Santiago Cañón Valencia

Born in 1995 in Colombia, cellist Santiago Cañón Valencia started playing the cello at the age of four with Henryk Zarzycki. In 2010 he began his bachelor’s studies under James Tennant at the University of Waikato in Hamilton (New Zealand). From 2013 to 2015 he completed postgraduate studies with Andrés Diaz at Southern Methodist University, Dallas, for which he gained a Performer’s Diploma. His master’s studies then led him to Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt at the Franz Liszt University of Music in Weimar in 2016.

Santiago Cañón Valencia is the winner of the Silver Medal and “Audience Favourite” Award at the 2019 XVI International Tchaikovsky Competition. He is the winner of the Leyda Ungerer Musikpreis 2019, and also, he is the recipient of the János Starker Foundation Award 2018. His biggest competition successes include third prize in the prestigious Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels in 2017, first prize in the 2016 Carlos Prieto International Cello Competition, third prize in the 2014 Pablo Casals International Cello Competition in Budapest and second prize in the 2012 Johansen International Competition for Young String Players. At the Gaspar Cassadó International Cello Competition in 2013, he was awarded a prize for the best interpretation of a work by Cassadó. 

Cañón-Valencia’s international solo career has taken him around the world to perform with such orchestras as the Mariinsky Orchestra with Valery Gergiev, Frankfurt Radio Orchestra with Christoph Eschenbach, Brussels Philharmonic with Stephane Deneve, SWR Symphonieorchester with Andris Poga, Saint Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra with Nikolai Alexeev, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Antwerp Symphony with Muhai Tang and Moscow Soloists Chamber Orchestra with Yuri Bashmet, as well as all of the major orchestras in his native Colombia.

His debut album, Solo, featuring 20th century solo works was released by New Zealand label Atoll in 2014. In 2016, he subsequently made a recording of Russian sonatas entitled Diable vert together with pianist Katherine Austin under the same label. His latest recording Ascenso, released in November 2022 on Sono Luminus, showcases pieces arranged and written by Cañón-Valencia himself, as well as works commissioned and written for him by contemporary Colombian composers. 

2014 and 2019 he was part of the Kronberg Academy Festival where he was awarded the Leyda Ungerer Prize in 2019. From 2017 to 2022, Santiago Cañón Valencia studied at Kronberg Academy with Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt. These studies were funded by the Sodalitas Scholarship.