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.
Joseph Pritchard, student at Hochschule für Musik “Hanns Eisler” (Germany). Born in Frome, UK, in 1999, he is studying at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler under Professor Nicolas Altsaedt. He has won several competitions, such as the Two Moors Festival Young Musicians Competition, and has participated in several masterclasses across Europe. He has performed regularly as a soloist at Menuhin Hall, among others, and was a member of the UK’s National Youth Orchestra.