BREAKING | Semi-Finalists Announced at 2018 Paganini Competition – Including 4 VC Young Artists

The 16 candidates progressing through to the semi-final stage of the 2018 Paganini International Violin Competition have been announced

The 16 candidates progressing through to the semi-final stage of the 2018 Paganini International Violin Competition, in Genoa, Italy, have just minutes ago been announced - including 4 VC Young Artists.

The 2018 Paganini International Violin Competition semi-finalists are:

• VC Young Artist Kevin Zhu (17, United States)
• VC Young Artist Rennosuke Fukuda (18, Japan)
• VC Young Artist Fedor Rudin (25, France)
• VC Young Artist Luke Hsu (27, United States)
• Hannah Cho (23, United States)
• SongHa Choi (18, South Korea)
• Nazar Fedyuk (26, Ukraine)
• Yiliang Jiang (21, China)
• Stephen Kim (22, United States)
• Naina Kobzareva (20, Russia)
• Nihei Mayu (26, Japan)
• Hao Miao (24, China)
• Areg Navasardyan (18, Russia)
• Rachel Ostler (25, United States)
• Oleksandr Pushkarenko (28, Ukraine)
• Ririko Takagi (21, Japan)

For the semi-final stage, each candidate will present a Brahms Violin Sonata, a violin show-piece of their own choice, a Paganini solo caprice - plus the newly-commissioned competition set work, Esercizi di Sovversione, by Italian composer Riccardo Panfili.

Founded in 1954, former competition 1st prize winners include: György Pauk, Salvatore Accardo, Oleh Krysa, Jean-Jacques Kantorow, Viktor Pikaizen, Grigori Zhislin, Miriam Fried, Gidon Kremer, Ilya Kaler, Dmitri Berlinsky, Leonidas Kavakos, Isabelle Faust, Ning Feng and VC Young Artist InMo Yang.

The 2018 1st prize winner will receive €20,000 - plus an invitation to perform on Paganini's 1743 'Cannon' Guarneri del Gesu violin.

The 2018 jury comprises: Sergei Krylov (Jury Chair), Dimitri Berlinsky, Bin Huang, Heiner Madl, Svetlana Makarova, Daniel Smith and Anna Tifu.

PICTURED: 2018 Paganini International Violin Competition Semi-Finalist, 17 Year Old VC Young Artist Kevin Zhu from the United States