9-year-old violinist Leia Zhu gives winning Mendelssohn performance at Moscow ‘Nutcracker’ Contest

Leia Zhu, aged nine, won first prize in the stringed instrument category of the 2015 International ‘Nutcracker’ Contest for Young Musicians in Moscow on 7 December. The UK violinist is the youngest contestant to win a gold medal in the competition's 16-year history.

This year the televised contest received 171 entries from musicians aged between nine and thirteen in string, wind and percussion, and piano categories. Zhu, who receives a cash prize of 120,000 RUB (£1,150), performed the third movement of Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in the final with the Russian National Orchestra. Watch her performance above.

A student of Itzhak Rashkovsky, the young violinist won the International Russian Rotary Music Competition in Moscow earlier this year – watch her performing Mendelssohn in the final. She also won the International Competition ‘Young Virtuosos’ in Sophia, Bulgaria in March aged eight – watch her performing Wieniawski in the final.