Winners Announced in 2025 Johansen International Competition

March 26, 2025, 11:56 PM · Congratulations to the winners of the 2025 Johansen International Competition for Young String Players, announced March 20 in in Washington, D.C.

The competition received 140 applicants and chose 30 semifinalists, including 11 violinists, eight violists, and 11 cellists. Eleven finalists were chosen, and all 11 won prizes:

2025 Johansen International Competition winners and jury members

Johansen Competition participants, pianists, judges and directors. Photo by Lou Jacobson, courtesy of the Johansen Competition.

VIOLIN:

First prize: Valery Breshears, 15, of the United States (teacher: Zhao Wei)
Second prize: Jiwoo Son, 15, of the Republic of Korea (teacher: Sung Ju Lee)
Third prize: Elizabeth (Poppy) Song, 15, of the United States (teacher: Masao Kawasaki)

VIOLA:

First prize: Junyan Du, 16, of China (teacher: Shaowu Wang)
Second prize: Xunyu Zhou, 17, of China (teacher: Tabea Zimmermann)
Third prize: Samuel Tatsuki, 17, of the United States (teacher: Tatjana Masurenko)

CELLO:

First prize: Joshua Kovác, 17, of the United States (teacher: Daniel Veis)
Second prize: Eiline Tai, 17, of the United States (teacher: Clive Greensmith)
Third prize: Starla Breshears, 17, of the United States (teacher: Richard Aaron)

Best Performance of Commissioned Work, "Shredding" by Mark G. Simon: cellist Eiline Tai

Judges’ Commendation: violinist Mio Imai, 14, of Japan (teacher: Kimberly Fisher) and cellist Matthew Ho, 16, of the United States (teacher: Clara Kim)

Jury members for this year's competition were cellist Michael Mermagen, violist Chauncey Patterson and violinist Rachel Barton Pine.

The Johansen International Competition for Young String Players Ages 13–17 (JIC), established in 1997, is sponsored by the Friday Morning Music Club Foundation. The JIC takes place once every three years in Washington, D.C. First-prize winners in the 2022 competition were violinist Jinan Laurentia Woo, violist Seoyeon Ryu, and cellist Luka Coetzee.

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Winners Announced in 2025 Johansen International Competition

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