CelloChat with Santiago Cañón-Valencia, live from Bogotá, Colombia

Topic: Q&A- Ask Me Anything


SANTIAGO CAÑÓN-VALENCIA has been praised as one of the most promising young cellists of his generation. Born in Bogota in 1995, his major musical mentors have been Henryk Zarzycki in Colombia, James Tennant in New Zealand, Andres Diaz in the United States and Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt at the Kronberg Academy in Germany.

A 2022 BBC Next Generation Artist and Winner of the Silver Medal and “Audience Favourite” Award at the 2019 XVI International Tchaikovsky Competition, Mr. Cañón-Valencia has been a fixture of the International Cello Competition scene for many years. He was awarded the third prize at the prestigious Queen Elisabeth International Competition 2017 in Brussels. He is also a 2018 Starker Foundation Award recipient as well as a First Prize winner of the Carlos Prieto International Cello Competition, Beijing International Music Competition, Gisborne International Music Competition, and Lennox International Young Artists Competition. He was also a major prize winner of the Sphinx, Casals, Johansen, Cassadó, and Adam cello competitions.

Mr. Cañón-Valencia made his orchestral debut as a soloist when he was six years old with the Orquesta Filarmónica de Bogotá. Since then, he has appeared with all the major orchestras in his native Colombia and his international solo career has taken him around the world to perform with orchestras such as the Mariinsky Orchestra with Valery Gergiev, Frankfurt Radio Orchestra with Christoph Eschenbach, Brussels Philharmonic with Stephane Deneve, SWR Symphonieorchester with Andris Poga, St Petersburg Philharmonic with Nikolai Alexeev, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Antwerp Symphony with Muhai Tang and Moscow Soloists with Yuri Bashmet, among others.

Passionate about new music, Mr. Cañón-Valencia was responsible for Carlos Izcaray’s world premiere of his Cello Concerto “Stringmaster” alongside Alabama Symphony Orchestra. Santiago also premiered Jorge Pinzón’s Cello Concerto “Rapsodia a los 4 Elementos” at the Cartagena Interational Music Festival 2019. He was also responsible for the Colombian premiere of Ginastera’s Cello Concerto No. 2 with the National Symphony Orchestra of Colombia as well as premiering Gulda’s Cello Concerto in Auckland, New Zealand with the Auckland Chamber Orchestra.

As a recording artist, Santiago enjoys immersing himself in both known and unknown works, with a particular interest in commissioning new pieces, arranging pieces, and writing his own works. His latest recording “Ascenso,” released on the Sono Luminus label, showcases pieces arranged and written by Cañón-Valencia, as well as works commissioned and written for him by contemporary Colombian composers. Earlier recordings include Santiago’s debut CD “Solo,” which has been internationally acclaimed by the Strad Magazine, a CD with pianist Andrea Lucchesini that was dedicated to Schubert and Beethoven for the Egea Label, as well as an album of Russian cello sonatas and popular pieces of the cello repertoire with pianist Katherine Austin for the Atoll label.

Mr. Cañón-Valencia has been sponsored by the Mayra & Edmundo Esquenazi Scholarship through the Salvi Foundation since 2011.