Cellist Vanessa Hunt Russell wins the 2017 Virginia Parker Prize

An emerging cellist, Vanessa Hunt Russell placed second in two major musical competitions in Switzerland. Since 2014, she has also been performing as a soloist.

A prodigious career straddling Quebec and Switzerland

A graduate of two institutions in Basel—the Basel Hochschule für Musik and the Schola Cantorum Basilienis—she also completed a Master in Soloist Performance at the Zürcher Hochschule der Künste in Zürich. Her solo engagements include playing Samuel Barber’s Cello Concerto with the Basel Sinfonie Orchestra as a laureate of the Basel Hochschule’s annual competition, and, more recently, Luigi Boccherini’s G Major Cello Concerto with the Musikkollegium Winterthur.

A $25,000 prize

The Virginia Parker Prize is awarded to a musician, instrumentalist or classical music conductor under the age of 32 who demonstrates outstanding talent, musicianship and artistic excellence and who makes a valuable contribution to artistic life in Canada and internationally.