International Max Rostal Competition Announces 2024 Candidates

Over 40 violinists and violists have been selected to compete between October 19-25, 2024 in Berlin

Founded in 1991, the International Max Rostal Competition has been hosted at the Berlin University of the Arts (UdK Berlin) since 2009 for violin and viola players aged under 30. 

For both violin and viola categories, first prize is awarded with €7,000, second prize is valued at €3,000, and third prize is awarded with €1,500. 

Other prizes include €500 for the best interpretation of the commissioned work, an audience prize of €1,000, plus the €500 special prize of the Freunde Junger Musiker Berlin e.V.

Additionally, the first, second, and third prize winners in both categories will respectively win five sets, three sets, and one set of strings from Pirastro.

The 2024 violin candidates are:

• Meriel Bizri 
• Wonbeen Chung 
• Beatrice Colombis 
• Anna Freer 
• Kaori Furusawa 
• YiWei Gu 
• Benjamin Günst 
• Maya Alexandra Kasprzak 
• Sijun Kim 
• Lora Markova 
• Masaki Morishita 
• Eunjoong Park 
• Jakow Pavlenko 
• Veronika Rädler 
• Aoi Saito 
• Jake Dongyoung 
• Shim Maxim Tzekov 
• Varvara Vasylieva 
• Sophie Wang 
• Victoria Wong 
• Tiffany Yeung

The 2024 viola candidates are:

• Álvaro Castelló 
• Eike Coetzee 
• Linda Emilsson 
• Guillaume Florès 
• Nicolas Garrigues 
• Chang Ge 
• Duleen van Gunsteren 
• Gesine Hadulla 
• Brian Isaacs
• Jimin Jang 
• Justin Julian 
• Hiroki Kasai 
• Jiwon Kim
• Yen-Yu Ko 
• Mao Konishi 
• Marina Kosaka 
• Yizilin Liang 
• Antonia Mütze 
• Andy Park 
• Karolina Pawul 
• Kyungsik Shin 
• Hye Lim Yoo
• JungAhn Shin

Both violin and viola finalists will play with the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin (Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra) and conductor Pavel Baleff on October 24 and 25. 

Chaired by David Geringas, the 2024 jury will comprise Marianne Piketty, Kyung Sun Lee, Christoph Poppen, Lars Anders Tomter, Nils Mönkemeyer, and Carol Rodland.

The preliminary violin selection jury comprised Robin Wilson, Nurit Stark, and Emi Ohi Resnick; the preliminary viola jury included Hans Peter Ochsenhofer, Francoise Gneri, and Matthias Buchholz.