Haik Kazazyan, 42, won the top prize in the competition in Dubai, in which the average age of contestants was 32
The final round of the 2025 Classic Violin Olympus International Competition was held in Dubai, UAE, from 22 to 28 April. Twelve finalists were selected from the preceding contest rounds in 2024, which were held in London, Rome, New York, Vienna and Tokyo.
42-year-old Armenian violinist Haik Kazazyan won first prize of €200,000, as well as the special prize of a Stradivari model violin crafted by Fabio Piagentini.
The remaining eleven finalists each received €10,000. The jury also awarded numerous future concert opportunities to the finalists, who were Andrey Baranov (47, Switzerland), Boris Brovtsyn (48, Austria), Karisa Chiu (25, US), Elli Choi (23, US), Yuki Hirano (21, Japan), Lorenz Karls (24, Sweden/Austria), Jinzhu Li (17, China), Ruifeng Lin (25, China), Mariusz Patyra (47, Poland/Germany), Xiao Wang (28, China/US) and Soyoung Yoon (40, South Korea/Spain).
The six-phase programme of the finals saw contestants showcase their various skills via concertos with the Armenian State Symphony Orchestra and the Madrid Philharmonic Orchestra, solo performances, and a Q&A with the jurors.
In a departure from competition norms, the Classic Violin Olympus International Competition did not impose an age limit on contestants. The youngest finalist was 17-year-old Jinzhu Li of China, while the eldest was Boris Brovtsyn, 48, of Austria. The average age was 32.
The 2025 jury comprised artistic director Pavel Vernikov, Facundo Agudin, Vicente Alberola, Giselle Ben Dor, Mauro Bucarelli, Epifanio Comis, Damiano Cottalasso, Mischa Damev, Dražen Domjanić, Jurek Dybał, Umberto Fanni, Jean-Baptiste Fra, Robert Hanč, Eleanor Hope, Konstantin Ilievsky, Daye Lin, Tigran Mikaelyan, Lucas Macías Navarro, Marios Papadopoulos, Christoph Poppen, Sergey Smbatyan, Anu Tali, Christiane Weber, Christopher Widauer, and Lena-Lisa Wüstendörfer.
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