The 44 violinists, chosen from a pool of 321 candidates, will compete in Richmond, Virginia from 14-24 May 2020

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The Menuhin Competition today announced the 44 candidates, selected from a record pool of 321 applicants, to participate in its 2020 contest.

The competition for young violinists, which is held every two years in a different location, takes place this year in Richmond, Virginia from 14-24 May. The previous event, in April 2018, took place in Geneva and was won by Senior competitor Diana Adamyan and jointly in the Junior division by Chloe Chua and Christian Li.

The selected competitors – 22 Juniors (ages 15 and under) and 22 Seniors (ages 21 and under) – represent 18 nationalities and 16 countries of residence across North and South America, Europe, Asia and Australia, and 13 states within the US.

Junior Competitors

(Information in parentheses indicates place of residence when different from nationality. Square brackets indicate a US State, where applicable)

Hankyoung Chang, 12, South Korea (USA) [New Jersey]
Corina Deng, 12, Canada (USA) [Ohio]
Kento Hong, 13, USA [New York]
Yixuan Jiang, 15, China
Mei Kaneko, 14, Japan
Dawid Kasprzak, 14, Poland (UK)
Fiona Khuong-Huu, 12, USA / Japan / France [New York]
Seohyun Kim, 11, South Korea
Sooeon Kim, 12, South Korea / USA (South Korea)
Kayleigh Kim, 15, USA [Virginia]
Na Hyun Kyun, 14, South Korea / USA (South Korea)
Shannon Ma, 14, USA [California]
Boha Moon, 13, South Korea
Natsuho Murata, 12, Japan
Raphael Nussbaumer, 13, Switzerland
Seohyeon Park, 14, South Korea
Emrik Revermann, 11, Canada / Germany (Canada)
Guido Sant’Anna, 14, Brazil
Hannah Wan Ching Tam, 14, China (USA) [Pennsylvania]
Keila Wakao, 13, Japan / USA [Massachusetts]
Edward Walton, 13, Australia / UK (Australia)
Jinan Laurentia Woo, 12, South Korea (USA) [California

Senior Competitors

(Information in parentheses indicates place of residence when different from nationality. Square brackets indicate a US State, where applicable)

Zachary Brandon, 21, USA [California]
Maya Anjali Buchanan, 19, USA [South Dakota]
Hana Chang, 17, Singapore / Japan / USA [Pennsylvania]
Eric Chen, 18, Taiwan / USA [New Jersey]
I-hao Cheng, 21, Taiwan (USA) [Pennsylvania]
Maria Cherkassova, 20, Russia
Karisa Chiu, 20, USA [Illinois]
María Dueñas, 17, Spain (Austria)
Matthew Hakkarainen, 19, USA [Florida]
Molin Han, 19, China (UK)
Joseph Hsia, 19, USA [New Jersey]
Hiroki Kasai, 20, Japan / UK (UK)
Tianyu Liu, 20, China (USA) [South Carolina]
Bodhan Luts, 15, Ukraine
Emma Meinrenken, 20, Canada
Serin Park, 15, South Korea / USA [New Jersey]
Vikram Francesco Sedona, 19, Italy (France)
Emily Shehi, 21, USA [Kansas]
Hannah Song, 19, USA [New York]
Claire Wells, 18, USA [Texas] (UK)
Dayoon You, 18, South Korea 
Simon Zhu, 18, Germany

The Seniors will compete for a first prize of $20,000, the two-year loan of a golden period Stradivari violin from the private collection of Jonathan Moulds and a bow made by Christophe Landon. The Juniors will compete for a top award of $10,000 plus a two-year loan of a fine old Italian violin, sponsored by Florian Leonhard Fine Violins. The prize winners of both the Senior and Junior categories will also receive performance opportunities.

Sitting on this year’s jury are Pamela Frank, Joji Hattori, Noah Bendix-Balgley, Ray Chen, Aaron Dworkin, Ning Feng, Ralph Kirshbaum, Anton Nel and Soyoung Yoon. This will be the second time that the Menuhin Competition has taken place in the USA.

Alumni of the competition include Ray Chen, Tasmin Little, Ning Feng, Julia Fischer, Chad Hoopes, Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider and Stephen Waarts.

For full details visit the Menuhin Competition website.