Violinist Leah Amory won the Grand Prize of $10,000, with future performance engagements
The final of the 2026 Lillian and Maurice Barbash J.S. Bach Competition was held on 15 October at Stony Brook University’s Staller Center Recital Hall.
Five finalists – violinists Emrik Revermann (Canada), Yebin Yoo (South Korea) and Leah Amory (US), violist Alessandra Yang (US) and cellist Peter Eom (US) – aged between 16 and 30, performed works by J.S. Bach for unaccompanied bowed stringed instruments.
The Grand Prize was awarded to violinist Leah Amory, who receives $10,000 and six paid performance engagements.
Amory is a 2026 Fulbright Scholar and Chi Mei Arts Award recipient. Her mentors include Catherine Cho, Pamela Frank, Erin Keefe, Itzhak Perlman and David Takeno.
She has won top prizes at the YoungArts Foundation, the Frank Huntington Beebe Fund for Musicians, the International Virtuoso Competition and the NY Chamber Players Competition. Amory has participated at the Marlboro Music Festival, the Ravinia Steans Music Institute, the Four Seasons Chamber Music Festival and the Perlman Music Program.
Second prize of $2,500 was awarded to cellist Peter Eom, a graduate of Colburn Conservatory, Northwestern University and the Royal Conservatory in Toronto. He is a member of the Rolston Quartet, which won first prize at the 12th Banff International String Quartet Competition.
The jury for the 2026 edition comprised Julie Andrijeski, Colin Carr, Nicholas Cords, Arthur Haas and Hye-Jin Kim.
Past winners of the competition in recent years include baroque violinist Danqi Zeng in 2025 violinist Emmanuel Coppey in 2023, bassist Nina Bernat in 2022 and violinists Lun Li and Tianyou Ma in 2021. No first prize was awarded in the 2024 edition, with second prize going to violinist Isabelle Durrenberger.
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