Australian cellist Benett Tsai has won the CHF10,000 Jean-Nicolas Firmenich Prize (approximately AU$17,300) for cellists at the 2026 Verbier Festival Academy in Switzerland.

Tsai, currently an undergraduate student of Clive Greensmith at the Colburn School in Los Angeles, was among a group of Academy musicians recognised with named prizes at this year’s festival. The awards celebrate emerging artists across instrumental and vocal disciplines, as well as their contribution to the festival’s community.

“Very thankful and honoured to have received this year’s Prix Jean-Nicolas Firmenich, the cello prize at the Verbier Festival Soloists Academy,” Tsai wrote on social media.

Benett Tsai. Photo © Ory Schneor

Tsai has established himself as a soloist and chamber musician on international stages in recent years. He was a top prizewinner at the 2022 Grand Prix Emanuel Feuermann in Berlin and joined the roster of Young Concert Artists after winning its 2023 International Auditions in New York.

His 2026/27 season includes debuts with the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra, Göttinger Symphonieorchester and Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, alongside appearances at Carnegie Hall and Hong Kong City Hall.

Recent collaborations include performances with the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra and Queensland Symphony Orchestra, and with artists including Esa-Pekka Salonen, Emanuel Ax and Jean-Yves Thibaudet.

The Verbier Academy’s other 2026 prizewinners included Georgian soprano Ana Oniani, who received the principal Prix Yves Paternot, while the Goldman Sachs Gives Award went to the Fibonacci Quartet.

Other awards recognised French violist Héloïse Houzé, violinist Mariam Abouzahra, South Korean violinist Hyunseo Kim, Swiss cellist Lyam Chenaux, singers Fanny Soyer and Yu He, and Chinese pianist Zhexiang Li.