2023 Montreal International Music Competition-Violin Announces 12 Semi-Finalists

By Laurie Niles: The Concours musical international de Montréal (Montreal International Music Competition) has announced 12 semi-finalists for its 2023 Violin Edition, chosen from 24 violinists between the ages of 17 and 27, from 11 different countries who performed this week in the competitions first round. The semi-finalists are:

• SongHa Choi, 23, of South Korea
• Yeyeong Jenny Jin, 19, of South Korea
• Lorenz Karls, 22, of Sweden
• SooBeen Lee, 22, of South Korea
• Yesong Sophie Lee, 19, of the United States
• Bohdan Luts, 18, of Ukraine
• Nathan Meltzer, 22, of the United States
• Michael Shaham, 19, of Israel
• Dmytro Udovychenko, 23, of Ukraine
• Pauline Van der Rest, 18, of Belgium
• Ruslan Talas, 24, of Kazakhstan
• Zhixin Zhang, 22, of China

The semi-final round will take place April 29 and 30 at Bourgie Hall at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, with violinists performing a 55 to 60-minute program with piano accompaniment, including a minimum of three pieces, including a complete sonata by Bartók, Beethoven, Brahms, Debussy,Enescu, Fauré, Franck, Janácek, Prokofiev, Ravel, Schnittke, Schumann, Schubert, or Strauss; the required Canadian work "L’inconnu.e upsetting.e" by Luna Pearl Woolf; and a work of the violinist's choice. At the conclusion of the semi-final round, the jury will select six violinists to take part in the Finals on May 3 and 4, at 7:30 p.m. at Maison symphonique with the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, with guest conductor Rafael Payare. All prizes will be announced and awarded during the closing ceremony, which will take place at the conclusion of the competition on May 4. You can find the livestream of the semi-finals and final rounds and also watch previous performances from this year's competition on-demand on this page (click here). The jury for the 2023 Violin edition includes Zarin Mehta (chairman), Salvatore Accardo (Italy), Koichiro Harada (Japan), Yura Lee (Korea/USA), Mihaela Martin (Romania), Lucie Robert (Canada), Dmitri Sitkovetsky (United Kingdom/USA) and Krishna Thiagarajan (Germany/USA). You might also like:

• Montreal International Music Competition Announces Jury for its 2023 Violin Edition
• Interview with Violinist Hao Zhou, Winner of 2019 Montreal Competition
• Interview with Ayana Tsuji, Winner of the 2016 Montreal International Musical Competition - Violin

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