44 violinists will be in the race for top awards at the 15th International Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition, which will be held in October 8-23, 2016 in Poznań.
Poland will be represented by 10 violinists, while other entrants come from Japan, Korea, Canada, USA, Ukraine, Israel, Germany, Russia, China, Georgia, France, New Zealand, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan. This year’s participants have been selected by the chairman of the competition jury, world-famous violinist and conductor Maxim Vengerov, from amongst over 250 applicants representing over 50 countries.
Held for the first time in 1935, the Wieniawski Competition is the world’s oldest violin competition. It is named after Henryk Wieniawski (1835-1880), Polish violinist and composer, who was a child prodigy and entered the Paris Conservatory at the age of 8. He is regarded as one of the greatest violinists after Paganini. His compositional output includes two violin concertos, mazurkas, polonaises, etudes and caprices.
The event opens on October 8 with a concert by Die Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen under Krzysztof Penderecki with South Korea’s Soyoung Yoon (winner of the 2011 Competition) as the soloist in Beethoven’s Violin Concerto in D major Op. 61.
The Competition is held under the honorary patronage of the President of the Republic of Poland Andrzej Duda.
More information: www.wieniawski-competition.com