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Zlatomir Fung Releases Debut Album
Fantasies
Signum Records, April 25, 2025
Album includes Fung’s own fantasy on Janáček’s Jenůfa and the world premiere recording of Marshall Estrin’s Fantasia Carmèn
"These fantasies are a grand expression of musical freedom: the freedom to play, to wander, to risk, and to evolve. This feeling of freedom is what I hoped to celebrate most in the selection of works featured on this album."
--Zlatomir Fung
For his debut album on Signum Records, cellist Zlatomir Fung releases Fantasies, a collection of opera fantasies and transcriptions for cello and piano, on which he is joined by pianist Richard Fu. Fantasies is a personal project that is emblematic of Fung’s endless curiosity and interest in unusual repertoire. Since he burst onto the scene as the first American in four decades to win First Prize at the International Tchaikovsky Competition Cello Division, Fung has garnered accolades, critical acclaim and standing ovations at performances around the world, and is becoming widely recognized as one of the preeminent cellists of our time. Fantasies will be available on April 25, 2025, and is supported by Fung's 2022 Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship.
Fung’s fascination with the opera fantasy arose during the pandemic lockdown, when he encountered frequent examples of the form in his explorations of the great cellist-composers of the 19th century. The opera fantasy takes recognizable tunes from famous operas and transforms them into a free medley. According to Fung, “These fantasies are a grand expression of musical freedom: the freedom to play, to wander, to risk, and to evolve.” The transcriptions for cello and piano selected for this album range from exuberantly virtuosic and lyrical fantasies inspired by Donizetti and Rossini, to showpiece arias from operas by Tchaikovsky and Wagner.
ung and his frequent performance partner, pianist Richard Fu, are captured on a short BBT film (see below) made during the recording sessions at Wells Cathedral School, in which they eloquently discuss the challenges of transferring the essential emotional power of not only the music, but also the vocal text and story of opera, to a purely instrumental form. At the same time, the genre’s loose parameters allow the freedom to create something tailored to the performer’s own tastes and technical skills, which eventually led to Fung both commissioning and creating his own fantasies.
Following in the same tradition as the 19th-century virtuoso cellist-composers he admires, Fung decided to create his own opera fantasy for this album. He was drawn to Leoš Janáček’s Jenůfa because of its dark storyline and idiosyncratic musical language, as well as the fact that the opera fantasy, as popularized in the 19th century, had fallen into obscurity by the time it premiered. In his liner notes for the album, Fung writes, “My goal was to highlight the music I love most from Jenůfa and arrange it in a way that felt logical and true to the spirit of the opera. During the composition process, I avoided referencing the opera’s plot or libretto, instead searching for moments that I believed would be interesting in purely musical terms.”
"Zlatomir Fung, a young American cellist of Bulgarian and Chinese heritage...dispatched fearsome challenges with jaw-dropping brilliance."
— Dallas Morning News
Fung decided to approach Marshall Estrin about composing a new fantasy on his favorite opera, Carmen; there are several well-known Carmen fantasies for violin, and while some also exist for cello, Fung felt that none adequately captured the cello’s potential as a virtuoso instrument. Fung has premiered several of Estrin’s works, including Kitaroidía for solo cello in 2019 and Cinematheque in 2024. With the Fantasia Carmèn, which receives its world premiere recording on this album, Estrin has written a fantasy “in the tradition of the most outstanding examples of the genre,” writes Fung. It is extremely technically demanding for the soloist, and it contains a show-stopping lyrical aria that Fung has already performed as a concert encore. But beyond its virtuosity, says Fung, “its more unconventional elements reimagine the notion of the fantasy itself, proving that the genre’s possibilities are far from exhausted—and, indeed, may only be in their infancy.”
Fantasies
Zlatomir Fung, cello
Richard Fu, piano
Signum Records SIGCD882
Release date: April 25, 2025
Listen to pre-release singles now and full album on April 25 HERE.
TRACK LIST
Leoš Janáček, arr. Zlatomir Fung
Fantasy on Jenůfa
Adrien-François Servais
Fantaisie et Variations sur des motifs de l‘Opéra La Fille du Régiment de Donizetti, Op.16
François George-Hainl
Fantaisie sur des motifs de Guillaume Tell de G. Rossini, Op.8
Richard Wagner, arr. August Wilhelmj
‘Walther’s Prize Song’ from Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, arr. Mikhail Bukinik
‘Lensky’s Aria’ from Eugene Onegin
Marshall Estrin
Fantasia Carmèn
Zlatomir Fung
Upcoming Performances
Spring and Summer 2025
Rochester Philharmonic, Rochester, NY
Andreas Delfs, Conductor
Zlatomir Fung, Cello
Thu, April 10 • 7:30 PM
Sat, April 12 • 8:00 PM
Kodak Hall at Eastman Theatre
DVOŘÁK: Cello Concerto
Event Link
Celebrity Series of Boston (Recital)
Zlatomir Fung, Cello
Chaeyoung Park, Piano
Wed, April 16 • 7:30 PM • Longy School of Music, Cambridge, MA • Info & Tickets
Thur, April 17 • 8 PM • Groton Hill Music Center, Groton, MA • Info & Tickets
BRAHMS: Violin Sonata No. 3 in D minor, Op. 108 (arr for cello)
JUSTIN DELLO JOIO: Due Per Due for cello and piano
BERNARD HERRMANN: "Scène d'amour" from Vertigo, arr by Zlatomir Fung for cello and piano
*TCHAIKOVSKY: Lensky's Aria from Eugene Onegin (arr for cello & piano by Mikhail Bukinik)
*MARSHALL ESTRIN: Fantasia Carmèn (2022)
*Works featured on the album Fantasies
San Antonio Philharmonic, San Antonio, TX
Jeffrey Kahane, Conductor
Elena Urioste, Violin
Zlatomir Fung, Cello
Fri, May 2 • 7:30 PM
Sat, May 3 • 7:30 PM
Scottish Rite Concert Hall
BRAHMS: Double Concerto in A minor, Op. 102
Event Link
Shriver Hall, Baltimore, MD (Recital)
Zlatomir Fung, Cello
Chaeyoung Park, Piano
Wed, May 7 • 7:30 PM
BRAHMS: Violin Sonata No. 3 in D minor, Op. 108 (arr for cello)
JUSTIN DELLO JOIO: Due Per Due for cello and piano
BERNARD HERRMANN: "Scène d'amour" from Vertigo, arr by Zlatomir Fung for cello and piano
*TCHAIKOVSKY: Lensky's Aria from Eugene Onegin (arr for cello & piano by Mikhail Bukinik)
*MARSHALL ESTRIN: Fantasia Carmèn (2022)
*Works featured on the album Fantasies
Event Link
Aspen Music Festival, Aspen CO
Aspen Chamber Symphony
Robert Spano, Conductor
Zlatomir Fung, Cello
Fri, July 18 • 5:30 PM
Klein Music Tent
ELGAR: Cello Concerto in E minor, Op. 85
Event Link
Aspen Music Festival, Aspen, CO (Recital)
Zlatomir Fung, Cello
Yoheved Kaplinsky, Piano
Sat, July 19 • 4:30 PM
Harris Concert Hall
BEETHOVEN: Cello Sonata No. 3 in A major, Op. 69
Event Link
Chamber Music Northwest, Portland, OR
Wed, July 23: TABAKOVA, BARTÓK, FUNG • Info & Tickets
Thu, July 24: BRAHMS String Sextet No. 1 in B-flat major, Op. 18 • Info & Tickets
Sat, July 26: BRAHMS String Sextet No. 1 in B-flat major, Op. 18 • Info & Tickets
Sun, July 27: FESTIVAL FINALE • Info & Tickets
Chicago Symphony Orchestra at Ravinia
Laura Jackson, Conductor
Zlatomir Fung, Cello
Sun, August 3 • 5 PM
The Pavilion at Ravinia
TCHAIKOVSKY: Variations on a Rococo Theme, Op. 33
Event Link
La Jolla Music Society SummerFest
Baker-Baum Concert Hall
Wed, August 20 • 7 PM • PENDERECKI: Clarinet Quartet, SCHUBERT: String Quintet in C Major, D. 956 • Info & Tickets
Fri, August 22 • 5 PM • RAVEL: Introduction and Allegro • Info & Tickets
Sat, August 23 • 7:30 PM • BRAHMS: Serenade in D Major (Reconstructed for Nonet, 1858) • Info & Tickets
Tippet Rise Arts Center, Fishtail, MT
Sat, August 30 • 11 AM
The Olivier Music Barn
DOHNANYI: Serenade in C for String Trio, Op 10
AMY BEACH: Piano Quintet
Event Link
Tippet Rise Arts Center, Fishtail, MT
Sat, August 31 • 2 PM
The Geode
DOBRINKA TABAKOVA: Pirin for solo cello
DOHNANYI: Serenade in C for String Trio, Op. 10
Event Link