COMPETITIONS

1 Maria Ioudenitch

IOUDENITCH PHOTO NISSOR ABDOURAKOV. DUE ÑAS PHOTO TAM LAN TRUONG. ECHÉA PHOTO PHELAN BURGOYNE

3 Maria Dueñas

4 Echéa Quartet

1 US violinist Maria Ioudenitch, 25, has won the main prize at the Joseph Joachim International Violin Competition in Hannover, Germany. The award comes with €30,000 and concert engagements. Ioudenitch is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music. She will also receive €10,000 as a laureate, together with Javier Comesaña, 22, from Spain, Minami Yoshida, 23, from Japan, and Chiara Sannicandro, 23, from Germany.

2 Italian violinist Giuseppe Gibboni, 20, has won first prize and €30,000 at the Paganini International Violin Competition in Genoa, Italy. Gibboni studies with Salvatore Accardo and Pavel Berman and is a graduate of the Giuseppe Martucci Conservatory of Music in Salerno, Italy. Second place went to South Korean violinist Nurie Chung, 16, while Lara Boschkor, 22 (Germany) and 25-year-old Ava Bahari (Sweden) took home the joint third prize.

3 Spanish violinist María Dueñas, has won the $20,000 Grand Prize at the Viktor Tretyakov International Violin Competition in Krasnoyarsk, Russia. The 18-year-old studies with Boris Kuschnir at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz. First prize went to 18-year-old Eugene Kawai from Japan, while Jakow Pavlenko, 17 (Ukraine/Germany) and Kenneth Naito, 21 (US) took the joint second prize.

4 The UK-based Echéa Quartet has won the Royal Over-Seas League Annual Music Competition String Ensemble prize and £10,000. New Zealand cellist Matthias Balzat, 21, won the String Section prize and £5,000. Balzat is a masters student at the Robert Schumann Hochschule in Düsseldorf, while the quartet, comprising violinists Aliayta Foon-Dancoes and Rosa Hartley, violist Dave Shaw and cellist Eliza Millett, are chamber music fellows at the Royal College of Music.

APPOINTMENTS

• Emerson Quartet violinist Philip Setzer has taken the role of the Cleveland Institute of Music’s artistic director of string chamber music German violinist Thomas Reif has joined the teaching faculty of the Mozarteum University

• British–Chinese violinist Leia Zhu has become the London Mozart Players’ youngest artist-in-residence at 14 years old

• The Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra has appointed Malaysian violinist Jia-Rong Gan as its new concertmaster

FORTHCOMING COMPETITIONS & AWARDS

Bordeaux International String Quartet Competition in France, for quartet members aged under 35 and quartets with a combined age of under 128. First prize €20,000

Deadline 14 January 2022; competition 9–14 May 2022 Web bit.ly/3GbAp0w

International Joseph Joachim Chamber Music Competition in Weimar, Germany, for string trios and quartets, and piano trios and quartets with an average age of 32 or under. First prize €10,000

Deadline 17 January 2022; competition 3–10 April 2022 Web bit.ly/3joH5P6

International J. M. Sperger Competition in Rostock, Germany, for double bassists under the age of 35. First prize €8,500 Deadline 15 January 2022; competition 27 March–3 April 2022;

Web www.spergerwettbewerb.de

For current vacancies, see page 95 or our online jobs page at www.thestrad.com/jobs