The Yehudi Menuhin International Competition for Young Violinists (or simply the Menuhin Competition) is an international music competition for violinists under the age of 16. It was founded by Yehudi Menuhin in 1983 with the goal of nurturing young violinists. In its early years, the competition took place in Folkestone on the south coast of England. Since 1998, it has been held biennially in different cities around the world. Several of the competition's past laureates, including Julia Fischer, Tasmin Little, and Nikolaj Znaider, have gone on to major international careers.[1]
The competition is open to violinists of any nationality under the age of 22. The competitors are pre-selected by video recording and compete in three rounds during the actual competition. There is a required repertoire, which is chosen by the competition's organizers. However, the competitors also play a virtuoso violin work of their own choice as part of the semi-finals. In the first round, each competitor is also given a four to eight bar phrase on which to improvise for three minutes.[2][3]
In later years the required repertoire and the gala concerts have included new works especially commissioned for the competition or works closely associated with the host country. At the 2010 Oslo competition, the previously required works by Paganini were replaced with works by the Norwegian violinist and composer Ole Bull to mark the bicentenary of his birth.[4] The 2008 competition in Cardiff saw the world premiere of Welsh composer Mervyn Burtch's Elegy for King Arthur.[5] The 2014 Austin, Texas competition included two world premieres of Texas-themed works: Donald Grantham's Black-eyed Suzy and Dan Welcher's The Cowboy and the Rattlesnake.[6] The three commissioned works premiered at the 2016 London competition were John Rutter's Visions, Roxanna Panufnik's Hora Bessarabia and Òscar Colomina Bosch's Shpigl.[7][8]
In the Senior category cash prizes are awarded to the top four places, while in the Junior category (under 16 years old) cash prizes are awarded to the top five places. There are also a number of individual cash prizes. These include the Bach Prize for the best performance of Johann Sebastian Bach's violin works, donated in memory of Robert Masters, the founding director of the Yehudi Menuhin School. The First Prize winner in the Senior category also receives a one-year loan of a "golden age" Stradivarius violin. The First Prize winner of the Junior category receives a one-year loan of a "fine old Italian violin".[2]
The 2016 competition had 44 competitors—37 girls and seven boys.[1] The top four prizes in the Senior category were won by young violinists from China, South Korea, and Taiwan. The top prize-winners in the Junior category were from the United States, South Korea, Sweden, and Germany.
The competition was founded by Yehudi Menuhin and Robert Masters, who had been instrumental in the founding of the Yehudi Menuhin School. The competition took place for the first time in 1983 at Folkestone on the south coast of England and was based there for its first 15 years with Menuhin himself conducting master classes for the competitors. Following a three-year gap after the 1995 competition, it resumed in 1998 at Boulogne-sur-Mer on the French side of the English Channel and returned to Folkestone in 2000.[9] At the inauguration of the first competition, Yehudi Menuhin said:[10]
Our young gifted violinists will be the ambassadors of goodwill, for they come with pure hearts and music in their souls. It is in those younger people that we invest our future.
After Menuhin's death, the pianist Gordon Back, who had been the competition's accompanist since its founding, took over the Artistic Directorship of the competition, expanding the program into a festival format with the competition taking place amidst concerts, master classes, and education and outreach events. The competition also began moving its venue to a different international city each time.[11][12] From 2002 to 2014, the competition was held in:
Boulogne-sur-Mer, based at the École nationale de musique et de danse (2002)[9]
In 2016, the 100th anniversary of Menuhin's birth, the competition returned to London, where once again it was based at the Royal Academy of Music, with its gala concerts held at the Royal Festival Hall.[7][15] The 2018 competition was held in Geneva, Switzerland.[16] The 2021 competition was held in Richmond, Virginia.[17][18]
Organization
The Menuhin Competition is operated by the ‘Fondation Concours Menuhin’, a foundation registered in Switzerland.[19] Its president is H.S.H. Prince Etienne d’Arenberg. The foundation also has close ties to the Menuhin family. Yehudi Menuhin's daughter Zamira Menuhin-Benthall is its Life Patron and his grandson Aaron Menuhin serves as one of the trustees.[20]
Nikolaj Znaider (Senior category 5th Prize and Audience Prize in 1991)
As both Erica Jeal (the Guardian's music critic) and Gordon Back (the competition's artistic director) pointed out, winning the First Prize is no guarantee of a major career, and sometimes those who have become internationally renowned were not First Prize winners.[12][15]
Previous prize winners
Prizes are awarded in two categories: Senior for violinists aged 16 to 21, and Junior for violinists under the age of 16. Violinists aged 15 are permitted to enter the Senior category if they wish. The Senior category awards cash prizes to the top four places, while the Junior category awards cash prizes to the top five places. (Prior to 2002, the competition also awarded 6th, and on occasion 7th, prizes in the Junior category.) As of 2016, the 1st prize in the Senior category was £10,000 and the 1st prize in the Junior category was £5,000.[2] There are also a number of special prizes and awards. In 2018, for the first time in the competition's history, there was a joint 1st prize in the Junior category.[24][25]
↑ All Menuhin Competition prizes in this list are sourced from: Yehudi Menuhin International Competition for Young Violinists. Laureates Archives. Retrieved 14 May 2016
↑ All results in these sections are sourced from: Yehudi Menuhin International Competition for Young Violinists. Laureates Archives. Retrieved 14 May 2016
Yehudi Menuhin, Baron Menuhin,, was an American-born British violinist and conductor who spent most of his performing career in Britain. He is widely considered one of the greatest violinists of the 20th century. He played the Soil Stradivarius, considered one of the finest violins made by Italian luthier Antonio Stradivari.
Tasmin Elizabeth Little is an English classical violinist. She is a concerto soloist and also performs as a recitalist and chamber musician. She has released numerous albums, winning the Critics Award at the Classic Brit Awards in 2011 for her recording of Elgar's Violin Concerto.
The Yehudi Menuhin School is a specialist music school in Stoke d'Abernon, Surrey, England, founded in 1963 by violinist and conductor Yehudi Menuhin. The current director of music is the British classical pianist Ashley Wass. The school is one of the five established musical schools for school-age children in the United Kingdom, along with Chetham's School of Music, Wells Cathedral School, the Purcell School and St. Mary's Music School, Edinburgh. It is mainly funded by the Department for Education's Music and Dance Scheme, by philanthropic foundations, by donations and bequests from individuals, and by regular support from the Friends of the Yehudi Menuhin School.
Kam Ning is a violinist and daughter of the violinist-composer Kam Kee Yong (甘琦勇), and grandchild of Kam Beng Soo and Ooi Kooi Aun. Born in Singapore in 1975, she was given violin lessons at the age of six by the elder Kam, and had her early education at the Methodist Girls' School.
Julia Fischer is a German classical violinist and pianist. She teaches at the Munich University of Music and Performing Arts and performs up to 60 times per year.
Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider is a Danish violinist and conductor.
Ray Chen is a Taiwanese-Australian violinist. He was the winner of the 2008 International Yehudi Menuhin Violin Competition and the 2009 Queen Elisabeth Competition. Since then, he has regularly collaborated with the world’s foremost orchestras and appeared at renowned concert halls.
Kristīne Balanas is a Latvian violinist who is a laureate of many international violin competitions.
The European Union of Music Competitions for Youth (EMCY) is a European umbrella organisation for about fifty national and international music competitions for young people. Founded in the 1960s in order to develop the musical education of young Europeans, EMCY arranges concerts, broadcasts, tours, award ceremonies, master classes and courses for competition prize winners throughout Europe.
Bartłomiej "Bartek" Nizioł is a Polish violinist playing in a bel canto style. His interpretations tend to be objective and comprehensive.
Boris Kuschnir is a Ukrainian-born Austrian violinist and academic.
Ziyu He is a Chinese violinist. In 2011, he moved to Salzburg, Austria. At the age of 15, he won the 2014 Eurovision Young Musicians. He also won the Menuhin Competition in 2016.
Yu-Chien (Benny) Tseng is a Taiwanese violinist. In 2012 he was fifth laureate in the Queen Elisabeth Music Competition, where he also won both the Musiq'3 and the Klara-Canvas prizes awarded by the public. In the 15th International Tchaikovsky Competition held in 2015, Tseng won the 2nd prize in the violin contest, in which no first prize was awarded. Tseng has recorded for Fuga Libera and the Chimei Museum.
Stella Chen is an American violinist. She was the first prize winner of the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels, Belgium in 2019; won the Avery Fisher Career Grant in 2020; and was named the Young Artist of the Year, Gramophone Classical Music Awards in 2023.
Christian Li is an Australian violinist. In 2018, at the age of ten, he became the youngest to win the Junior Category of the Yehudi Menuhin International Competition for Young Violinists.
In Mo Yang, also known as Inmo Yang, is a South Korean violinist. He is the first prize winner of the 54th edition of the International Paganini Competition in Genoa, Italy in 2015 and the first prize winner of the Sibelius Competition in Helsinki, Finland in 2022. He is also the second prize winner in the senior division of the 2014 Yehudi Menuhin International Competition for Young Violinists in Austin, Texas. In April 2016, he had made a debut at Carnegie Hall at the Weill Recital Hall with the Danish National Symphony conducted by Fabio Luisi.
Kevin Zhu is an American concert violinist. He is a recipient of the 2021 Avery Fisher Career Grant and was the first prize winner of the 55th edition of the International Paganini Competition in Genoa, Italy, aged just 17. He was also the first prize winner in the junior division of the 2012 Yehudi Menuhin International Competition for Young Violinists in Beijing, China. In 2019, he made his debut at Carnegie Hall at Weill Recital Hall.
Chloe Chua is a Singaporean violinist. She is the first prize winner in the Junior division of the 2018 Yehudi Menuhin International Competition for Young Violinists alongside Christian Li, and also the winner of the 24th Andrea Postacchini International Violin Competition in Category A. She is currently the Artist-In-Residence of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra.
Stephen Waarts is a Dutch American violinist. He was the first prize winner in the senior division of the 2014 Yehudi Menuhin International Competition for Young Violinists in Austin, Texas. He was also the fifth prize winner of the 2015 Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels, Belgium.
María Dueñas Fernández is a Spanish violinist and composer. In 2021 she won the first prize in the Yehudi Menuhin Competition, in the senior category. She is considered the Spanish violinist with the greatest international profile, and one of the most promising musicians of her generation. In 2022 she signed an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon.
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