowing with imagination and conviction” by the Violin Channel, Canadian violist and VC artist Emad Zolfaghari recently came to international attention after being the first ever Canadian to be awarded first prize and audience prize at the 2024 Primrose International Viola Competition. He was accepted into the Curtis Institute of Music at age 16, where he currently studies with Hsin-Yun Huang. Hailed as one of CBC music’s “30 under 30 hot classical musicians,” and awarded Charlotte White’s Salon de Virtuosi Career Grant in 2024, Emad is also the first prize winner of the Irving M. Klein International String Competition and the International Morningside Music Bridge Competition, second prize winner of the Johansen International String Competition and third prize winner of the Concours OSM String Competition.
Emad has appeared as a soloist with several major symphony orchestras, including l’Orchestre Métropolitain under the baton of Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the Montreal Symphony, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the National Philharmonic, and the Santa Cruz Symphony. He has given recitals across Canada and the United States, including at La Chapelle Historique du Bon Pasteur, the Gualala Chamber Music Series and Britton Recital Hall at the University of Michigan.
Emad Zolfaghari, viola
With virtuosity and “enviable idiomatic rigor” (The Wall Street Journal) at the service of “pure poetry” (Seen and Heard International), pianist Derek Wang is drawing increasing acclaim in the roles of soloist, collaborator, curator, and communicator.
A proponent of the music of Franz Liszt, Derek was awarded second prize at the 12th International Liszt Competition (Liszt Utrecht) in the Netherlands in 2022, which followed on the heels of first prize at the inaugural New York Liszt Competition in 2021. He held a three-summer-long fellowship position as pianist of the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble at the Aspen Music Festival, performing a total of over fifty works of the 20th and 21st centuries. In 2025, Derek began a role as Creative Enterprise Fellow at Juilliard, curating a range of programs including sesquicentennial celebrations of composer Charles Ives and poet Rainer Maria Rilke, an interdisciplinary program interweaving ecological texts with George Crumb’s Vox Balaenae (Voice of the Whale), and an all-Philip Glass marathon concert on the composer’s 88th birthday.
Derek holds degrees from Juilliard and from the Yale School of Music. His principal teachers have included Stephen Hough, Yoheved Kaplinsky, Matti Raekallio, and Boris Slutsky. He continues his studies at the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien in Hannover, Germany in the studio of Arie Vardi.
Derek Wang, piano
Pianist Zitong Wang made her solo recital debut at age 13 at the Forbidden City Concert Hall in Beijing. She has appeared as a soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony, Galicia Symphony Orchestra, Hangzhou Philharmonic, and the Waring Festival Orchestra.
Among other accolades, she is a first prize winner of the Rosalyn Tureck International Bach Competition and the Virginia Waring International Concerto Competition; a second prize winner of the Thomas and Evon Cooper International Competition, and first prize winner of the Princeton Festival Competition. In 2022, she won first prize and the “Nelson Freire Prize” for best performance of a piece by Chopin at the XXXIII Ferrol International Piano Competition. Most recently, she received sixth prize and the Best Contemporary Piece Prize at the 64th Ferruccio Busoni International Piano Competition in 2023.
Born in Inner Mongolia, China, Zitong began piano lessons at age three and previously studied with Hua Chang and Yuan Sheng at the Central Conservatory of Music Affiliated Middle School in Beijing. At thirteen, she entered the Curtis Institute of Music, where she studied with Meng-Chieh Liu and Eleanor Sokoloff. She is currently pursuing graduate studies at the New England Conservatory with Dang Thai Son.
Zitong Wang, piano
Italian by birth, citizen of the world by training, Andrea has been studying all over the globe with some of the most sought-after mentors in the world: in Los Angeles at The Colburn School with Yehuda Gilad, at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome with Alessandro Carbonare, as well as graduating from the Universität “Mozarteum” in Salzburg in the class of Wenzel Fuchs and at the Conservatoire national supérieur de Paris in the class of Pascal Moraguès.
Upcoming engagements in the 2024/2025 season include, among others, a tour as Guest Principal Clarinet with the Estonian Festival Orchestra, Paavo Järvi and Sol Gabetta, a tour with the Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra, a Japan tour with Brahms and Mozart’s Clarinet Quintets, as well as a debut as soloist with the Budapest Festival Orchestra conducted by Gábor Takács-Nagy, performing Weber’s Clarinet Concerto in F minor, Op. 73.
Andrea is a prizewinner of several national and international competition, such as the prestigious 18th Aeolus International Competition (Düsseldorf), “Carlino” International Clarinet Competition (Udine), Premio Crescendo (Firenze), and Sándor Végh Competition (Budapest).
Andrea Caputo, clarinet
Named for the Erinyes (a.k.a. the Furies) from the Greek tragedy Oresteia by Aeschylus, and with roots in Estonia, Lithuania, Greece, the United States and Finland, the Erinys Quartet was founded in 2018 at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki where they worked closely with cellist Marko Ylönen. Since Autumn 2023 Erinys has been the Nina von Maltzahn String Quartet-in-Residence at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, PA (USA).
At the Bad Tölz International String Quartet Competition in 2023 they were awarded the Audience Prize Award of the City of Bad Tölz, as well as the Esterházy Foundation Special Prize for best interpretation of a Haydn string quartet. They also won the Bronze Medal at the 2024 Fischoff Chamber Music Competition.
In the 2025 season the Erinys Quartet will present concerts throughout the United States and Europe, including debuts at the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society and the Lucerne Festival in Switzerland. They will also be giving concerts around the United States as part of Curtis on Tour performing with pianist Michelle Cann, violist Roberto Díaz, and cellist Peter Wiley.
Erinys Quartet