BREAKING | Sirena Huang Awarded 1st Prize at Indianapolis Violin Competition
Full playback of all performances from all rounds, recorded LIVE in Indianapolis, are available on The Violin Channel
28-year-old VC Young Artist Sirena Huang from the United States has just minutes ago been awarded the Gold Medal at the 2022 International Violin Competition of Indianapolis (IVCI).
A graduate of The Juilliard School and Yale University, where she studied with Stephen Clapp, Sylvia Rosenberg, Itzhak Perlman and Hyo Kang, Sirena is a former major prize winner at the Elmar Oliveira, Singapore and Shanghai Isaac Stern International Violin Competitions
As the 2022 first prize recipient, Sirena will receive a USD $75,000 cash prize, a Carnegie Hall recital debut, a professional CD recording and website plus four years career management, guidance and international concert engagements.
Second and Third prizes were awarded to 22-year-old Julian Rhee from the United States and 24-year-old VC Young Artist Minami Yoshida from Japan.
Fourth, fifth and six prizes were presented to 21-year-old Claire Wells from the United States, 21-year-old VC Young Artist SooBeen Lee from South Korea and 22-year-old Joshua Brown from the United States.
“I’m completely surprised and humbled as I really wasn’t expecting this at all — I'm just speechless,“ Sirena, who tested positive for COVID-19 just immediately prior to the commencement of the competition's opening round, this evening told The Violin Channel.
“I really am so incredibly grateful for everyone’s support and encouragement over the past few weeks. During the opening round, I tested negative thankfully, but I was still feeling quite ill and could barely hear out of one of my ears,” she said.
Sirena Huang, 28 (United States)
- Dvorak Violin Concerto in A Minor Op. 53
Sirena Huang, 28 (United States)
- Mozart Violin Concerto No. 3 in G Major
- "La Gitana" - Fritz Kreisler (Arr. J. Kuusisto)
Sirena Huang, 28 (USA)
- Sonata No. 7 in C minor, Op. 30 – L. van Beethoven
- Incontro for Violin and Piano – John Harbison
- Sonata No. 2 in A major, Op. 100 – J. Brahms
- Rhapsody No. 1, Sz. 86 – B. Bartók
Chaired by IVCI jury president and Artistic Director Jaime Laredo, the competition jury comprised Noah Bendix-Balgley, Ivan Chan, Pamela Frank, Yuzuko Horigome, Dong-Suk Kang, Cho-Liang Lin, Mihaela Martin, and Liviu Prunaru.
Previous major prize winners of the competition include Leonidas Kavakos, Judith Ingolfsson, Sergey Khachatryan, Simone Lamsma, Mihaela Martin, Ida Kavafian — and VC Artists Richard Lin, Augustin Hadelich, Tessa Lark, and Benjamin Beilman.
All rounds of this year's competition are available now at: www.theviolinchannel.com/vc-live-2022-indianapolis-violin-competition
Julian Rhee, 22 (USA)
- Beethoven Violin Concerto in D Major Op.61
Minami Yoshida, 24 (Japan)
- Sibelius Violin Concerto in D Minor Op. 47
january 2025