Final selection for the Pablo Casals International Award for Young Cellists was made virtually on 20th November 2020. The ten finalist candidates performed two pieces which they recorded for the jury to watch. The jury, chaired by Marta Casals Istomin, Co-founder and Vice-president of the Pau Casals Foundation, was made up of internationally renowned cellists such as Claudio Bohórquez, Henri Demarquette, Gustav Rivinus, Arnau Tomàs (winner of the Pablo Casals Scholarship in 1991), and also Bernard Meillat, artistic advisor of the Pau Casals Foundation and secretary of the jury, and deliberated by videoconference, in a virtual edition due to Covid-19.
Benjamin Kruithof, student at Universität der Künste Berlin (Germany). Born in Moestroff, Luxembourg, in 1999, he began studying cello at the age of five and performed his first concert with the Northern Youth Orchestra of Luxembourg at the age of 12. He has won several competitions, such as the Knopf Competition, Leopold Bellan International Competition in Paris and Gabrielli Competition in Berlin. He has performed in various countries and attended such masterclasses as the Cello Meisterkurse at the Kronberg Academy. He is currently studying at the Universität der Künste in Berlin under Jens-Peter Maintz.