Winners Announced at the 2023 Concours musical international de Montréal

23-year-old VC Young Artist Dmytro Udovychenko, from Ukraine, has been awarded First Prize at this year's violin edition

The 2023 Concours musical international de Montréal (CMIM) has just minutes ago come to a close, after an exciting Final Round with the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal and conductor Rafael Payare.

All rounds of the competition were streamed on The Violin Channel and are available to watch now!

The 2023 jury has named 23-year-old VC Young Artist, Ukrainian violinist Dmytro Udovychenko as the First Prize winner. Dmytro will receive $80,000 CAD, embark on a Winner’s Tour to three North American cities, and perform in an engagement with the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal for a concert or recital in a subsequent season.

A major prize winner at the Joseph Joachim, Sibelius, Leopold Auer, Leonid Kogan, Andrea Postacchini, and Odessa Violin Competitions, Dmytro Udovychenko has studied with Prof. Boris Garlitsky at the Folkwang Universität der Künste in Essen, Germany, and is currently studying at the Kronberg Academy with Christian Tetzlaff.

"My victory is dedicated to Ukraine and the people of Ukraine," Dmytro told The Violin Channel.

23-year-old violinist SongHa Choi received the $15,000 Second Prize and the $5,000 Audience Prize, while 22-year-old VC Young Artist SooBeen Lee took home Third Prize and $10,000.

The remaining finalists will each receive $3,000: 22-year-old VC Young Artist Nathan Meltzer, 19-year-old Michael Shaham from Israel, and 24-year-old Ruslan Talas from Kazakhstan. 

Additional awards given tonight include:

• Award for the Best Performance of a work by J.S. Bach: Dmytro Udovychenko
• Award for the Best Interpretation of a Sonata in the Semi-final: SongHa Choi
• André Bachand Award for the Best Performance of an imposed Canadian work: SongHa Choi
• Award for the Best Performance of a virtuosic work: Yesong Sophie Lee
• Bita Cattelan Philanthropic Engagement Award: Aaron Chan
• John Newmark Prize for the Best Collaborative Pianist: Umi Garrett

Open to violinists of all nationalities, aged 17 through 27, the competition welcomed 24 young violinists to Montreal from 11 different countries.

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, Dmitry Sitkovetsky, and Krishna Thiagarajan.

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.