Russian and South Korean share first prize as Jan Rakowski Competition opens up to foreign candidates

Karolina Errera, 20, from Russia, and Sejune Kim, 25, from South Korea have shared first prize at the Jan Rakowski Viola Competition in Poznan, Poland. The two winners also each received a special prize endowed by the Mayor of Poznan.

This is the first time in its history that that competition has accepted participants from outside Poland.

Errera and Kim both study at the Berlin University of the Arts, with Wilfried Strehle and Hartmut Rohde respectively.

Four honorary distinctions went to Lucas Freund, 23, from Germany, Mingwan Kim, 22, from South Korea, Tomasz Neugebauer, 28 and Jan Snakowski, 23, both from Poland.

Further prizes went to Oliwia Kedziora as the best student-participant from the I.J. Paderewski Academy of Music in Poznan, Dominika Zofia Rembowska, Poland, as the competition’s youngest participant, and Mingwan Kim for the best performance of a work by J.S. Bach.

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