Candidates Announced at Switzerland's Tibor Varga International Violin Competition

To be held in Sion, Switzerland from August 28 - September 4, 2021, all rounds of the competition will be streamed LIVE on The Violin Channel and be available for playback

The 2021 Tibor Varga International Violin Competition announced its 28 opening-round candidates.

Held biannually, the competition is open to international violinists under 26 years of age. This year's 28 candidates were selected from 124 young musicians.

The 2021 candidates are:

• Ava Bahari (24, Sweden)

• Seat Byeol Choi (24, South Korea)

• Matteo Cimatti (20, Italy)

• Leonard Fu (24, Germany)

• Grégorie Girard (23, France)

• Matthew Hakkarainen (20, United States)

• Ria Honda (20, Japan)

• Seira Horiuchi (25, Japan)

• Maria Ioudenitch (25, United States)

• Yoko Ishikura (24, Japan)

• Lorenz Karls (20, Sweden)

• Catherina Lee (24, Australia)

• Sofia Manvati (20, Italy)

• Elene Meipariani (23, Germany)

• Hana Mundiya (23, United States)

• Naoko Nakajima (23, United States)

• Muriel Oberhofer (20, Switzerland)

• Tassilo Probst (18, Germany)

• Tsukushi Sasaki (20, Japan)

• Nathalie Schmalhofer (24, Germany)

• Hani Song (23, Switzerland)

• Maria Sotriffer (21, Austria)

• Karen Su (22, United States)

• Yuriko Takemoto (22, Japan)

• Charlotte Thiele (20, Germany)

• Arthur Traelnes (18, Switzerland)

• Marina Wako (13, Japan)

• Cherry Choi Tung Yeung (24, China)

The first prize winner will receive CHF 20,000 as well as a number of concert engagements.

This year's jury members include Salvatore Accardo (President), Kolja Blacher, Friedemann Eichhorn, Koichiro Harada, Yuzuko Horigome, Ida Kavafian, and Pavel Vernikov. The jury will also feature Konstantin Lifschitz and Marc Coppey, who will play with the finalists in a trio during the chamber music round.

As the competition's official international media and broadcast partner, all rounds will be streamed LIVE on The Violin Channel. You won't miss a beat.