Italy's 57th "Premio Paganini" International Violin Competition Announces Candidates

The competition's 57th edition has announced the 30 young violinists admitted to the elimination round

The Premio Paganini Competition was founded in 1954 to pay homage to the famous virtuoso from Genoa.

The competition will start on October 16, 2023, in Genoa's Palazzo Tursi, concluding on October 27 with the final event at Teatro Carlo Felice — on the 241^st anniversary of the birth of the great Genoa violinist and composer.

Out of the 30 young violinists arriving in the capital city of Liguria for the elimination round, 7 are directly-admitted candidates, while 23 have gone through the pre-selections in the cities of Guangzhou, New York, Prague, Tokyo, and Genoa.

The 30 candidates include:

• Non Aoyama
• Gennaro Cardaropoli
• Qian Chang
• Wonbeen Chung
• Hawijch Elders
• Yeyeong Jin
• Lorenz Karls
• Haram Kim
• Wakana Kimura
• Yesong Sophie Lee
• Dongmin Lim
• Ruifeng Lin
• Tianyou Ma
• Hiroka Matsumoto
• Mariam Obolashvili
• Zixuan Shen
• Dongyoung (Jake) Shim
• Koshiro Takeuchi
• Ning Chien (Eric) Tsai
• Jacqueline Tso
• Yukiko Uno
• Jaewon Wee
• Qingzhu Weng
• Christine Wu
• Xiyue Wu
• Tianren Xie
• Esther Youjeong Yang
• Sara Zeneli
• Jingzhi Zhang
• Simon Zhu

The First Prize, entitled “Premio Paganini,” will receive € 30,000, while the 2nd Prize is at € 20,000 and the 3rd Prize is at € 10,000. 4th through 6th Prize will receive € 4,000, € 3,000, and € 2,000 respectively.

The Premio Paganini winner will also be invited to perform at an impressive list of concerts, found here, at world-renowned institutions beginning with Teatro alla Scala in Milan.

Additionally, the winner will be offered the opportunity to play the "Cannone" — the famous violin made in 1743 by the luthier Giuseppe Guarneri "del Gesù" which Paganini gave to his hometown and which is now kept in Palazzo Tursi, seat of the Municipality of Genoa.

The 2023 jury includes Salvatore Accardo (President) Ilya Grubert, Michael Guttman, Christopher Reuning, Maxim Vengerov, Reiko Watanabe, and Régis Pasquier.

Former first prize winners including Gyorgy Pauk, Gérard Poulet, Salvatore Accardo, Gidon Kremer, Ilya Grubert, Leonidas Kavakos, Ilya Gringolts, Sayaka Shoji, Ning Feng, and VC Artists Inmo Yang and Kevin Zhu.

The relaunch of the competition is strongly supported by Genoa's Mayor Marco Bucci, who entrusted the Presidency of the Prize to Giovanni Panebianco, former Secretary General of the Ministry of Culture.