Indianapolis Violin semi-finalists announced

September 6, 2006 at 10:41 PM

This just in from the International Violin Competition of Indianapolis:

Sixteen violinists, chosen from a field of 45 who performed during four days of Preliminaries, have advanced to the Semi-finals round of the 7th Quadrennial Violin Competition of Indianapolis. Eight countries remain represented among the sixteen violinists, with three violinists from the United States. In a competition field heavily represented by women, only one man has advanced, Augustin Hadelich of Germany.
Saeka Matsuyama
Japanese, F, age 25
Thurs., Sept. 7, 7:30 PM
Daniela Shtereva
Bulgarian, F, age 27
Thurs., Sept. 7, 9:00 PM
Simone Lamsma
Dutch, F, age 20
Fri., Sept. 8, 1:00 PM
Zhijiong Wang
Chinese, F, age 23
Fri., Sept. 8, 2:30 PM
Ryoko Yano
Japanese, F, age 24
Fri., Sept. 8, 7:30 PM
Miki Kobayashi
Japanese, F, age 16
Fri., Sept. 8, 9:00 PM
Yura Lee
Korean, F, age 21
Sat., Sept. 9, 9:00 AM
Ye-Eun Choi
Korean, F, age 18
Sat., Sept. 9, 10:30 PM
Jinjoo Cho
Korean, F, age 18
Sat., Sept. 9, 12:15 PM
Bella Hristova
Bulgarian, F, age 20
Sun., Sept. 10, 9:00 AM
Shion Minami
Japanese, F, age 16
Sun., Sept. 10, 10:30 AM
Augustin Hadelich
German, M, age 22
Sun., Sept. 10, 12:15 PM
Eunice Keem
American, F, age 22
Mon., Sept. 11, 1:00 PM
Celeste Golden
American, F, age 22
Mon., Sept. 11, 2:30 PM
Stephanie Jeong
American, F, age 19
Mon., Sept. 11, 7:30 PM
Anna Tifu
Italian, F, age 20
Mon., Sept. 11, 9:00 PM
The Preliminary Round featured solo works by Bach, Paganini and an accompanied encore work. These sixteen semi-finalists will now progress to the second round of public performances featuring sonatas by Beethoven and the compulsory piece by Bright Sheng, which was commissioned by the Competition.
The next announcement of the six finalists will be made on Monday night, September 11 at approximately 11 p.m. from the stage of the Indiana Historical Society. These six violinists will perform concertos by Mozart or Haydn with the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra on September 13 and 14 at the DeHaan Fine Arts Center on the campus of the University of Indianapolis. The Finalists will then perform a concerto from the 19th or 20th centuries with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Michael Stern.
The medalist’s awards ceremony will be held at the Scottish Rite Cathedral on Sunday, September 17 at 5:00 p.m.
To hear and view Competition performances live, log on to www.violin.org for the liveeaming webcast. WFYI 90.1 FM radio will also broadcast the entire Semi-Finals. Archived performances of all the Preliminaries are available online. Tickets are still available for all rounds of competition by calling (317)639-4300.

From Igor Yuzefovich
Posted on September 7, 2006 at 1:50 AM

15 girls, 1 guy.... poor guy!

From Pauline Lerner
Posted on September 7, 2006 at 5:57 AM

Igor, that's just the way talent is distributed. ;-)

Thanks, Laurie. That was a lot more helpful than anything I could find on the violin.org website.

From Preston Hawes
Posted on September 7, 2006 at 7:34 AM

Poor Bella...9 AM!!!! ugh!

From Rick Floress
Posted on September 7, 2006 at 9:12 AM

I am very surprised David Coucheron did not advance. I thought he played very well. Did someone see something I missed? I felt certain he would make semis.

From Bram Heemskerk
Posted on September 7, 2006 at 9:22 AM

OK woman are the stronger race on violin, but I liked Dalibor Karvay very much in the semi's and first round of the Elisabethcompetition in Brussel, so a pity he did not reach the semi's here.
Fine for Simone Lamsma that she reaches the semi's.(I played Chachaturian with her)

From Bram Heemskerk
Posted on September 7, 2006 at 10:27 AM

To be more precise: There are more young girls than boys who play violin. Than there are more girls than boys at conservatories. Because there are more girls at the bottom, there will also be more girls at the top. There are no big fysical differences between man and woman in playing the violin.
Playing violin for boys is becoming like playing harp for boys or become a ballet-dancer. It is not sturdy or macho for boys and too much woman-like and has an imago-problem. Also a bigger percentage of ballet-dancers and male harp-players is gay, compared with the average, but that should not be a reason for boys not to play harp, violin or become a ballet-dancer.

From Laurie Niles
Posted on September 7, 2006 at 4:35 PM

I would like to see more guys there, really. I have to agree with Bram; it's a matter of attracting an equal amount of both genders to the field of violin playing.

From Igor Yuzefovich
Posted on September 7, 2006 at 8:24 PM

It's funny - for some reason I never considered violin a gender-instrument. Flute - sure... Harp - of course, even piano to a certain degree... I always saw the violin as a uni-sex instrument, if you will... Strange.

From Eugene Chan
Posted on September 8, 2006 at 5:29 AM

That reminds me of the Montréal International Musical Competition very much. They decided to announce the finalists by alphabetical order of last name, so out onto the stage walked:

Corinne Chapelle
Jinjoo Cho
Ye-Eun Choi
Gu Wen-Lei
Mayuko Kamio
Ji-Yoon Park
and Elizaveta Schnayder.

"Finally, a guy," remarked jury president André Bourbeau in French, to the audience's laughter, before announcing the name of Marcus Tanneberger.

Clearly, girls are just wrapping up their takeover of the entire violin world. :-)

From Emily Grossman
Posted on September 8, 2006 at 7:26 PM

Hm, that's funny. I have slightly more male violin students than female.

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