Semi-Finalists Announced at Germany's Stuttgart International Violin Competition

The semi-final round will be streamed LIVE here on The Violin Channel on Wednesday, July 21 at 10:00 AM (GMT+2) Stuttgart time — 4:00 AM (ET) New York time and 5:00 PM (GMT+9) in Seoul

The nine semi-finalists have today been announced at the 2021 Stuttgart International Violin Competition — in Stuttgart, Germany.

Hosted by the Stuttgart University of Music and Performing Arts and the Guadagnini Foundation, the competition is open to international violinists 28 years of age and younger.

As the competition's official international media and broadcast partner, all rounds are being streamed LIVE on The Violin Channel and are available for playback. You won't miss a beat.

This 2021 semi-finalists are:

• Alexander Won-Ho Kim (28, South Korea)

• Anna Agafia Egholm (25, Denmark)

• Emma Meinrenken (22, Canada)

• Eva Rabchevska (24, Ukraine)

• Felicitas Schiffner (23, Germany)

• Gyehee Kim (27, South Korea)

• Hana Chang (18, United States)

• Mayu Tomotaki (25, Japan)

• Victoria Wong (23, Australia)

For the semi-final stage, each candidate will perform a complete Beethoven Violin and Piano Sonata, a virtuosic showpiece and the newly-commissioned set work “APOPLEX”’ by Israeli composer Ohad Ben-Ari.

The first prize winner will receive €25,000, a number of important performance engagements, and the loan of a 1746 Giovanni Battista Guadagnini violin.

The 2021 jury comprises: Ingolf Turban (President), Harald Eggebrecht, Rudolf Koelman, Natalia Prishepenko, Josef Rissin, Christian Sikorski, and VC Artist Tobias Feldmann.

The Violin Channel recently sat down with Dr. Regula Rapp, President of the Stuttgart University of Music and host of the inaugural Stuttgart International Violin Competition to get a better understanding of this new and significant, international event.

"I can assure everyone, that the 21 violinists can expect to be judged impartially, in a fair and transparent way. Fairness and transparency are our absolute priority," Dr. Rapp told us.

"The goal with the competition is to support young, highly talented string players on their way to an international career," Markus Klein, President from the Guadagnini Foundation has this week said.

"Our fundamental mission is to offer these young violinists an ideal platform for a large-scale, high-performance competition so to help attract international attention for their careers through livestreams and digital networking," he said.

Four candidates will be selected to progress to this year's final round, with the Stuttgart Philharmonic, to be held on Saturday July 24 at 1.00 PM (GMT+2) Stuttgart time — 7:00 AM (ET) New York time and 8:00 PM (GMT+9) in Seoul.