CIMC Reaches Its 74th Monthly Contest While Broadening Educational Pathways for Musicians
CHARLESTON, SC, UNITED STATES, August 10, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — The Charleston International Music Competition (CIMC) has unveiled the finalists for its 2026 19th Century Music Competition, marking the organization's 74th monthly international music competition since it was established in 2020.
Focused on music shaped during one of history's most transformative eras of artistic growth, the competition invited musicians to engage with repertoire linked to the 19th century and showcase their distinct methods of interpretation, expression, technical skill, and musical narration.
That period reshaped musical performance and gave rise to works that still occupy a central role in music education and concert programs today. Composers broadened the expressive range of existing instruments, invented new musical structures and techniques, and produced repertoire that continues to challenge and inspire musicians across generations.
By hosting the 2026 19th Century Music Competition, CIMC honors both that musical legacy and the performers who keep it alive.
2026 19th Century Music Competition Finalists
CELLO
Zion Anderson, Jason Bryce Buyag, Josephine Ko, Jason Li, Kyle Tang, Elijah Tshing, Ashley Xu, Juliet Zhang
CLARINET
Iris Kaplan
HARP
Noëlle Yoo
PIANO
Hyeonseo Ah, Ela Arisoylu, Adharva Balaji, Eric Chen, Charlize Chien, Allison Choi, Yuanyuan Ding, Alina Duan, Miranda Eng, Simon Fass, Ava Goldenberg, Giselle Goldenberg, Astghik Grigoryan, Caleb Jang, Evan Kaplan, Iris Kaplan, Jude Kazimi, JeeHwan Kim, Rishi Kunaparaju, Defne Kupeli, Morgan Lee, Emma Li, Tayden Li, Tyler Liu, Valery Lou, Rishi Makkapaty, Ani Mkrtchyan, Claire Nah, Christopher Neal, Madelyn Ngo, Marcus Nishijima, Kayla Ostrow, Misha Pandya, Sofia Pavlovic, Alexander Pourloukakis, Dillon Powell, Neil Sarlashkar, Lidia Sasim, Celine Sawan, Dhriti Shah, Hrudya Shah, Miki Shen, William Silva, Olivia Sokolov, Deeksha Sundararaman, Anishka Trichy, Nishka Viswanathan, Luke Wan, Charlotte Win, Beverlyn Mettakhemadevi Winata, Andrea Wong, Marvin Wu, Eric Yan, Claire Ye, Lucas Zhang, Yi Zhang, Tani Zhao, Dakuan Zheng, Jonathan Zhou, Naomi Zhu, Carson Zimmermann
VIOLA
Evan Kaplan, Hyunjung Song
VIOLIN
Ivan Chan, Leon Crisan, Nataliia Danyliak, Kaitlyn Fan, Emma Koh, Alice Li, Ethan Li, Eisei Liu, Kriti Polu, Olivia Tai
VOCAL
Sara Khadilkar, Edith Lin
ENSEMBLES
Lauren Muller, Alexis Smith, Vedant Jayashankara, Hyunjung Song, Euijin Park, Clara Lee
The finalists come from a broad range of the musical community, participating across various instruments, age groups, nations, and stages of musical growth.
Their performances illustrate the diverse ways musicians engage with 19th-century repertoire today: as learners discovering foundational works with their instructors, advanced performers refining interpretation and technique, and lifelong musicians continuing to explore music that has endured across generations.
Official results for the 2026 19th Century Music Competition will be released on August 10, 2026.
From Musical Performance to Musical Progress: Introducing Muselo
As CIMC marks its 74th monthly competition, the organization is also broadening the resources available to musicians beyond individual competition performances.
CIMC is launching Muselo, a new music education platform designed to help musicians and their private instructors document the effort, progress, and achievements that occur throughout the learning process.
Muselo enables musicians to log practice sessions, receive feedback on targeted musical excerpts while working toward mastery, build a long-term musical transcript, and stay connected with their private instructors.
The concept stems from a basic truth of music education: a polished performance captures only a single moment in a much longer journey.
Behind every finished piece are lessons, repeated practice, challenging passages, corrections, breakthroughs, and steady improvement. Muselo provides musicians with a space to record that development over time while giving teachers an additional way to stay engaged with their students' progress between lessons.
The platform is now available to students and teachers at:
muselo.app
Creating Opportunities at Every Stage of a Musician's Journey
The introduction of Muselo represents a natural extension of CIMC's broader dedication to musical participation and growth.
Since 2020, the Charleston International Music Competition has offered musicians recurring opportunities to establish performance goals, prepare repertoire, share their artistry, and earn international recognition. More than 8,000 musicians from over 100 countries have been acknowledged through CIMC competitions.
Those musicians span a wide cross-section of the musical community, including developing students, dedicated amateurs, adult performers, teachers, emerging artists, and advanced musicians pursuing ambitious artistic aims.
CIMC's belief is that meaningful musical opportunities should not be reserved for a small number of performers following a single professional track. Musicians pursue music for many reasons, and achievement can take many forms: conquering a demanding work, delivering a successful performance, building greater confidence, reaching a new technical level, or sustaining a lifelong connection with music.
Through its international competitions and new educational tools, CIMC aims to support more of that journey.
Six Years of Monthly International Music Competitions
The 2026 19th Century Music Competition represents the 74th monthly event organized by the Charleston International Music Competition.
CIMC's year-round schedule gives musicians recurring chances to work toward new goals through competitions built around different seasons, repertoire periods, instruments, and artistic themes.
The 19th Century Music Competition places special focus on repertoire from an era in which individuality and personal expression grew increasingly vital to musical performance.
For today's musicians, studying this repertoire offers more than a chance to revisit musical history. It cultivates interpretive judgment, technical control, stylistic awareness, and the ability to convey an individual artistic viewpoint through works that have challenged performers for generations.
Explore the CIMC Community
The Charleston International Music Competition shares performances by selected finalists through its official YouTube channel, enabling musicians, families, teachers, and audiences to discover performers from around the globe.
Watch CIMC performances:
https://youtube.com/@charlestoncompetition
Past participants, parents, and teachers have also shared their experiences with the competition through written and video testimonials.
Read participant testimonials:
https://charlestoncompetition.com/testimonials/
Watch video testimonials:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLgdkUhRgoAHrQmKn1dwO4qBX_vGCT7qkA
2026 19th Century Music Competition Results
Official results will be posted on August 10, 2026, on the Charleston International Music Competition website:
https://charlestoncompetition.com/results
Upcoming 2026 Music Competitions
CIMC's 2026 international competition season continues with:
2026 World Music Competition
Application Deadline: August 15, 2026
2026 Autumn Music Competition
Application Deadline: September 15, 2026
2026 Romantic Music Competition
Application Deadline: October 15, 2026
Eligibility information, musical categories, repertoire requirements, and application details are available at:
https://charlestoncompetition.com
About Charleston International Music Competition
Founded in 2020, the Charleston International Music Competition (CIMC) offers international performance, recognition, and educational opportunities for musicians of all ages, instruments, backgrounds, and experience levels. Through 74 monthly competitions, CIMC has recognized more than 8,000 musicians from over 100 countries.
In 2026, CIMC broadened its commitment to music education with the launch of Muselo, a platform where musicians can track practice, work toward mastery, document their musical growth, build long-term transcripts, and connect with private instructors.
Learn more:
https://charlestoncompetition.com
https://muselo.app/
Charleston Competition
Charleston Music LLC
contact@charlestoncompetition.com
Visit us on social media:
Instagram
Facebook
YouTube
TikTok
