US cellist Miriam K. Smith receives the top prize
The live rounds for this year’s Pierre Fournier Award (PFA) took place on 15–16 October at Wigmore Hall in London, UK. Twelve cellists were selected to compete.
This year, the award was given to US cellist Miriam K. Smith, who performed with British pianist Archie Bonham. She receives a recital engagement at Wigmore Hall with a professional film recording, the opportunity to record a CD on the Champs Hill label, concert engagements with Oxford May Music and Manchester Midday Concerts, and a UK concerto engagement.
German cellist Alexander Wollheim was given the recognition of Highly Commended, and the other prizewinners were Canadian–Korean cellist Olivia Yelim Cho, Japanese cellist Keisuke Morita, Italian cellist Francesco Tamburini and German cellist Simon Tetzlaff.
The other finalists of this year’s edition were cellists Maxim Calver, Johannes Gray, Go Eun Sol Heo, Charlotte Miles, Sanghyeok Park and Ivan Sendetsky.
Based in Cincinnati, OH, US, Smith currently studies with Alan Rafferty and performs on an 18th-century cello by an unknown maker. Among her accolades, she has won first prize at the American Protégé International Competition and the American Fine Arts Festival Competition and was a finalist in the 2026 Khachaturian Cello Competition. In 2024 she was YoungArts winner, and was a recipient of the MacDowell Society Artist Grant in 2023.
Smith has released three albums on the Azica Records and MSR Classics labels, and has performed as a soloist with orchestras including the Cincinnati, Youngstown, Hilton Head, Kentucy, Hendersonville and Springfield symphony orchestras, as well as the Louisville Orchestra, the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra and the Columbus Indiana Philharmonic Orchestra.
The jury of this year’s Pierre Fournier Award was chaired by Raphael Wallfisch and comprised Jo Cole, Matthew Huber, Guy Johnston, Alice Neary, Melissa Phelps, Hannah Roberts, Alexander Van Ingen, Tom Woods and PFA founder Ralph Kirshbaum.
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