International Jean Sibelius Violin Competition

The International Jean Sibelius Violin Competition, named after Finnish composer Jean Sibelius, is a competition for violinists up to age 30. It is held every five years in Helsinki.[1][2] The first competition took place in year 1965, eight years after the death of the composer to mark the centenary of the composer's birth.[3] The competition is arranged by the Sibelius Society of Finland and the Sibelius Academy.[4]

The competition has always had high-level competitors, and winners such as Oleg Kagan, Viktoria Mullova, and Leonidas Kavakos have become internationally performing soloists. The popularity amongst the players might be explained by the location of the competition: Finland connecting western Europe and USSR was probably considered safe enough by the Soviet authority to allow players to attend the competition.

Structure

The competition has three rounds: the first round, the second round, and the final round. After each round, a number of competitors are chosen to proceed to the next round, and after the final round the finalists are ranked. In the final ranking, the performance in each round is considered as a whole. To be accepted in the competition, candidates need to send a performance sample for a competition committee for pre-selection.

The first round program consists typically works of Bach, a sonata by Mozart, and Paganini's capriccios. It is said that Bach measures readiness, Mozart measures understanding of style, and Paganini measures technical ability. The second round, often referred as the semi-finals, consists typically of a sonata for violin and piano, few pieces by Sibelius, a modern Finnish piece, and a virtuoso piece. In the final round, the finalists perform two concertos accompanied by a full symphony orchestra. One of the concertos is mandated as the Violin Concerto in D minor by Sibelius.[5]

In 2005, 175 applications were received, 58 competitors were accepted of which 50 took part in the competition, 20 proceeded to the second round, and 8 were chosen to the final round.

Laureates
Year Gold Silver Bronze
1965 Soviet Union Oleg Kagan Israel Joshua Epstein Soviet Union Valery Gradov
1970 Soviet Union Liana Isakadze

Soviet Union Pavel Kogan

 Not awarded Canada Otto Armin
1975 Israel Yuval Yaron Soviet Union Ilya Grubert Romania Eugene Sârbu
1980 Soviet Union Viktoria Mullova Soviet Union Sergei Stadler United States Andrés Cárdenes
1985 Soviet Union Ilya Kaler

Greece Leonidas Kavakos

 Not awarded Hungary Vilmos Szabadi
1990 Not awarded Romania Cristina Anghelescu Iceland Sigrún Edvaldsdóttir

JapanAkiko Tanaka

1995 Finland Pekka Kuusisto Georgia (country) Elisabeth Batiashvili Japan Madoka Sato

Denmark Nikolaj Znaider

2000 Armenia Sergei Khachatryan Japan Natsumi Tamai China Zhi-Jiong Wang

Japan Sayako Kusaka

2005 Germany Alina Pogostkina China Jiafeng Chen South Korea Hyun-Su Shin

China Wei Wen

2010 Russia Nikita Borisoglebsky Finland Petteri Iivonen United States Esther Yoo
2015[6] United States Christel Lee Austria Emmanuel Tjeknavorian Germany Friederike Starkloff
2022 South Korea In Mo Yang United States Nathan Meltzer Ukraine Dmytro Udovychenko

See also

References
  1. Hillila, Ruth-Esther; Blanchard Hong, Barbara (30 December 1997). Historical Dictionary of the Music and Musicians of Finland. Greenwood Press. p. 379. ISBN 978-0-313-27728-3.
  2. Haarmann, Harald (7 October 2016). Modern Finland. McFarland. pp. 190, 192. ISBN 978-1-4766-2565-2.
  3. N. A. N. A (28 May 1999). The Grants Register 2000. p. 386. ISBN 978-1-349-14700-7. Archived from the original on 16 March 2021. Retrieved 16 March 2021.
  4. "10th International Jean Sibelius Violin Competition Nov. 21 – Dec. 2, 2010". Sibelius Academy. Archived from the original on 27 September 2011. Retrieved 3 December 2010.
  5. "Rules". 11 International Jean Sibelius Violin Competition. 20 April 2015. Archived from the original on 5 December 2018. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
  6. "Christel Lee wins 2015 International Jean Sibelius Violin Competition". The Strad. 4 December 2015. Archived from the original on 21 January 2021. Retrieved 16 March 2021.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.