American cellist Zlatomir Fung, of Bulgarian-Chinese parentage, recently captured First Prize at the XVI International Tchaikovsky Competition. He also won First Prize at the 2018 Alice & Eleonore Schoenfeld International String Competition. Zlatomir began his studies of the cello at the age of three. He was the first prize winner at the 2016 George Enescu International Cello Competition, the 2015 Johansen International Competition for Young String Players, the 2014 Stulberg International String Competition, and the 2014 Irving Klein International Competition. He was selected as a 2016 U.S. Presidential Scholar for the Arts and was awarded the 2016 Landgrave von Hesse Prize at the Kronberg Academy Cello Masterclasses. He is a winner of the 2017 Astral National Auditions and the 2017 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, and a top prize winner at the 2018 Paulo International Cello Competition.

He is a regular member of the Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players for their 2018-2019 season, and has been featured on NPR’s radio show From the Top six times, as well as on Performance Today.

Zlatomir has been a soloist with the George Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra, the Ann Arbor Symphony, the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, the Santa Cruz Symphony, the Boston Pops, the Lausanne Sinfonietta, the Grand Rapids Symphony, the State Philharmonic of Sibiu, and the New England Philharmonic, among others.

Zlatomir has studied at Ravinia's Steans Music Institute, the Heifetz International Music Institute, MusicAlp, and the Aspen Music Festival and School.

Outside of music, Zlatomir enjoys philosophy, filmmaking, and chess. His teachers have included Julie Albers, Emmanuel Feldman, and Nancy Hair. Currently, he is studying at The Juilliard School with Richard Aaron and Timothy Eddy, where he is a proud recipient of the Kovner Fellowship.