Chinese violinist Xunyue Zhang took the top prize €10,000, following the final round on 12 February
The finals of the 2026 International Mozart Competition took place on 12 February at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg. Three finalists had been selected to perform a Mozart violin concerto with orchestra, whittled down from 20 violinists.
Chinese violinist Xunyue Zhang won first prize of €10,000, donated by the International Salzburg Association, with her performance of Mozart’s Violin Concerto no.4.
Zhang was a semi-finalist at the Joseph Joachim Competition in 2024 and the Tibor Varga Competition in 2025. She is currently studying at the University for Music ’Hanns Eisler’ Berlin with Stephan Picard and plays a violin by Andrea Guarneri (1663), which is provided to her by the German Music Foundation.
Italian violinist Yuki Serino took second prize of €7,000, plus the Audience Prize of €1,000, following her performance of Mozart’s Violin Concerto no.5. Maxim Tzekov of Austria/Bulgaria took third prize of €3,000.
Each of the three finalists received the Bärenreiter Urtext Prize, comprising €300 of music vouchers donated by Bärenreiter-Verlag.
Bjørg Pas of Norway received the special prize of the International Society for Contemporary Music (IGNM) worth €1,000 for the best interpretation of a contemporary work by Sarah Nemtsov: cloud study skying for violin solo.
Hannfried Lucke served as artistic director of the competition and the violin jury was chaired by Benjamin Schmid, comprising Axel Hiller, Sophia Jaffé, Hagai Shaham, Hanna Weinmeister.
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