The International Jean Sibelius Violin Competition is one of the most prestigious music competitions in the world, and will be held for the eleventh time in Helsinki from 22 November to 3 December 2015. The first and second rounds will take place at the Helsinki Conservatory of Music and the final round at the Helsinki Music Centre
The Sibelius Society of Finland launched the competition in 1965 in connection with the 100th anniversary of Sibelius’ birth. The first chair of the committee was Aino Sibelius. Since 1965 the competition has been held every five years, and is open to violinists from all over the world under the age of 30. The finalists play the Sibelius Violin Concerto and one other violin concerto with the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra or the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra.
The members of the Jury have always been internationally well-established violinists and violin teachers, whereas the Chairmen have been Finns – so far Tauno Hannikainen, Joonas Kokkonen, Tuomas Haapanen, Aulis Sallinen, Mikko Heiniö and Jukka-Pekka Saraste. The competition is nowadays organized jointly by the Sibelius Society of Finland and the Sibelius Academy. Since 1969 it has been a member of the World Federation of International Music Competitions.
The jury will consist of:
Veli-Matti Puumala (Chairman)
Pierre Amoyal
Serguei Azizian
Sigrún Edvaldsdóttir
Pekka Kauppinen
Sung-Ju Lee
Cho-Liang Lin
Gerhard Schulz
Krzysztof Wegrzyn
This year there will be 45 competitiors from 13 countries. The list of competitors in alphabetical order:
Naoka Aoki (f), United Kingdom
Wonhee Bae (f), Germany
Hannah Soojin Cho (f), United States of America
Sarah Christian (f), Germany
Sara Etelävuori (f), Finland
Marina Grauman (f), Germany
Anna Göckel (f), France
Yoo Na Ha (f), France
Esther Hwang (f), Canada
Mayumi Kanagawa (f), Germany
Bomsori Kim (f), United States of America
Jeein Kim (f), South Korea
Da Kyung Kwak (f), United States of America
Stepan Lavrov (m), Poland
Christel Lee (f), Germany
Kerson Leong (m), Canada
Zeyu Victor Li (m), United States of America
Richard Lin (m), Taiwan
Tikhon Lukiyanenko (m), Russia
Kyung Ji Min (f), United States of America
Rustem Monasypov (m), Switzerland
Yasuka Morizono (f), Germany
Katerina Nazarova (f), United Kingdom
Seiji Okamoto (m), Japan
Taejun Park (m), Japan
Pekko Pulakka (m), Finland
Fedor Rudin (m), Germany
Anna Savkina (f), Russia
Lev Solodovnikov (m), Russia
Friederike Starkloff (f), Germany
Elly Suh (f), United States of America
Ryosuke Suho (m), Japan
Mai Suzuki (f), Austria
Elena Tarosyan (f), Russia
Stephen Tavani (m), United States of America
Diana Tishchenko (f), Germany
Emmanuel Tjeknavorian (m), Austria
Kasmir Uusitupa (m), Finland
Juho Valtonen (m), Finland
Xiao Wang (m), United States of America
Jungyoon Yang (f), Austria
Minami Yoshida (f), Japan
Laura Zarina (f), Germany
Eva Zavaro (f), France
Nancy Zhou (f), United States of America
For further information, schedules, tickets and much more, visit the competition’s website (click here).
Source: website of the 11th International Jean Sibelius Violin Competition