BREAKING | Finalists Announced at Italy's 2021 Paganini Competition

The final round of this year's competition will be held on October 23-24 and will be streamed LIVE here on The Violin Channel

The six finalists were today announced at the 2021 International Violin Competition 'Premio Paganini', in Genoa, Italy.

Open to violinists of any nationality between the ages of 15 and 31, the competition was founded in 1954 with the goal of creating an international competition that would bring great prestige to the City of Genoa — as well as provide a venue for the discovery of new, exceptionally-talented, young violinists.

This year’s 2021 finalists are:

• Louisa Staples (21, United Kingdom)

• Olga Artyugina (30, Russia)

• Ava Bahari (24, Sweden)

• Lara Boschkor (22, Germany)

• Nurie Chung (16, South Korea)

• Giuseppe Gibboni (20, Italy)

The first prize-winning "Premio Paganini" (Paganini Award) winner of this year's competition will be presented €30,000, two years of representation by the Utopia Media Agency, in Shanghai, plus more than 15 performance opportunities. These include solo engagements with the Carlo Felice Theater Foundation, Orchestra of Tuscany, Lithuanian National Philharmonic, Cremonese  Stradivari Foundation, Paganini Genova Festival, and the Carro Paganiniano Festival.

This year’s winner will also receive the highly distinguished and rare honor to play a performance on the 1743 "Il Cannone" Guarneri del Gesù violin — once the prized violin of Nicolo Paganini, himself.

For year's final round, to be held at the Carlo Felice Theatre, each of the six 2021 finalists willl to perform Paganini’s 1st Violin Concerto in D Major, plus either the Beethoven, Brahms, Sibelius or Tchaikovsky Violin Concertos — with the orchestra of the Teatro Carlo Felice di Genova. 

This year’s Final Round will be streamed LIVE here on The Violin Channel and will be available for playback.

20-year-old Giuseppe Gibboni from Italy performing in the semi-final round of the 2021 Paganini International Violin Competition this week — at the Carlo Felice Theatre, in Genoa, Italy | Photo: Giusi Lorelli

Regarded among the most important violin accolades in the world, former "Premio Paganini" winners include Gyorgy Pauk, Salvatore Accardo, Gidon Kremer, Ilya Grubert, Leonidas Kavakos, Ilya Gringolts, Sayaka Shoji, Ning Feng, and VC Young Artists Inmo Yang and Kevin Zhu.

This year’s jury comprises a selection of expert violinists, composers, conductors, representatives of musical institutions, and music critics of different nationalities, who are recognized for their experience, competence, integrity, impartiality, and honesty of judgment.

The 2021 jury comprises Sergei Krylov (President), Pietro Borgonovo, Pierangelo Conte, Francesca Dego, Stephanie Gonley, Aiman Mussakhajayeva, Christoph Poppen, Jacobs Soelberg, and Pavel Vernikov.

Any jury member who has taught a candidate, either privately or publicly within the preceding two years of the competition’s commencement, will be required to remove themselves from all discussions regarding the competitor and will refrain from submitting any votes for that candidate.

24-year-old Ava Bahari from Sweden performing in the semi-final round of the 2021 Paganini International Violin Competition this week — at the Carlo Felice Theatre, in Genoa, Italy | Photo: Giusi Lorelli

For full schedule, visit: www.premiopaganini.it.