Inmo Yang Wins 2022 International Jean Sibelius Violin Competition

By Laurie Niles: Korean violinist Inmo Yang was awarded first prize at the International Jean Sibelius Violin Competition, which concluded Sunday in Helsinki, Finland. Here is a list of the other prize winners:

• First prize (€30,000): Inmo Yang, 26, of South Korea
• Second prize (€20,000): Nathan Meltzer, 21, of the U.S.
• Third prize (€15,000): Dmytro Udovychenko, 22, of Ukraine

The other three finalists, Diana Adamyan, of Armenia; Yesong Sophie Lee, 18 of the U.S.; and Georgii Moroz, of Ukraine each received a recognition prize of €3,000. Semi-finalists were awarded the Sibelius stipend of 1,000 euros. Inmo Yang currently is based in Berlin, where he is pursuing a master’s degree, studyingwith Antje Weithaas at Hochschule für Musik "Hanns Eisler." Before that he studied with Miriam Fried at the New England Conservatory of Music, where he was the only violinist in its highly selective Artist Diploma program. In 2015 he won first-prize in the International Paganini Violin Competition in Genoa, Italy, Yang also has released two albums, Paganini: 24 Caprices (2019) and The Genetics of Strings (2021). Yang plays on the c. 1718 "Bostonian" Stradivarius, on loan from a private donor. As part of his first-prize package Yang also received the loan of a 1772 Giovanni Battista Guadagnini violin, loaned by Jane Ng through J & A Beare and the Beare’s International Violin Society. He also will receive mentoring from Pekka Kuusisto and Sakari Oramo. The Sibelius family also awarded Inmo Yang a prize of €2,000 for the best performance of Magnus Lindberg's commissioned work, "Caprice." This year’s competition jury included chairman Sakari Oramo as well as Jaakko Ilves, Ilya Kaler, Ida Kavafian, Henning Kraggerud, Lucie Robert, Daniel Rowland and Elina Vähälä. BELOW: Inmo Yang performs the Sibelius Violin Concerto at the 2015 Paganini Competition: A record 240 violinists applied for the competition this year, 39 of whom participated in the competition. Due to the war in Ukraine, Russian competitors were excluded from the 2022 competition. The next International Jean Sibelius Violin Competition will be held in 2025.You might also like:

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