Piccolo Violino Magico Competition Announces 2025 Candidates

The international competition will be held from July 7–13, 2025, in San Vito al Tagliamento, Italy

Open to violinists up to age 13 of any nationality, the first prize winner of the Piccolo Violino Magico Competition will receive a €5,000 scholarship, alongside a violin worth €9,000 made by Fabio Piagentini using Italian wood from the Tarvisio forest donated by the Risonanze Festival.

Second, third, and fourth prizes will be awarded €3,000, €2,000, and €1,000 scholarships, respectively.

Additionally, the winners will have the chance to perform at one or more concerts of the Academia d’Archi Arrigoni ensemble’s 2025/26 winter season.

Held in three rounds, the competition will take place at the Auditorium Comunale in San Vito al Tagliamento from July 7–13, 2025. For the first two rounds, candidates will be accompanied by the Accademia d’Archi Arrigoni ensemble. The finalists will perform with the FVG Orchestra and Giancarlo Guarino.

The official candidates are:

• Yiheng Gao 
• Francesca He Peihan 
• Laila Honda 
• Soojin Choi
• Bowen Jin
• Laura Jin
• Yaner Jin
• Sacha Jorba-Wu 
• Seong-On Kim
• Sumireko Matsushima
• Megan Ng
• Yurina Ohsawa
• Mykola Pososhko
• Nina Rakočević
• Lin Tokura
• Camille Valla Pesendorfer
• Muqi Yuan
• Ziqian Zhang 

The above 18 will be directly admitted to the competition. Since the competition had many applicants of a high level, they chose an additional 11 violinists to compete for a spot as an official candidate during a live selection round. Four violinists will be chosen as official candidates.

The live candidates include:

• Ana-Maria Advahov 
• Cathy Chen Xi 
• Tatjana Filimonova 
• Theo Hoelscher 
• Georgia Koumentakou 
• Yixuan Li Alina 
• Phelix Liu 
• Lena Maciąg 
• Nygard Patrick Erling Dall
• Olimpia Pelletier 
• Isaiah Shin 

The violinists who will not pass this live selection round will be offered free masterclasses with one member of the jury and the chance to perform a piece in a concert.

The jury includes Pavel Vernikov (president of the jury), Latica Honda-Rosenberg, So-Ock Kim, Jens Lohmann, Alberto Martini, Yury Revich, and Dmitry Smirnov.