The jury for this year’s competition features a star-studded line-up of international violists - find out more about them here
Applications are currently open until 10 April for the 79th Concours de Genève, the live rounds of which will be held from 6 to 12 November 2025.
This year dedicated to the viola, the jury will be chaired by winner of the 1982 competition, Tabea Zimmermann. Since then, she has enjoyed a career as a performer, educator and recording artist, championing almost the entire repertoire for the viola. Zimmermann is also chair of the Hindemith Foundation and the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation, supporting young artists in the new music sector.
Zimmermann was appointed to the faculty at the University of Music Saarland aged 21, becoming the youngest professor in Germany. She has held positions in Frankfurt, Berlin, and the Kronberg Academy.
Joining Zimmermann on the 2025 Concours de Genève jury are Tomoko Akasaka, Ettore Causa, Hsin-Yun Huang, Cynthia Phelps, Jean Sulem and German Tcakulov.
Tomoko Akasaka won first prize at the 12th Japan classical music competition and the third prize at the 53rd ARD International music competition. She is an alumna of the Geneva Conservatory of Music, where she studied with Nobuko Imai, later becoming her assistant. She has been guest professor at the Neuchâtel Conservatory and is a viola professor at the Münster University of Music.
Italian violist Ettore Causa won the P. Schidlof Prize and J. Barbirolli Prize at the 2000 Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition. He has made solo and recital appearances in major venues around the world and performed at numerous international festivals. He studied at the International Menuhin Music Academy with Alberto Lysy and Johannes Eskar, and later at the Manhattan School of Music with Michael Tree. Causa joined the faculty of the Yale School of Music in 2009.
Taiwanese/US violist Hsin-Yun Huang is an alumna of Young Concert Artists and received degrees from The Juilliard School and The Curtis Institute of Music, where she now teaches. She was the gold medalist and the youngest competitor in the 1988 Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition; in 1993 she was the top-prize winner in the ARD International Competition in Munich, and was awarded the highly prestigious Bunkamura Orchard Hall Award. She was a member of the Borromeo Quartet from 1994 to 2000.
Cynthia Phelps is the New York Philharmonic’s principal viola, The Mr. and Mrs. Frederick P. Rose Chair. She is a first-prize winner of both the Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition and the Washington International String Competition, and is a recipient of the Pro Musicis International award. Phelps has served on the faculties at The Juilliard School and the Manhattan School of Music.
French violist Jean Sulem studied at the Paris Conservatory with Serge Collot. He was selected to become a soloist with the Ensemble Intercontemporain in 1981 by Pierre Boulez, and also founded the Rosamonde Quartet in the same year. He became professor of viola at the Paris Conservatory in 1989.
German Tcakulov was recently appointed as viola professor at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg, having previously held roles in Berlin, Munich and Karlsruhe. He was a member of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra from 2018 to 2022 and won prizes at numerous international competitions, including Charles Hennen in Holland, Jyväskylä in Finland, Mravinsky in Russia and the ‘start-up! music’ prize from the Hanns Eisler University of Music, as well as the 2013 scholarship recipient of the Lucia Loeser Foundation.
Zimmermann and Akasaka will serve on the pre-selection jury, and will be joined by Noémie Bialobroda and Frédéric Kirch.
Read: Calling violists: applications open for the 2025 Concours de Genève
Read: Postcard from Switzerland: Concours de Genève String Quartet edition
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