British Violinist Leia Zhu, 8, Keeps Winning, as 'Youngest Ever.'

Written by Laurie Niles
Published: October 2, 2015 at 4:56 AM [UTC]

Leia Zhu is a very young violinist who has been making headlines, and making some pretty sophisticated music.

Leia, who is 8, won first prize in the 2015 International Russian Rotary Music Competition, held last week in Moscow. She was the youngest to ever win that competition. From Gateshead, U.K., she is a student of Itzhak Rashkovsky and has attended numerous master classes including New Virtuosi in Queenswood and Zakhar Bron in Switzerland. She started playing violin when she was three. Just a few months ago, in March, she also was the youngest to win the International Competition ‘Young Virtuosos’ in Sophia, Bulgaria, playing movements from the Wieniawski Concerto. Here she is playing the Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto (Mvts. 2 and 3) in last week's finals:

The International Russian Rotary Music Competition's facebook page has more performances by the young children who participated, including this one of third prize winner Varvara Agayeva, 10, of Russia, playing the first movement of Saint-Saens Concerto No. 3: