Grand Prize, Spring Competition

Benjamin Mandigo is a 10th-grade cellist at the Horace Mann School in New York City. He began studying cello at age four with Alex Croxton and now studies with Clara Kim at the Juilliard Pre-College Division.
Ben has earned top recognition in national and international competitions, including First Prize at the 2024 Charleston International Music Competition, Second Place at the 2024 Prima Volta Music Competition, Grand Prize Nominee at the 2025 Laureate Concerto Competition, and First Place at both the 2025 IGMC Live Concerto Competitionand the Protege International Piano and Strings Competition.
He has attended the Bowdoin Summer Music Festival and the Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival, where he was selected as an Emerging Artist to perform Tchaikovsky’s Variations on a Rococo Theme. Ben has also performed in master classes for Zvi Plesser, David Ying, Christine Lamprea, and Elizabeth Simkin.