The contest, offering a first prize of €50,000, begins next week

nir-by-Gunther-Pichlkostner

The Joseph Joachim International Violin Competition Hannover has announced the jury for its live rounds, due to take place from 27 September to 10 October 2015. The competition has shortlisted 39 violinists from 14 countries, who will compete for a first prize of €50,000, a CD production with Naxos, and concerts with internationally renowned orchestras and ensembles.

Sitting on this year’s jury are Italian violinist Salvatore Accardo, Russian violinist Boris Kuschnir (pictured), Dutch violinist Rudolf Koelman, Romanian violinist Silvia Marcovici, American violinist Lucie Robert, Finnish violinist Kaija Saarikettu, Japanese violinist Takashi Shimizu, Chinese violinist Weidong Tong, and German violinist Ingolf Turban. Competition artistic director Krzysztof Wegrzyn will chair the jury, but will not participate in the voting process.

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

Among the candidates are Yoo Jin Jang, 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.

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.

See a full list of the 39 candidates.

For full details visit the Joseph Joachim Competition website.

Photo: Gunther Pichlkostner