Winners and Grinners — 2023 International Prize Winners

As 2023 comes to a close, we take a look back at the year’s major international competition prize winners and grant recipients

 

Congratulations to the following winners!

 

Czech cellist Vilém Vlček won top prize at the 4th International Krzysztof Penderecki Cello Competition.

Polish violinist Karolina Podorska won the Karol Lipiński International Violin Competition.

The Smackgirls duo comprising Lisa Scheiber (saxophone/drums) and Kanoko Takeuchi (dance) won first prize at Amsterdam’s 2023 Goodmesh Concours.

The Swiss ensemble Trio Basilea won first place at the Orpheus Swiss Chamber Music Competition.

VC Young Artist violinist Joshua Brown won first prize and USD $100,000 at the China International Music Competition.

Cellists James Baik and Benett Tsai, violinist Oliver Neubauer, percussionist Michael Yeung, and guitar duo Ziggy & Miles were winners at the 2023 Young Concert Artists (YCA) Susan Wadsworth International Auditions.

Pianist Chung Kyu-bin won first prize at South Korea’s Isangyun Competition.

American pianist Caleb Borick won first place at the International Telekom Beethoven Competition Bonn.

VC Artist violinist Bohdan Luts received first prize at the 2023 Long-Thibaud International Violin Competition.

South African violinist Nicholas Bruiners won the University of Cape Town’s 2023 Strings Competition.

South Korean conductor Deun Lee was named winner of the Plovdiv Opera Conducting Competition.

Manon Papasergio won first prize at Germany’s Bach-Abel International Viola da Gamba Competition.

Japanese violinist Mio Imai won first place at Italy’s “Il Piccolo Violino Magico” Competition.

 

 

Conductor Mateusz Molęda won the third edition of the Sergey Kussewitzky Conducting Competition.

South African cellist Ethan Lawson received Stellenbosch University’s Mabel Quick Overseas Bursary.

VC Artist Keila Wakao won the Boston Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition.

Violinist Emmanuel Coppey won the grand prize of the 2023 Barbash Bach String Competition.

Violinist Jaewon Wee won first prize at the Mirecourt International Violin Competition.

The 16-year-old violinist Minji Kim won the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra Young Artist Competition.

Canadian cellist Luka Coetzee won Finland's International Paulo Cello Competition.

Dayner Tafur-Díaz was awarded the 2023 German Conducting Award.

VC Artists Stella Chen and Timothy Ridout were among various award winners at the Gramophone Classical Music Awards.

Violists Héloise Houzé, Maria Rallo Muguruza, and Duleen van Gunsteren were named laureates of the 2023 Oskar Nedbal Viola Competition.

The 25-year-old French conductor Swann Van Rechem was named the Grand Prix winner of the Besançon Conducting Competition.

Violinists Yeonah Kim and Jinzhu Li, and pianists Shanwei Liu, Qinyaoyao Ji, and Anastasiia Kliuchereva were first prize winners at the University of Mozarteum Salzburg’s Zhuhai International Mozart Competition.

Chinese violinist Ziling Guo received first prize at Italy’s Rodolfo Lipizer International Violin Competition.

Jana Jakovljevic won the violin category of the International Johannes Brahms Competition.

Hao Li and Rui Yuan shared second prize at the Leonid Kogan International Violin Competition.

Moldovan violinist Lilia Pocitari was first prize winner of the Liszt Academy Budapest’s Bartok World Competition.

Double bassist Gabriel Polinsky, Trio Orelon, violist Haesue Lee, and harpist Tjasha Gafner all won first prize in their respective categories at the 2023 ARD International Music Competition Munich.

Pianist Magdalene Ho received first prize at Switzerland’s Clara Haskil Competition.

 

 

The 14-year-old violinist Seohyun Kim won first prize at the 2023 Tibor Varga International Violin Competition.

Conductors Alexander Sinan Binder and Mateusz Gwizdalla were awarded joint second prize at the Kodály International Music Competition.

Contralto Jasmin White received first prize at Norway’s Queen Sonja Singing Competition.

Chinese pianist Yang (Jack) Gao won first place at the Walter Naumburg International Piano Competition.

Cellist Philipp Schupelius and soprano Eva Zalenga were named main prize recipients at the German Music Awards.

The Omega Ensemble and composer William Barton were among the winners at Australia’s Art Music Awards.

Soprano Yaritza Véliz won the Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Emerging Stars Competition. 

Cellist Abel Selaocoe, conductor Tarmo Peltokoski, and pianist Yuja Wang were among the winners at the 2023 Opus Klassik Awards.

Yeyeong Jenny Jin was awarded first place at the Michael Hill International Violin Competition. 

The Poiesis Quartet was awarded the grand prize at the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition.

 

 

Violinists Daniel Hodos and VC Artist Keila Wakao, harpist Renée Murphy, the Ivalas Quartet, and VC Young Artist Merz Trio were recipients of the Salon de Virtuosi Career Grant.

Korean pianist Jeonghwan Kim was first prize winner of the Sydney International Piano Competition.

Jacob Warren was awarded first prize at the International Society of Bassists Competition.

Chih Yuan Michael Chang received first prize at the Bucharest Music Institute Conducting Competition.

Italian conductor Giuseppe Mengoli received first prize at the Mahler Conducting Competition.

The Affinity Quartet won the 2023 Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition.

Among other winners, Pawel Kubacka and Gerhard Seifert were first prize recipients of the violin instrument making and bow making categories, respectively, in France’s Mirecourt International Violin and Bow Making Competition.

South Korean violinist Gyehee Kim won first place at the International Tchaikovsky Competition.

Violinist Lucilla Rose Mariotti was grand-prize winner of the “Violins&Soul” Salon Music Violin Competition.

Prague’s Trio Incendio was named winner of the Hans Gál Prize.

Njioma Chinyere Grevious won first prize in the senior division of the Sphinx Competition.

The Ukrainian violinist Eva Rabchevska won first prize at the Stuttgart International Violin Competition. 

Evan Davenport, Joey Naeger, David Briggs, and William Lakeberg were among various prize winners of the International Society of Bassists Maker’s Competition.

South Korean pianist Seokyoung Hong was awarded first place at the Cliburn International Junior Piano Competition.

Italian pianist Elia Cecino won first prize at Valencia’s Iturbi International Piano Competition.

Korean violinist Eun Che Kim was awarded first prize at the Carl Flesch International Violin Competition.

Italian-German conductor Nicolò Foro won the London Symphony Orchestra’s Donatella Flick Conducting Competition.

Trio Menil was awarded the grand prize at Missouri’s Plowman Chamber Music Competition.

Japanese-American conductor Euan Shields won the Siemens-Hallé International Conducting Competition.

French cellist Léo Ispi As won the grand prize at the Czech Republic’s Gustav Mahler Prize Cello Competition.

The Rilian Trio received first prize at the Trondheim International Chamber Music Competition.

Violinist Simon Zhu was awarded first prize at Italy’s “Premio Paganini” International Violin Competition.

 

 

Tengying Ma and Yubeen Choi were joint first-prize winners in the junior division of Belgium’s Leonid Kogan Violin Competition.

Singaporean violinist Sophia Fang won the grand prize of Italy’s Postacchini International Violin Competition.

The Astral Mixtape ensemble; pianists Sylvia Jiang, Eunbi Kim, and Priscila Navarro; baritone Nathaniel Sullivan; cellist Luiz Fernando Venturelli; and harpist Noël Wan were winners of the Astral Artists National Competition.

The Fibonacci Quartet won first prize at the CAVATINA Intercollegiate Chamber Music Competition.

Emad Zolfaghari was the grand prize winner of the Klein International String Competition.

Double bassist Nina Bernat, violinist Njioma Chinyere Grevious, the Abeo Quartet, the Best Friends Duo, and the Dior Quartet were winners of the Concert Artists Guild’s Victor Elmaleh Competition.

Quartetto Indaco won first prize in the String Quartet category of Japan’s Osaka International Chamber Music Competition; the Capybara Piano Quartet received first prize in the Piano Trio/Quartet category.

Violist Sào Soulez Larivière and trombonist Gonçalo Nova were first prize winners at the 2023 Prague Spring International Music Competition.

Portuguese bassist José Trigo and Czech cellist Vilem Vlcek both won the 58th Markneukirchen Competition. 

Composers Rhiannon Giddens and Michael Abels won the prestigious Pulitzer Prize for Music.

Dutch violinist Hawijch Elders won first prize at the Henri Marteau International Violin Competition.

VC Young Artist Dmytro Udovychenko won first prize at the 2023 Concours musical international de Montréal.

Singers Anthony León, Natalie Lewis, Teresa Perrotta, Sarah Saturnino, Christian Simmons, and Meredith Wohlgemuth were winners of the Metropolitan Opera’s Eric and Dominique Laffont Competition.

Cellist Elide Sulsenti, trombonist Romain Nussbaumer, and percussionist Noah Rosen received Switzerland’s 2023 Fritz Gerber Award.

Pianist Roman Fediurko won the Horowitz Competition Kyiv-Geneva.

Austria’s Chaos Quartet won first prize at the Bad Tölz International String Quartet Competition.

Trio Pantoum won the top prize at France’s Lyon International Chamber Music Competition.

Cellist Danushka Edirisinghe won first place at the UK’s Haslemere International String Competition.

South Korean baritone Taehan Kim won first prize at the Queen Elisabeth Vocal Competition.

 

 

The London-based Kleio Quartet won the Carl Nielsen String Quartet Competition.

Trio Zeitgeist, the Loewe Quartett, and ensemble focus won Switzerland’s Paul Juon Chamber Music Competition.

Canadian pianist Kevin Chen won first place at Israel’s Rubinstein Piano Competition.

Composer Arvo Pärt, record producer Chris Blackwell, and singer-songwriter Angélique Kidjo were awarded Sweden’s Polar Music Prize.

Venezuelan conductor Rodolfo Barráe won first prize at the Hong Kong International Conducting Competition.

Double bassist Nina Bernat, guitarist Bokyung Byun, flutist Emi Ferguson, pianist Evren Ozel, and VC Artist Isidore String Quartet were awarded the 2023 Avery Fisher Career Grants.

Cellist Aurélien Pascal and pianist Bertrand Chamayou were among the prize winners of France’s Les Victoires de la Musique Classique.

Pianist Philip Chiu and composer Bekah Simms were among the classical musicians who won at Canada’s JUNO Awards.

Korean pianist Saehyun Kim won the Cleveland International Piano Competition for Young Artists.

The Juilliard School’s dean David Ludwig was among 16 winners of the American Academy of Arts and Letters Music Awards. 

While no first prize was awarded, the Turicum Quartet received the second prize in Poland’s Szymanowski String Quartet Competition.

The Kodak Quartet won the first and senior division grand prize at the Coltman Chamber Music Competition.

Conductors Oksana Lyniv and Gianandrea Noseda were among the winners in across 20 categories of Germany’s OPER! AWARDS.

The Arete Quartet won first prize in the string quartet division of the 15th International Mozart Competition.

Brazilian composer Leonardo Silva won first prize at the Basel Composition Competition.

VC Artist Attacca Quartet and the genre-crossing string trio Time for Three were among the winners in the classical music division of the 2023 GRAMMY Awards.

VC Young Artist Hina Khuong-Huu was awarded first prize at the third Triennial Elmar Oliveira International Violin Competition.

Cellist Brandon Leonard won first place at the Sphinx Competition Junior Division.

Vocalists Sage DeAgro-Ruopp and Anastasiia Sidorova won joint first prize at The World’s Biggest Stage Competition.