Prizewinners Announced at the Leonid Kogan Competition for 2024

Wakana Kimura of Japan won the competition's senior category and receives €2000 in prize money

The eighth Leonid Kogan International Competition for Young Violinists was recently held in Brussels. This year's edition marked a return to live performance, as with previous years were disrupted by the pandemic.

The competition caters to young violinists aged 23 and under, and splits participants into four different age categories.

Category 4 (18-23 years) was won by Wakana Kimura of Japan, while Mattia Pagliani of Italy came second and Zixuan Wang of China came third. In this category, First Prize is worth €2000, Second Prize €1000, and Third Prize €500.

Category 3 (14-17 years) saw Tiantian Luo (China) take first place, with David Martínez González (Spain) in second and Mihai Mangir (Moldava/Romania) and Deniz Yakin (Turkey) sharing third.

Category 2 (10-13 years) awarded many prizes: first place to Jude Alexander (Belgium), second to Hyunsuk Ryu (South Korea), third-equal to Menghao Lin (China) and Sacha Jorba-Wu (Canada), fourth to Zhang Ziqian (China), 5th to Yalan Jin (China), and sixth-equal to Jiye Kang (South Korea), Yehwan Shin (South Korea), and Hong Siyue (China).

Category 1 (up to 9 years) saw first place go to Valerie Bai (USA), second to Akihito Ikeda (Japan), third to Geyuan Zhang (China), fourth to Yeeum Lee (South Korea), and fifth to Zejialin Guan (China).