International Jean Sibelius Violin Competition

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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]

Contents

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

YearGoldSilverBronze
1965 Flag of the Soviet Union.svg Oleg Kagan Flag of Israel.svg Joshua Epstein Flag of the Soviet Union.svg Valery Gradov
1970 Flag of the Soviet Union.svg Liana Isakadze

Flag of the Soviet Union.svg Pavel Kogan

Not awarded Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg Otto Armin
1975 Flag of Israel.svg Yuval Yaron Flag of the Soviet Union.svg Ilya Grubert Flag of Romania (1965-1989).svg Eugene Sârbu
1980 Flag of the Soviet Union.svg Viktoria Mullova Flag of the Soviet Union.svg Sergei Stadler Flag of the United States.svg Andrés Cárdenes
1985 Flag of the Soviet Union.svg Ilya Kaler

Flag of Greece.svg Leonidas Kavakos

Not awarded Flag of Hungary.svg Vilmos Szabadi
1990Not awarded Flag of Romania.svg Cristina Anghelescu Flag of Iceland.svg Sigrún Edvaldsdóttir

Flag of Japan.svg Akiko Tanaka

1995 Flag of Finland.svg Pekka Kuusisto Flag of Georgia (1990-2004).svg Elisabeth Batiashvili Flag of Japan.svg Madoka Sato

Flag of Denmark.svg Nikolaj Znaider

2000 Flag of Armenia.svg Sergei Khachatryan Flag of Japan.svg Natsumi Tamai Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg Zhi-Jiong Wang

Flag of Japan.svg Sayako Kusaka

2005 Flag of Germany.svg Alina Pogostkina Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg Jiafeng Chen Flag of South Korea.svg Hyun-Su Shin

Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg Wei Wen

2010 Flag of Russia.svg Nikita Borisoglebsky Flag of Finland.svg Petteri Iivonen Flag of the United States.svg Esther Yoo
2015 Flag of the United States.svg Christel Lee Flag of Austria.svg Emmanuel Tjeknavorian Flag of Germany.svg Friederike Starkloff
2022 Flag of South Korea.svg In Mo Yang Flag of the United States.svg Nathan Meltzer Flag of Ukraine.svg Dmytro Udovychenko

See also

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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.