Winners Announced at 2025 Ion Voicu International Violin Competition

The 19-year-old violinist Koshiro Takeuchi has won first place alongside a €6,000 cash prize

Open to international violinists aged 16 to 30, the first edition of the Ion Voicu International Violin Competition has recently concluded in Bucharest, Romania. 

All three finalists performed at the Romanian Athenaeum with the George Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor Gabriel Bebeșelea.

The €6,000 first prize was awarded to the Japanese violinist Koshiro Takeuchi (19); second place with €4,000 went to Wakana Kimura (23), also from Japan; and the €2,000 third prize went to the Spanish violinist Jaime Naya Maceira (24). 

The competition’s special prize for the best performance of the Ion Voicu work was awarded to the French violinist Elie Hackel (25). 

Additionally, the top prize winners will have the opportunity to appear solo alongside a major Romanian orchestra. 

Chaired by Mihaela Martin, the 2025 jury comprised George Tudorache (Artistic Director), Pavel Vernikov, Lucie Robert, and Alexandru Tomescu.

The Ion Voicu International Violin Competition is named for the late Ion Voicu. Born in 1923 in Bucharest, Voicu started violin studies at the age of six and was mentored by George Enacovici, Garabet Avakian, George Enescu, and David Oistrakh.

At age 17, he made his debut playing with the Radio Orchestra and Theodor Rogalski. He later joined the Radio Orchestra and the Bucharest Philharmonic, where he often appeared as a soloist. 

His extensive discography includes recordings with the Decca, Eterna, Heliodor, and Electrecord labels, while his artistic collaborators included Enescu, Constantin Silvestri, Ionel Perlea, Sir John Barbirolli, Yehudi Menuhin, Andre Cluytens, Antal Dorati, Paul Klecki, John Pritchard, Karel Ancerl, and more.