Violin News & Gossip, Op. 2, No. 38

June 22, 2006 at 9:40 PM

I’ve now gotten the updated participant list from the International Violin Competition of Indianapolis.

But first, I thought it would be interesting to look at the application requirements, particularly the mandatory recording. In previous competitions, applicants were required to submit a recording of themselves playing the first movement from one of 14 approved Romantic concertos. New in 2006 is the requirement that the recording must also contain a Paganini Caprice and two contrasting movements from Bach Solo Sonatas or Partitas.

In addition to Jury President Jaime Laredo, the other 2006 selection committee members were violinists David Cerone, president of the Cleveland Institute of Music, and Joel Smirnoff, a member of the Juilliard String Quartet and Chair of Juilliard’s Violin Department.

They selected 31 women and 20 men from 22 countries. Participants range from 16 to 27 years of age. The 2006 competition will include two 16 year-olds, the youngest eligible age, both from Japan.

Competition spokesperson Cathleen Strauss tells me that application forms were available in English, French and German and mailed to leading violin professors and universities worldwide. They were also mailed upon request and available for download from the website. Strauss notes that, for 2006, the majority of applications submitted had been downloaded.

On June 19, IVCI released the information that, for the first time ever, the selections committee had named a small group of alternate participants. “As participants have dropped out due to personal or professional reasons, we have been drawing violinists off this Alternates list,” says Strauss. “Since April 28, four violinists have withdrawn and we have selected three violinists from the Alternates list.” The violinists who withdrew are Alena Baeva, Russia; Sophie Moser, Germany; Antal Szalai, Hungary; and Eugene Ugorski, United States. Their replacements are now full participants and are not being publicly identified as alternates.

Thus, the tally has changed to 31 women and 19 men representing 23 countries.

Here is the list of participants by country; with each competitor’s age following.

Armenia
Haik Kazazyan, 24

Australia
Alexandra Osborne, 24

Belgium
Yossif Ivanov, 20

Bulgaria
Bella Hristova, 20
Daniela Shtereva, 27

China
Howard Zhang, 22
Zhijong Wang, 23
Dan Zhu, 24
Yang Xu, 27

Czech Republic
Roman Patocka, 25

Dominica
Yuuki Wong, 24

Finland
Petteri Iivonen, 19

France
Elsa Grether, 26
Matthieu Arama, 27

Germany
Korbinian Altenberger, 24
Augustin Hadelich, 22
Nicolas Koeckert (German-Brazilian nationality), 26

Hungary
Katalin Kokas, 27

Italy
Anna Tifu, 20

Japan
Miki Kobayashi, 16
Shion Minami, 16
Yusuke Hayashi, 22
Ryoko Yano, 24
Maiko Enomoto, 25
Saeka Matsuyama, 25
Miho Saegusa, 25

Korea
Jinjoo Cho, 18
Ye-Eun Choi, 18
Mi-Sa Yang, 19
Hye-Jin Kim, 21
Yura Lee, 21

Netherlands
Simone Lamsma, 20

Norway
David Coucheron, 22

Romania
Eugen Tichindeleanu, 25

Russia
Valentina Sviatlovskaia, 23
Liana Gourdjia, 24

Slovakia
Dalibor Karvay, 21

Taiwan
Tien-Hsin Wu, 21

United Kingdom
Caroline Adomeit-Gadd (British-German nationality), 22

United States
Eric Silberger, 17
Stephanie Jeong, 19
Elena Urioste, 20
Emilie-Anne Gendron, 21
Yevgeny Kutik, 21
Celeste Golden, 22
Eunice Keem, 22
Rachel Harding, 24
Angelia Cho, 25
Erin Keefe, 26

Uzbekistan
Daniel Khalikov, 22

In the near future, I hope to share some information about those competitors who are either American or have studied in the United States.

From Jim W. Miller
Posted on June 22, 2006 at 10:03 PM

Man, I can't believe Baeva and Szalai dropped out. Those are the only two I wanted to watch. Par for the freegin' course I guess.

From Bram Heemskerk
Posted on June 22, 2006 at 9:52 PM

I played with Dutch violinist Simone Lamsma the violinconcerto of Chachaturian. Is Chachaturian one of those 14 ""äpproved??""" Romantic violinconcerto's, or is it too obscure for the jury with their poor standardreperetoireknowledge. Also in Brussel with the Queen Elisabeth competition was one caprice of Paganini and a Sonate and Partita of Bach. Why always those same pieces? There has been written so much beautiful music. In Brussel I heard Ivanov 2 times, one time in the final. He is good. But the best was Delibor Karvay, which I heard 2 times, but he did not reach the final.
So Dalibor Karvay is my favorite.

I am waiting for a violincompetition where ONLY the following violinconcerto's ARE APPROVED FOR THE FINAL:

JOACHIM 2, HUBAY 3, VIEUXTEMPS 7, PAGANINI 6, DOHNANYI 1, CONCERTO RUSSE op.29 from E. LALO, LIPINSKI 4, violinconcerto from YSAYE (no.8, first 7 he destroyed during his life), violinconcerto of S. COLERIDGE-TAYLOR

From Pieter Viljoen
Posted on June 22, 2006 at 11:28 PM

Jim... you're just saying that because they're the only ones you know of.

Trust me, you wanna hear Jin Joo Cho.

From Jim W. Miller
Posted on June 23, 2006 at 12:13 AM

Actually, I count six others I've heard of, besides those two. Yes, it's hard for me to believe too.

I'm really into the playing of those two though. Baeva's unique style, and Szalai's unique left hand.

From Karin Lin
Posted on June 23, 2006 at 12:36 AM

According to the application form on the website, the list of approved Romantic concerti is: Barber, Bartok, Beethoven, Brahms, Bruch, Dvorak, Lalo (Symphonie Espagnole), Mendelssohn, Prokofiev (#1 or #2), Shostakovich, Sibelius, and Tchaikovsky.

From Pieter Viljoen
Posted on June 23, 2006 at 12:52 AM

good luck hearing anything except Sibelius and Shostakovich...

From Bram Heemskerk
Posted on June 23, 2006 at 7:40 AM

Is Shostakovotsch #1 approved or also Shostakowitch #2, like Prokofiev #1 or #2?

From Bram Heemskerk
Posted on June 23, 2006 at 9:38 PM

Jim, here is the website of Antal Szalai http://www.antalszalai.net with some standard recording. I think he is too busy with his recordings for Hunagarton and didn't like to play all these standardrepertoirestuff in Indy. He is finalist of the Elisabeth competition, so Indy is not important any more. Perhaps the Indy car races are more important for him. He recorded the world premiere recording of the first vionconcerto of Leo Weiner (which I have form his colleguae Vilmos Szabadi). Also he has a world premiere recording of a sonate of Leopold Auer for violin and piano, which I have.

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Violin News & Gossip, Op. 2, No. 38

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