Violinist Keila Wakao Wins First Prize in 2021 Menuhin Violin Competition Junior Division

May 22, 2021, 10:03 AM · Congratulations to 15-year-old Keila Wakao of the U.S., who has won first prize in the 2021 Menuhin Competition Junior Division.

2021 Menuhin Competition Junior Section first prize winner Keila Wakao,

Here is a list of all the prizewinners that were announced Friday in the 2021 Menuhin Competition Junior Division (click on their names to read their bios):

First Prize: Keila Wakao, 15, Japan/USA
Second Prize: Edward Walton, 15, Australia/UK
Third Prize: Hannah Wan Ching Tam, 15, Hong Kong, China
Fourth Prize: Kento Hong, 14, USA/Japan/Taiwan
Fifth Prize: Boha Moon, 14, Korea

Keila Wakao, who lives near Boston in Chestnut Hill, Mass., studies with Donald Weilerstein and Soovin Kim from the New England Conservatory of Music. She also studied with the late Joseph Silverstein, who accepted Keila as a student when she was six years old. She said she started watching the Menuhin Competition when she was about eight years old, and "as I got older, I was so inspired by the musicians, I wanted to see myself there. Even through this online experience, I’ve learned so much, and it’s been such an exciting process."

In the Final Round, she performed Nigun from Bloch’s Baal Shem; Mason Bates’ Bound Away (the piece commissioned for the Competition’s Junior Finals by the Richmond Symphony); and the first movement of Wieniawski’s Violin Concerto No. 2 in D minor. Keila wins US$10,000, plus the two-year loan of a fine old Italian violin, sponsored by Florian Leonhard Fine Violins London & New York.

Senior Division winners will be announced tonight after their livestreamed performances, which can be viewed on Youtube by clicking here.

BELOW is the full video stream for the Junior Finals, which were held on Friday:

Boha Moon, 14, Korea
Pianist: Miroslav Sekera
Mendelssohn - Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64, Allegro molto appassionato
Tchaikovsky - Valse-Scherzo
Mason Bates - Bound Away

Hannah Wan Ching Tam, 15, China
Pianist: Maria Lee
Dvorák - Violin Concerto in A minor, Op. 53, Allegro ma non troppo
Mason Bates - Bound Away
Ysaÿe - Solo Sonata No. 3 in D minor “Ballade”

Edward Walton, 15, Australia/UK
Pianist: Laurence Matheson
Mason Bates - Bound Away
Szymanowski - Mythes Op. 30, No. 1, La fontaine d’Arethuse
Sibelius - Violin Concerto in D minor, Op. 47, Allegro moderato

Keila Wakao, 15, Japan/USA
Pianist: Dina Vainshtein
Bloch - Baal Shem, Nigun
Mason Bates - Bound Away
Wieniawski - Violin Concerto No. 2 in D minor, Op. 22, Allegro moderato

Kento Hong, 14, USA / Japan / Taiwan
Pianist: Nelson Padgett
Kreisler - Gypsy Caprice
Saint-Saëns - Violin Concerto No. 3 in B minor, Op. 61, Allegro non troppo
Mason Bates - Bound Away

Click here for the Virtual Program Book.

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Violinist Keila Wakao Wins First Prize in 2021 Menuhin Violin Competition Junior Division

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