Master cellist Zlatomir Fung to make debut in city
Prodigy, whose grandfather was from Hong Kong, will be joined by local pianist Rachel Cheung
Zlatomir Fung Yung-chi was still in his second year of music school when, aged 20 in 2019, he became the youngest cellist to win first prize at the International Tchaikovsky Competition, one of the world’s most competitive music awards, which is held every four years in Russia.
His prodigious talent was spotted early on. He won a chain of awards as a teenager and then the merit-based Kovner Fellowship to study at the Juilliard School in New York. Having turned 25 on April 11, he has already been asked to teach in the cello department at his alma mater.
On April 17, he will make his debut in Hong Kong, the city where his paternal grandfather was born and raised.
Performing in the Premiere Performance concert with local pianist Rachel Cheung Wai-ching, Fung has selected a programme featuring Schumann, Chopin, Brahms, Janacek and … himself.
Fantasy on Jenufa for cello and piano is his own 2023 adaptation of Czech composer Leos Janacek’s opera Jenufa – an unusual endeavour.
“There was a strong tradition in the 19th century where virtuoso cellist-composers would make arrangements of popular operas at the time by picking the best tunes and the most famous moments and writing variations on them for the cello,” Fung says.
“The tradition died off in the 20th century. But I became very interested … during the pandemic, as many of these pieces were written by cellists who intended to sort of ‘show off’ what they could do with the instrument.”
The coming performance at Hong Kong City Hall will be the Asian premiere of Fung’s Fantasy
on Jenufa. “It’s great to do this kind of intimate recital where everything is a conversation between the piano and the cello.”
Other pieces include Robert Schumann’s Five Pieces in Folk
Style, which he sees as a “very unusual piece that I’ve known for quite a while”, but a “fun challenge”. For the first time, he will attempt Johannes Brahms’s Violin Sonata No. 3 in a version for the cello and piano that Yo-Yo Ma recorded some 30 years ago.
Fung’s Bulgarian mother and Chinese father – both mathematicians – provided early music education to their four American children.
Fung began playing the cello when he was 3½, an unusual choice as most children start with the piano. His family did not have a piano at home, so he started with “a very small cello”.
For the first seven years, he studied with a teacher who placed a heavy focus on making sure he polished every piece he played before moving onto something harder, he says appreciatively.
“By the time I was 10, I hadn’t played that many pieces, but I think I had played them all pretty well.”
Around age 13, he decided to become a professional musician. In his words, it was a “crazy decision” but that was what he did.
Today, apart from his touring and teaching commitments, he is also artist-in-residence with the UK’s Royal Philharmonic Orchestra for the 2023-24 season.
The repertoire I choose is sometimes a bit unusual ZLATOMIR FUNG
“I feel like I got very lucky – they’re a wonderful orchestra, and getting the chance to work with them multiple times has been really interesting,” Fung says.
“I have learned a lot. I think the style of British orchestras in general is very different from American orchestras [which I am more familiar with].”
He is pleased to finally meet and work with Cheung, who won the audience prize at the 2017 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition and accolades at major competitions such as the Leeds, Chopin and Geneva international piano competitions.
“As a musician, you hear about people; now, with the internet, you can also hear them so easily. The repertoire I choose is sometimes a bit unusual, and I’m really looking forward to working with her,” he says.
“Tchaikovsky Competition Gold Medal Winner: Zlatomir Fung Cello Recital”, Premiere Performance, HK City Hall Concert Hall, 5 Edinburgh Place, Central. 7.30pm, April 17