Analysis December 2020: Competing with coronavirus

The Covid-19 pandemic has robbed many advanced string students of opportunities to showcase their talents at leading international competitions in 2020. Most contests were postponed to 2021, but some, such as the ARD Music Competition in Munich and the Sibelius Competition in Helsinki, have been pushed back to 2022, or even, as in the case of the Henri Marteau violin competition in Hof, Bavaria, to 2023. Organisers of competitions in the latter half of 2021 are holding on to their dates in the hope that the international situation will have improved, but some events originally scheduled for earlier in 2021, such as the triennial quartet competition at London’s Wigmore Hall in April and the biennial Michael Hill International Violin Competition in Auckland in June, are already moving to 2022…