Semi-Finalists Announced at Italy's 2018 Valsesia Musica International Violin Comp

The 11 semi-finalists have been announced at the 2018 Valsesia Musica International Violin Competition – in Varallo Sesia, Italy

The 11 semi-finalists have been announced at the 2018 Valsesia Musica International Violin Competition – in Varallo Sesia, Italy.

The 2018 semi-finalists are:

• Toma Bervetsky (18, Ukraine)
• Lusine Harutyunyan (28, Armenia)
• Maria Kouznetsova (26, France)
• Teofil Milenkovic (18, Italy)
• Yukari Ohno (23, Japan)
• Oleksandr Pushkarenko (28, Ukraine)
• Christian Sebastianutto (24, Italy)
• Haruna Shinoyama (24, Japan)
• Alican Süner (25, Turkey)
• Xiaoqing Yu (17, China)
• Simon Zhu (17, Germany)

Open to candidates of any nationality aged 37 and under, the 1st prize winner will receive €8,000. 

Previous major prize-winners include Sayaka Shoji, Roman Simovic, Francesca Dego, Noe Inui - and VC Artists Nikita Boriso-Glebsky, Fedor Rudin, Rennosuke Fukuda and Ioana Cristina Goicea.

The 2018 jury comprises: Alexandre Brussilovsky (President), Christian Anzinger, Vincenzo Balzani, Lindita Hoxha and Alexander Zyumbrovskiy.

PICTURED: 2018 VALSESIA MUSICA INTERNATIONAL VIOLIN COMPETITION SEMI-FINALIST, SIMON ZHU