BREAKING | Top Prize Awarded at Hannover's 2021 Joachim Violin Competition

25-year-old Maria Ioudenitch from the United States has been awarded the first prize "Joseph Joachim" Award at the 2021 Joseph Joachim International Violin Competition Hannover

She will receive €30,000, an additional €10,000 "Laureate of the Joseph Joachim International Violin Competition Hannover" prize, as well as a number of international performance opportunities.

In addition, she was also awarded the €3,000 chamber music prize, the €5,000 prize for the best interpretation of the newly-commissioned work, the €2,000 Henle Urtext sheet music prize, and the Warner Classics Award —including the international marketing and distribution of a debut album. 

A graduate of the International Center for Music at Park University, the Curtis Institute of Music, and the New England Conservatory, where she studied with Ben Sayevich, Shmuel Ashkenasi, Pamela Frank, and Miriam Fried, Maria is a former prize winner at the Johansen International Competition for Young String Players, and was recently awarded 1st prizes at both the 2021 Ysaye and Tibor Varga International Violin Competitions.

22-year-old Javier Comesaña from Spain, 23-year-old Minami Yoshida from Japan, and 23-year-old Chiara Sannicandro from Germany, as finalists this year, have also earned the right to bear the title "Laureate of the Joseph Joachim International Violin Competition Hannover," — and will each receive €10,000 also.

Chiara Sannicandro was awarded this year's €2,000 audience prize. The three-year loan of a 1765 Giovanni Battista Guadagnini fine violin, on a generous loan from the Fritz Behrens Foundation, was presented to Javier Comesaña.

The 2021 international jury comprised Carolin Widman (Chairwoman), Eleonore Büning, Ana Chumachenco, Suyoen Kim, Robert Levin, Andrew Manze, Christine Schäfer, Ulf Wallin, Zohrab Tedevosyan, and Donald Weilerstein.

As the competition's official media and broadcast partner, all rounds were streamed LIVE here on The Violin Channel and are available for playback.

More than 30 concert promoters have extended invitations to candidates of their choosing from any of the 10 semi-finalists in this year's competition, who will perform as part of their concert series, season, or festival. This includes engagements from the Beethovenfest Bonn, the Bozar Center for Fine Arts, Camerata Bern, Poznan Philharmonic, Cologne Philharmonic, Schleswig-Holstein Festival, the NDR Radiophilharmonie, and the Tonhalle-Orchester Zurich.