The 35 participants in the 5th Hannover International Violin Competition were chosen last week. They will be competing from 5 to 18 October in the capital of Lower Saxony for prize awards amounting to over 80,000 EUR. The triennial competition, which has been presented since 1991 by the Foundation of Lower Saxony, is dedicated to Joseph Joachim. It ranks among the world's most prestigious music competitions.
A total of 82 musicians from 23 countries applied for admission. "The extraordinarily high quality of this year's applicants might well be due to the fact that some music academies and universities selected their best candidates for application", reports Linda Anne Engelhardt, the executive director of the competition.
The average age of the participants of this year's competition is 21; the youngest is 16 and the oldest 27 years old. Women will be dominating the competition field: 22 female and 13 male violinists will be performing in Hannover. The largest contingents come from Japan and Korea (7 each), followed by Germany (5) and the USA (3). Violinists from Canada, the People's Republic of China, the Czech Republic, Holland, Greece, Italy, Poland, Rumania, Russia and Yugoslavia will also be participating in the competition.
The members of the Applications Jury, which was chaired by the artistic director of the competition, Professor Krzysztof Wegrzyn, Hannover, were
- Silvia Marcovici (born in Romania, a resident of Strasbourg),
- Tomotada Soh (born in Japan, a resident of London),
- Pavel Vernikov (born in the Ukraine, a resident of Italy).
"We are looking for artistic personalities who have more to offer than just sheer technical ability", Professor Wegrzyn concluded. "We are convinced that the competitors we are inviting will enthuse the audiences for this very reason."
The Foundation of Lower Saxony was founded in 1985. It supports art, culture, education, science and research projects contributing to the development of Lower Saxony. The Foundation is on the one hand a state foundation; at the same time its identity as a European regional foundation is becoming evermore important. The Hannover International Violin Competition dedicated to Joseph Joachim has been a focus of its operative program since 1991.
Current information on the competition can be found at www.violin-competition.de, by telephone: Katharina Pieczyk, +49-511-28 87 91-0, or by e-mail pieczyk@dievision.de.