2nd Round Candidates Announced at Germany's ARD International Violin Competition

Held in Munich, Germany from September 7 - 12, 2021, all rounds of the competition will be streamed LIVE on The Violin Channel and be available for playback

The 2021 ARD International Music Competition announced the 14 violin candidates advancing to its in-person second round stage. Due to the COVID-situation, the first round and applications stages on this year's competition were held online.

The second round will take place in-person on September 7-8 at the Bavarian Radio Studio, in Munich, and will be streamed LIVE here on The Violin Channel.

The second round violin candidates are:

• Hiu Sing Fan (Hong Kong)

• Alexander Won-Ho Kim (Korea)

• Youjin Lee (Korea)

• Fumika Mohri (Japan)

• Seiji Okamoto (Japan)

• Eva Rabchevska (Ukraine)

• Dmitry Smirnov (Russia)

• Louisa Staples (Great Britain)

• Yun Tang (China)

• Fabiola Tedesco (Italy)

• Alexandra Tirsu (Moldova / Romania)

• Louis Vandory (Germany)

• Dayoon You (Korea)

• Filip Zaykov (Czech Republic)

The candidates were chosen from 57 international violinists, who were accepted into the compeition's first round and then assessed by this year's jury via the Internet.

Hosted annually since 1952, the 2021 competition categories are violin, voice, horn, and piano duo. The violin category is open to those born between 1992 and 2004.

The first prize winner of the violin category will receive €10,000. All prizewinners will also be offered a number of important debut performances and recording opportunities to help bolster the start of their career.

Previous ARD Competition category first prize winners include Yuri Bashmet, Christian Tetzlaff, Antoine Tamestit, Natalia Gutman, Christoph Eschenbach, Nobuko Imai, Jessye Norman, and Mitsuko Uchida — all springboarding on to major international careers.

This year's violin category jury comprises of Mihalea Martin (President), Frank-Michael Erben, Liza Ferschtman, Philippe Graffin, Rachel Podger, John Storgårds, and Hanna Weinmeister.

The 2020 edition of the competition was cancelled due to the COVID pandemic.

As the competition's official international media and broadcast partner, all rounds will be streamed LIVE on The Violin Channel. You won't miss a beat.