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Cedille Launches Second Emerging Artist Competition
Cedille Records has been building the careers and legacies of Chicago’s finest classical music performers and composers since the label’s founding in 1989. We are now looking toward the next generation of artists through the second Emerging Artist Competition. Applications for the Competition, sponsored by the Zell Family Foundation, have been submitted; the semifinalists will be announced early in 2025.
The winner will record their featured debut album on Cedille Records. As with all Cedille recording projects, all recording, production, and promotion expenses will be covered by the organization. The first competition’s winner, saxophonist Julian Velasco, released his debut album, As We Are, on Cedille in August 2022 to critical acclaim. Julian joined an impressive roster of artists who made their featured recording debuts on Cedille, including Eighth Blackbird, the Dover and Pacifica Quartets, Third Coast Percussion, and Anthony McGill, among many others. Of the opportunity to release a fully funded album on Cedille, Velasco said: “It’s an investment in the future of [my] career, but also, the future of [my] artistic presence . . . I couldn’t be more grateful.”
The competition is open to emerging individual musicians (instrumental and vocal) and ensembles of up to six people that reside in or are originally from the Chicago metro area. The semifinals and finals will take place as live rounds May 17–18, 2025 in Chicago.
Semifinal and final performances will be judged by a panel of seven prominent musicians and industry professionals. The final round will be streamed and open in-person to the public.
Help Cedille reach more local emerging artists by encouraging those that you know to apply. The impact that a fully funded, highquality, thoughtfully curated, well promoted, and widely distributed recording can have on the trajectory of an artist’s career is vast.
For more information, please visit the Emerging Artist Competition webpage. For questions relating to the competition, please email competition@cedillerecords.org or call (773) 989-2515.
Recommended
Commissioned by Cedille Records specially for our 2025 Emerging Artist Competition winner, oboist Oliver Talukder, as a companion for his Briefly Gorgeous album, Powder is a two-track single of Two Songs for voice, oboe/English horn, and piano by Delfin Demiray, who was Talukder’s classmate at the Curtis Institute of Music. The first song features Chicago mezzo, Sophia Maekawa, while Talukder performs the second song’s special effect and extended technique-infused vocal line himself (as an “overdub”), demonstrating yet another facet of his artistry.
Winner of Cedille Records’ 2025 Emerging Artist Competition, Chicago-born oboist Oliver Talukder makes his solo recording debut with Briefly Gorgeous. Joined by pianist Moriah Trenk, Talukder presents an album inspired by themes of identity, love, family, and belonging. Drawing on his Mexican and Bengali heritage and his Chicago upbringing, the program explores where classical music intersects with Latino and South Asian traditions, creating a musical portrait shaped by Talukder’s unique story.
With the new month comes a new featured playlist on Spotify — or, in this case, a refresh of our Artist Debuts on Cedille playlist, originally created in 2022 to celebrate the inaugural album by the first Emerging Artist Competition winner, saxophonist Julian Velasco.
The update is to celebrate oboist Oliver Talukder, winner of Cedille’s second competition, as well as other artists who have made their Cedille debus since 2022. (Oliver’s track will be added on Friday when his album, Briefly Gorgeous, is released.)
Enjoy Cedille’s Weekly Featured Release.