Biography

Cellist Jan Vargas Nedvetsky was born in Chicago, USA, in 2006. He is a Merit Scholarship Fellow at the Academy of the Music Institute of Chicago, where he studies cello with Hans Jorgen Jensen and Oleksa Mycyk. He is currently an 11th-grade student at North Atlantic Regional High School. In addition to performing and composing music, Jan pursues advanced studies in literature, government, and economics.

Jan is a scholarship holder of the Academy of Music in Liechtenstein, where he participates in masterclasses with Jens Peter Maintz and takes part in the academy’s intensive weeks and activities. Previously, Jan studied with Gilda Barston, Richard Hirschl, Vladimir Perline, Horacio Contreras, and JiHee Kim. He has also performed in masterclasses with Richard Aaron, Jerome Pernoo, Richard Hirschl, John Sharp, Lluis Claret, Ivan Karizna, Brannon Cho, Brandon Vamos, and Edward Arron. From 2019 to 2021, he attended the Moulin D’Ande Masterclasses in Ande, France, and participated in masterclasses at the Meadowmount School of Music in Westport, NY, in 2022 and 2023.

As a soloist and chamber musician, Jan has won numerous prizes in competitions and performed as a soloist with orchestras in both the USA and Europe. Most recently, in 2024, Jan was a YoungArts winner with distinction in cello performance, the highest award from the National YoungArts Foundation. He is a laureate of the 2024 "Chicago Symphony Orchestra Crain Making Concerto Competition" and the first prize winner of the 2024 "Central Oregon Concerto Competition." He also won the 2023 "Chicago Symphony Orchestra Young Artist Competition," the 2022 "Society of the American Musicians Competition," and the 2022 "Chicago Chamber Orchestra Concerto Competition." In 2021, he won the "Chicago International Music Competition." Additionally, he was a finalist in the 2024 "United States Marine Band Concerto Competition," a semifinalist in the 2024 "Sphinx Competition," and received numerous awards in the "Walgreens National Concerto Competition," the "DePaul National Concerto Festival," and the "Lakeview Orchestra Concerto Competition." With his chamber music groups (string quartets and piano trio), Jan won prizes in the 2022 and 2023 "St. Paul National String Quartet Competition," the 2020 "Chicago International Music Competition," and the 2019 and 2022 "Barnett Competition." He was also a semifinalist in four consecutive "Fischoff National Chamber Music Competitions."

From 2016 to 2021, Jan participated in the Musica Mundi International Chamber Music Festivals in Waterloo, Belgium.

Jan has appeared on ABC and WTTW television programs, WFMT Classical Radio, and TV Com Belgium. His recent performances include solo appearances with the Oistrakh Symphony Orchestra and the Civic Orchestra at the Chicago Symphony Hall, a solo concert in Lake Placid, NY, and solo performances with the Central Oregon Symphony, the Lakeview Symphony with Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations, at the Harris Theater Festival in Chicago, the Chicago Botanical Garden, and in Salmon, Chicago, and Cleveland.

Jan is a 2024 scholarship holder of the Gstaad Menuhin String Academy.