PRESS RELEASE

The 2025 Cello│Fresno – International Cello Festival in Fresno, one of the premiere cello festivals in the US, will take place on the Fresno State campus from October 30 – November 2, 2025.  Artistic Directors, Thomas Loewenheim, California State University, Fresno, Emilio Colón, Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, and Cara Elise Colón, American Cello Institute, bring cellists from around the globe to enrich the Fresno community with four days of master classes, cello ensemble rehearsals, concerts, and workshops for cellists of all ages and levels. 

This year will feature cellist Bion Tsang who has been internationally recognized as one of the outstanding instrumentalists of his generation: among his many honors are an Avery Fisher Career Grant, an MEF Career Grant and the Bronze Medal in the IX International Tchaikovsky Competition.  He also serves as the Head of Strings and holds the Joe R. & Teresa Lozano Long Chair in Cello at the Sarah and Ernest Butler School of Music at The University of Texas at Austin.  Other faculty guest artists will include Thomas Landschoot, and Jonathan Ruck, representing many of the top music programs in the United States.

The festival will include two large gala concerts with orchestras, a concerto competition which will feature the winners in our final concert, two large cello ensembles, and many master classes and workshops.  We will also host violin makers from the area presenting their instruments and answering questions students may have.

The Cello Mania Concert will take place on Saturday, November 1, at 7:30 PM at the Fresno State School of Music Concert Hall, featuring the Cello│Fresno faculty with the Fresno State Symphony Orchestra in works for cello and orchestra by Dvořák, Enescu, Respighi, Rubinstein, and Tchaikovsky and Debussy’s La mer.  The Closing Gala Concert will take place on Sunday, November 2, at 3:00 PM at the Fresno State School of Music Concert Hall, presenting the two cello ensembles conducted by Cara and Emilio Colón, as we all as works for cello and the Youth Orchestras of Fresno with the Concerto Competition winners performing works by Davidoff and Popper, Bion Tsang and Emilio Colón performing works by Dvořák, Strauss and Tchaikovsky and Rossini’s William Tell Overture conducted by Thomas Loewneheim.

The Festival will host two cello ensembles: The Advanced Cello Ensemble, geared towards advanced cellists of graduate school, college, and high school age to perform side-by-side with our outstanding faculty members, conducted by Emilio Colón, and The Young Cello Ensemble, geared towards students who are at the beginning of their career as cellists, directed by Cara Colón.  All accepted students receive a scholarship for their involvement in the 2025 Cello | Fresno International Cello Festival, with no application or participation fee required. Interested cellists should fill out the online application at: https://www.youthorchestrasfresno.org/cello-fest-fresno