Biography

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

Jan is a scholarship recipient at the Academy of Music in Lichtenstein where he participates in masterclasses with Jens Peter Maintz and takes part in the intensive music weeks and activities. Previously Jan studied with Gilda Barston, Richard Hirschl, Vladimir Perline, Horacio Contreras, JiHee Kim, and played in masterclasses with Richard Aaron, Jerome Pernoo, Richard Hirschl, John Sharp, Lluis Claret, Ivan Karizna, Brannon Cho, Brandon Vamos, and Edward Arron.  

   As a solo and chamber performer Jan won numerous awards in competitions and soloed with orchestras in the US and Europe. Most recently, Jan was a 2024 YoungArts winner with distinction in cello performance, the highest honor of the National YoungArts Foundation. He is the 1^st prize winner in the “Central Oregon Concerto Competition” in 2024, the winner of the “Chicago Symphony Orchestra Young Artist Competition” in 2023, the “Society of the American Musicians Competition” and the “Chicago Chamber Orchestra Concerto Competition” in 2022 and the “Chicago International Music Competition” in 2021. Furthermore, he was a finalist in the upcoming “United States Marine Band Concerto Competition”, emi-finalist in the upcoming “Sphinx Competition” in 2024 and received multiple awards in the “Walgreens National Concerto Competition”, the “DePaul National Concerto Festival” and the “Lakeview Orchestra Concerto Competition”. With his chamber groups (string quartets and piano trio), he was a winner in the “St Paul National String Quartet Competition” in 2022 and 2023, in the “Chicago International Music Competition” in 2020, the “Barnett competition” in 2019 and 2022 and was a semi-finalist in four consecutive “Fischoff National Chamber Music Competitions”.

Jan participated in the Musica Mundi International Chamber Music Festivals in Waterloo from 2016-2021 in Belgium, in the Moulin D’Ande Masterclasses in Ande in France in 2019-2021 and in the Meadowmount School of Music in Westport, NY in 2022 and 2023. 

Jan was also featured in the ABC and WTTW TV programs, the WFMT Classical Radio and TV Com Belgium. 

Recent performances include solos with Oistrakh Symphony Orchestra and Civic Orchestra, a solo recital in Lake Placid, NY, and numerous solo and chamber concert appearances in the Chicagoland area, Indiana, Minnesota and Wisconsin. 

In the upcoming months he will be performing in the YoungArts Week Miami, soloing with Central Oregon Symphony and playing a solo recital in Salmon, Idaho.