Classical Music News

Violin Semifinalists Announced at 2023 Concours musical international de Montréal

April 28, 2023

2 MIN READ

The competition's violin edition is currently underway in Montreal, Canada, until May 4, 2023

Open to violinists of all nationalities, born between January 1, 1993, and December 31, 2006, the violin edition of the Concours musical international de Montréal (CMIM) will award nearly $160,000 CAD in prizes and awards.

As one of the competition’s official 2023 media partners, The Violin Channel is providing exclusive rolling coverage – live from all venues.

At the conclusion of this first stage of the competition, which took place between April 25 - 27, the jury has selected twelve semifinalists. They include:

Dmytro Udovychenko, Ukraine
Nathan Meltzer, USA
Michael Shaham, Israel
Lorenz Karls, Sweden
SongHa Choi, South Korea
Yesong Sophie Lee, USA
Pauline van der Rest, Belgium
SooBeen Lee, South Korea
Yeyeong Jenny Jin, South Korea
Bohdan Luts, Ukraine
Zhixin Zhang, China
Ruslan Talas, Kazakhstan

First prize will be awarded $80,000, second prize will receive $15,000, and third prize will get $10,000. Additional awards include the People’s Choice Award, Best Canadian Artist, Best Interpretation of a Sonata, Best Performance of a Work by J.S. Bach, Best Performance of an Imposed Canadian work, among others. There is also a Normand Beauchamp Winner’s Tour to three North American cities worth $15,000.

Chaired by Richard Rodzinski, the international jury for Violin 2023 is comprised of seven distinguished members: Koichiro Harada, Yura Lee, Malcolm Lowe, Mihaela Martin, Lucie Robert, Dmitri Sitkovetsky, and Krishna Thiagarajan.

The Semifinal, presented by the Wicha Music Foundation, will be held on April 29 and 30, in both afternoon (2 pm) and evening (7:30 pm) sessions at Bourgie Hall at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. Preceding the Semifinal, composer Luna Pearl Woolf will give a pre-concert talk to introduce the imposed new Canadian work that all semifinalists must perform.

The final will take place on May 3 and 4, both at 7:30 pm at the Maison symphonique de Montréal. The six finalists will perform with guest conductor Rafael Payare and the CMIM’s official orchestra, the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal (OSM) for both evenings of the final.

In 2019, VC Young Artist Hao Zhou was awarded first prize in the last violin edition. Other former major prize winners include VC Artists Ayana Tsuji, Bomsori Kim, Minami Yoshida, Benjamin Beilman, Nikita Borioso-Glebsky, Stephen Waarts, Marc Bouchkov, and Fedor Rudin.