Finalists Announced at Inaugural 2022 WorldVision Online Music Contest

The 2022 senior finalists are:

• Pianist Robert Bily (Czech Republic)

• Violinist Ruslan Talas (Kazakhstan)

• Pianist Maria Narodytska (Ukraine)

• Violinist Iskandar Widjaja (Indonesia)

Special prizes were also awarded to this year's semi-finalists, American cellist Johannes Gray and Mexican pianist Vladimir Petrov.

The 2022 junior finalists are:

• Pianist Odesa Meti (Albania)

• Violinist Tao-Yuan Hsiaо (Croatia)

• Double-Bassist Moon Junha (South Korea)

• Cellist Lyana Ulikhanyan (Armenia)

Special prizes were also awarded to this year's semi-finalists, Czech pianist Klara Skalkova and Russian pianist Artur Iskorostenskiy.

Open to international musicians between the ages of 16 and 35 years old, the first prize winner in the senior division of this year's inaugural contest will receive a €100,000 cash prize, in addition to performance engagements at Berlin's Philharmonie Berlin, New York's Carnegie Hall, and Moscow's Zaryadye.

This year's junior first prize winner will receive €10,000 and a spotlight performance at one of the senior winner's recitals.

"The WorldVision Music Contest is quite an ambitious and challenging project. This is the first time where the public, along with the jury, will decide who wins the competition," Competition Artistic Director Fjodor Elesin told The Violin Channel.

"We always had the idea to create a new format for online competitions. This contest is designed as a big coming-together of young musicians from all around the globe. During the pandemic, we thought that at a time when there are so many restrictions, such a project is needed for both the classical music audience and for young musicians."

From now till May 23, jury & audience voting will commence, and results will be announced on June 1.

The Violin Channel will stream each of the finalists performances at 5pm (EDT) on Saturday May 14.

Presented by Classic@Home, the competition was open to international violinists, violists, cellists, double bassists, pianists, and harpists.

Each of the finalists has progressed through their regional, national, and semi-final rounds to reach the final stage of the competition. 

3/5 of the total score for the final round will come from the professional jury, 1/5 from audience votes and 1/5 from the competition's organizing committee.