Romania’s Ion Voicu International Violin Competition Announces 2025 Participants

The first round of the competition will see 24 candidates compete in Bucharest from April 7–12, 2025

Open to international applicants aged between 16 and 30, the first edition of the Ion Voicu International Violin Competition will be held in Bucharest, Romania, from 7-12 April 2025.

Eight candidates will compete in the second round, from which three finalists will be selected to perform at the Romanian Athenaeum with the George Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Gabriel Bebeșelea.

First Prize is awarded with €6,000, Second Prize is €4,000, and Third Prize is valued at €2,000. Additionally, all three prizewinners will receive opportunities to perform solo with a major Romanian orchestra.

Chaired by Mihaela Martin, the 2025 jury will comprise George Tudorache (Artistic Director), Pavel Vernikov, Lucie Robert, and Alexandru Tomescu.

The first round candidates are:

• Seeun Baek (USA)
• Pijus Česaitis (Lithuania)
• Hoyle Chung (Korea)
• Manning Sebastian Craciun (Romania)
• Mircea Dumitrescu (Romania)
• Hackel Elie (France)
• Ririka Fukuda (Japan)
• Madalina Ivancia (Romania)
• Yigit Karatas (Germany)
• Wakana Kimura (Japan)
• Chenyu Lang (Germany)
• Anastasiia Larina (Russia)
• Daisy Lee (Korea)
• Stefan-Gabriel Luta (Moldova)
• Elias David Moncado (Germany)
• Jaime Naya Maceira (Germany)
• Areg Navasardyan (Armenia)
• Anastasia Onopa (Russia)
• Reika Sakamoto (Czech Republic)
• Koshiro Takeuki (USA)
• Shegbo Tu (China)
• Simone Spadino Pippa (Italy)
• Rodina Inga (Russia)
• Yinan Zhao (China)

The Ion Voicu International Violin Competition is named for the late Ion Voicu. Born in 1923 in Bucharest, Voicu started violin studies at the age of six and was mentored by George Enacovici, Garabet Avakian, George Enescu, and David Oistrakh.

At age 17, he made his debut playing with the Radio Orchestra and Theodor Rogalski. He later joined the Radio Orchestra and the Bucharest Philharmonic, where he often appeared as a soloist. 

His extensive discography includes recordings with the Decca, Eterna, Heliodor, and Electrecord labels, while his artistic collaborators included Enescu, Constantin Silvestri, Ionel Perlea, Sir John Barbirolli, Yehudi Menuhin, Andre Cluytens, Antal Dorati, Paul Klecki, John Pritchard, Karel Ancerl, and more.