16-year-old cellist Matthew Ho studies with Clara Kim at the Juilliard Pre-College. A 2025 YoungArts Winner with Distinction, Matthew recently won the Judges’ Commendation in the 2025 Johansen International Competition. He has been awarded top prizes in numerous competitions, including the New York Laureate International Music Competition (2024), the Young Soloist International Music Competition (2024), and the Adelphi Young Artist Competition (2023), among others. He was the alternate winner of the 2023 Juilliard Pre-College Cello Concerto Competition and a finalist in the 2023 MTNA National Competition.

Matthew has performed as a soloist with the Camerata New Jersey Orchestra (2023), the Bravura Philharmonic Orchestra (2023), and the New Jersey Intergenerational Orchestra (2024) after winning their concerto competitions. He has also been featured on the Daily Joy series of NPR’s From the Top radio show.

An avid chamber musician, Matthew co-founded AllNote Alliance, a youth organization dedicated to promoting composer diversity in chamber music, and won the 2024 Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Young Musicians Innovation Challenge. His chamber group, Vivere Trio, was a finalist in the 2025 Coltman Chamber Music Competition.

Matthew has served as principal cellist of the Juilliard Pre-College Symphony. He has spent past summers at Morningside Music Bridge and the Perlman Music Program, where he studied solo performance, chamber music, and orchestral music with many renowned musicians, including Itzhak Perlman, Laurence Lesser, Paul Katz, John Kadz, Merry Peckham, Zvi Plesser, Clive Greensmith, and Andrés Díaz.

An active volunteer in his community, Matthew finds joy in bringing music to senior centers and nursing homes, as well as playing for children in local elementary schools to inspire a love of classical music. Outside of music, Matthew enjoys learning science and playing ping-pong.

PROGRAM 

SEMIFINALS – Dvořák

Cello Concerto in B minor, Op. 104, B. 191

I. Allegro

FINALS – Dvořák

III. Finale: Allegro moderato – Andante – Allegro vivo