BREAKING | $100,000 Shanghai Violin Comp to Release Jurors’ Scores and Comments

The $100,000 Shanghai Isaac Stern International Violin Competition has today announced a landmark decision to provide full transparency of the 2016 competition’s scoring process - pledging to make 100% public each of the individual jurors’ scores and comments.

“After the First Round and Semi Final Round, the scores and comments for each eliminated competitor will be made public, and after the Final Round, all scores and comments of the 6 finalists will be revealed to the public … [and] we will match up each set of scores and comments with the juror who gave them,” 2016 Competition Executive President and President of the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, Fedina Zhou has exclusively told The Violin Channel.

“With the $100,000 monetary prize being the largest violin prize ever, we want to ensure complete transparency and fairness behind our process and judges … [and] we hope this initiative will set a new standard for transparency and fairness in music competitions worldwide,” Ms Zhou has said.

"The ground rules for the voting process of the Shanghai competition are ideal," outspoken advocate, violin virtuoso and respected pedagogue, Aaron Rosand has told The Violin Channel.

"It is good to see that at last a major competition is making an attempt for complete fairness after the corrupt results of recent competitions," Rosand, 88 has said.

He has also called for all jury members to not have students in the competition for a 'completely fair process'.

The competition will employ a double voting process for the 1st and Semi-Final rounds with advancement based on a ‘yes’ and ‘no' vote - and a separate cross-check tally of points.

In the Final round each juror will indicate a ranking from '1-6', with the prizes awarded based on the lowest averages.

All scoring data, used to reach candidate decisions, will be provided to the public following each round’s announcement - including full transparency of the individual juror’s identity and feedback, Ms Zhou has pledged.

The inaugural Shanghai Isaac Stern International Violin Competition, to be held in Shanghai, China from August 14th to September 2nd, 2016 – will award the first prize winner an unprecedented US $100,000.

US $50,000 will be awarded to the second prize recipient – and US $25,000 to the third.

Open to violinists aged between 18 and 32, the 2016 jury will comprise: David Stern (Co-Chairperson) Vera Tsu Weiling (Co-Chairperson), Boris Kuschnir, David Cerone, Daniel Heifetz, Zakhar Bron, Maxim Vengerov, Martin Engstroem, Emmanuel Hondré, Elmar Oliveira, Jian Wang, Zhenshan Wang and Lina Yu.

Any applicants who have received a 1st, 2nd or 3rd prize from the Hannover, Sibelius, Indianapolis, Montreal, Paganini, Tchaikovsky, Queen Elisabeth or Wieniawski International Violin Competitions will be exempt from DVD pre-selection and will be provided with travel reimbursement and free accommodation to attend the opening live round in China.

All candidates admitted to the opening public round, in Shanghai will receive up to $1000 travel reimbursement - in addition to complimentary accommodation.

Online applications to be received by January 31st, 2016.

Application materials to be received by February 29th, 2016.

For application details, visit: www.shcompetition.com