Santiago Cañón Valencia

Cellist Santiago Cañón-Valencia has championed South American music during the growth phase of his career but has also appeared widely in the U.S. and beyond. He won several prizes at the 2019 International Tchaikovsky Competition in Russia. Cañón-Valencia (sometimes billed as Santiago Cañón) was born in Bogotá, Colombia, in 1995. His family was musical; his father was a clarinetist with the Bogotá Philharmonic Orchestra, and his sister is a violinist. Cañón-Valencia began cello studies with his mother at four and then, from 1999 to 2008, took lessons with Henryk Zarzycki. In 2013, he moved to the U.S. to pursue graduate-level studies in cello at Southern Methodist University in Dallas with Andrés Díaz. He has also benefited from master classes with a variety of prominent cellists, including Yo-Yo Ma, Aldo Parisot, and Pieter Wispelwey. In addition to his Tchaikovsky Competition prize, he took first prizes at the Carlos Prieto International Cello Competition, the Beijing International Music Competition, and the Gisborne International Music Competition in New Zealand, among others. Cañón-Valencia made his recording debut in 2012 on the album Toru: Chamber Music by Martin Lodge by the New Zealand Chamber Soloists. The following year, he released his debut solo album, entitled Solo, on the Atoll label in New Zealand. Cañón-Valencia has appeared with all the major orchestras in Colombia and with such major orchestras internationally as the Mariinsky Orchestra under conductor Valery Gergiev, the Frankfurt Radio Orchestra under Christoph Eschenbach, and the Brussels Philharmonic under Stéphane Denève. In the U.S., he has had an ongoing relationship with the Alabama Symphony and its conductor, Carlos Izcaray. He has given recitals at the Athenaeum Music & Arts Library in San Diego and the Shalin Liu Performance Center in Massachusetts. In 2022, he was named a BBC New Generation Artist. Cañón-Valencia released the album Ascenso on the Sono Luminus label in 2022; the release earned a Grammy Award nomination for Best Classical Producer (Elaine Martone). As of 2024, Cañón-Valencia's future plans included a recital debut at Wigmore Hall in London.
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