35 Candidates Announced for 2015 Singapore Competition – Including 7 VC 'Young Artists'

The 35 candidates for the 2015 1st Singapore International Violin Competition have today been announced - including 7 VC 'Young Artists'.

The 35 competitors are:

VC 'Young Artist' William Hagen from the United States

VC 'Young Artist' Timothy Chooi from Canada

VC 'Young Artist' Alexandra Conunova from Moldova

VC 'Young Artist' Richard Lin from Taiwan

VC 'Young Artist' Boson Mo from Canada

VC 'Young Artist' Fedor Roudine from France

VC 'Young Artist' Yu-Chien Benny Tseng from Taiwan

Elina Buksha from Latvia

Yu-Ting Chen from Taiwan

Tianyang Gao from China

Shucong He from China

Ui-Youn Hong from South Korea

Sirena Huang from the United States

Petteri Livonen from Finland

Mimi Jung from the United States

Karen Kido from Japan

Bomsori Kim from South Korea

Chisa Kitagawa from Japan

Eunae Koh from South Korea

Oleksandr Korniev from Ukraine

Ryota Kuratomi from Japan

Ji Yoon Lee from South Korea

Youjin Lee from South Korea

JiEun Anna Lee from South Korea

HyunJae Lim from South Korea

Jun Hong Loh from Singapore

Yu Ah Ok from South Korea

Lijia Phang from Singapore

Christopher Scherer from the United States

Ian Ike See from Singapore

Lukas Stepp from Germany

Elly Suh from the United States

Yun Tang from China

Yat Sze Wong from Hong Kong/China

Yuquing Zhang from China

The inaugural competition will be hosted by the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music and the National University of Singapore from the 10th - 21st of January 2015, with the 1st prize winner to receive an unprecedented USD $50,000, a CD recording with the Naxos label, the 3 year loan of a fine instrument from the Mr & Mrs Rin Kei Mei collection and a number of significant international performance opportunities – including a coveted solo engagement with the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

"The quality of the violinists who applied for the competition was outstanding and it was really difficult to select the candidates,” Jury Chair Qian Zhou has said, “... we have a wonderful group of 35 candidates from around the world coming to Singapore to showcase their extraordinary talent to be appreciated and enjoyed by the Singapore community.”

The competition's jury will include: Chair Qian Zhou (Singapore), Pierre Amoyal (France), Shmuel Ashkenasi (USA), Nam Yun Kim (South Korea), Takashi Shimizu (Japan), Vilmos Szabadi (Hungary), Dima Tkachenko (Ukraine), Tong Wei Dong (China) and Krzysztof Wegrzyn (Germany).

Competition organisers have indicated 148 applications from 27 countries were received in total.

Tickets to all sessions are available at www.sistic.com.sg – starting from just S$10.00.

The triennial event is supported by Far East Organisation, Hong Leong Foundation, Lee Foundation, Mr & Mrs Rin Kei Mei and the National Arts Council of Sinagpore.

The Violin Channel will be reporting live from all 3 venues for the 12 days, as the competition’s 'Official Online Media Partner' – You won't miss a beat!

Pictured: VC 'Young Artists' William Hagen, Timothy Chooi, Richard Lin and Fedor Roudine.