Applications Open for New York’s 2024 Barbash Bach String Competition

The competition will be held at Long Island’s Stony Brook University in New York on October 17, 2024

Open to international string players aged between 16 and 30, the annual Lillian and Maurice Barbash J.S. Bach String Competition is focused entirely on the unaccompanied string Partitas, Sonatas, and Suites of J.S. Bach.

This year’s sixth edition will award $5000 for the Grand Prize winner and $1000 for the Second Prize winner.

The Grand Prize winner will also perform solo at the annual Island Symphony Bach Festival on January 25, 2026, for which they will receive an additional $1000, as well as other paid performances with the Gotham Early Music Scene ($300), Washington Bach Consort ($2,500), Amor Artis ($800), and The Bach Choir of Bethlehem.

Applications are open until June 15, 2024. The finalists will be announced on September 4, 2024. To apply, click here.

The finals will be held at Stony Brook University’s Staller Center Recital Hall at 1 PM EST on October 17, 2024, and will be streamed live here on The Violin Channel. 

The 2024 jury will comprise Colin Carr, Arthur Haas, Katherine H. Murdock, Soovin Kim, and Ingrid Matthews.

Past winners include violinists Rachell Ellen Wong and Emmanuel Coppey, as well as double bassist Nina Bernat, who recently won the bass artist faculty position at Stony Brook University’s Music Department following an international search.