Shanghai Symphony launches $100,000 Isaac Stern Violin Competition

The Shanghai Symphony Orchestra has launched a new biennial violin contest with an exceptionally large prize fund. The Shanghai Isaac Stern International Violin Competition – named in honour of the great violinist who first forged links with China in 1979 – takes place for the first time from 14 August to 2 September 2016, with a grand prize if $100,000.

Open to international violinists aged between 18 and 32, entries are accepted until 31 January 2016, followed by a DVD pre-selection in March 2016.

The jury boasts an impressive line-up of familiar names, including Zakhar Bron, Boris Kuschnir and Maxim Vengerov, in addition to renowned Chinese violin professors Zhenshan Wang and Lina Yu, and co-chairs – conductor and son of Isaac Stern, David Stern, and Professor Vera Tsu Weiling.

In addition to six core prizes – including a second prize of $50,000 and a third prize of $25,000 – there will be two special awards for Best Performance of a Chinese Work and the Isaac Stern Award – given to ‘an individual who is deemed to have made an outstanding contribution to our understanding of humanity through the medium of music’.

For full details visit the SISIVC website.

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