Japanese violinist, co-concertmaster of the Hungarian State Opera Orchestra, wins top prize in Flesch’s home town

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Haruka Nagao performs in the final

Haruka Nagao has won the 2018 Carl Flesch International Violin Competition, held in Mosonmagyaróvár northwestern Hungary, the titular virtuoso and renowned teacher’s home town.

Nagao, born in 1989, is a concertmaster with the Hungarian State Opera Orchestra and pursuing postagraduate studies at Tokyo University of the Arts and the Liszt Academy, Budapest, where she is a student of the competition’s jury chair Eszter Perényi.

A joint second prize was awarded to Louisa Staples (UK) and Eryu Feng (China), while third went to Julia Turnovsky (Austria).

It’s previous winner, in 2013, was Lara Boschkor who has gone on to win the Johansen International Competition for Young String Players in Washington DC, the International Queen Sophie Charlotte Violin Competition (Germany) and the Tonali Violin Competition.

The competition jury, chaired by Eszter Perényi, comprised Márta Ábrahám, Jurgis Dvarionas, Frantisek Novotny and Michael Vaiman.