Yoo-Jin-Jang

The organisers of the ninth Joseph Joachim International Violin Competition Hannover have named the candidates for this year's contest. Taking place from 27 September to 10 October, the competition will bring together 39 violinists from 14 countries.

Among the candidates are Yoo Jin Jang (pictured), a finalist at last year's International Violin Competition of Indianapolis; Diana Tishchenko, who reached the finals of the 2013 International ARD Music Competition; Richard Lin, who came second at the Singapore International Violin Competition in January this year; and Anna Malesza, who won the 2013 ToruŠ„ International Violin Competition in Poland.

Launched in 1991, the Joseph Joachim Competition takes place every three years in Hannover, central Germany. Violinists between the ages of 16 and 27 are invited to compete in five competition rounds for a total of €140,000 in monetary prizes, including a first prize of €50,000.

In 2012, for the first time the top award was presented to two violinists: Moldovan Alexandra Conunova, most recently joint bronze medallist at the International Tchaikovsky Competition; and South Korea's Dami Kim, another finalist at Indianapolis in 2014.

Full list of candidates:

Christina Brabetz     Germany/Namibia

Soo Jin Cho         South Korea

Jung Min Choi         South Korea

Clémence de Forceville     France

Francesca dePasquale     USA

Sergei Dogadin         Russian Federation

Hildegarde Fesneau     France

Yuichiro Fukuda     Japan

Anna Göckel         France

Marina Grauman         Russian Federation

Joaquin Maria Gutierrez Philippines

Amalia Hall         New Zealand

Yoo Jin Jang         South Korea

Fabiola Kim         USA

Minkyum Kim         South Korea

Stephen Kim         USA/Korea

Woo Hyung Kim         South Korea

Agnes Languor         Hungary

Ara Lee         South Korea/Australia

Youjin Lee         South Korea

Christine Lim         USA/Korea

Richard Lin         Taiwan/USA

Vladyslava Luchenko     Ukraine

Anna Malesza          Poland

Benjamin Marquise Gilmore The Netherlands/USA

Rika Masato         Japan

Michiru Matsuyama     Japan

Dainis Medjaniks     Latvia

Albrecht Menzel     Germany

Shion Minami         Japan

Orest Smovzh         Ukraine

Anite Stroh         Germany

Ririko Takagi         Japan

Diana Tishchenko     Ukraine

Ayana Tsuji         Japan

Yuliia Van         Ukraine

Momo Wong         USA/Japan

Yite Xu         People's Republic of China

Nancy Zhou         USA

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Photo: Denis Ryan Kelly