Candidates Announced for 2018 Paganini Competition - Including 7 VC Young Artists

The 32 opening round candidates for the 2018 Paganini International Violin Competition have been announced - including 7 VC Young Artists

The 32 opening round candidates for the 2018 Paganini International Violin Competition, to be held in Genoa, Italy from the 4th to the 15th of April, have been announced - including 7 VC Young Artists.

The 2018 Paganini International Violin Competition competitors are:

• VC Young Artist Lara Boschkor (18, Germany)
• VC Young Artist Rennosuke Fukuda (18, Japan)
• VC Young Artist Ioana Cristina Goicea (25, Romania)
• VC Young Artist Luke Hsu (27, United States)
• VC Young Artist Fedor Rudin (25, France)
• VC Young Artist JiWon Song (25, South Korea)
• VC Young Artist Kevin Zhu (17, United States)
• Christopher Tun Andersen (26, Norway)
• Hannah Cho (23, United States)
• SongHa Choi (18, South Korea)
• Nazar Fedyuk (26, Ukraine)
• Giuseppe Gibbons (16, Italy)
• Yiying Jiang (20, China)
• Yiliang Jiang (21, China)
• Shusaku Kato (23, Japan)
• Stephen Kim (22, United States)
• Hahnsol Kim (26, United States)
• Issei Kobayashi (23, Japan)
• Naina Kobzareva (20, Russia)
• Stepan Lavrov (30, Russia)
• Hyun Jae Lim (20, South Korea)
• Youwas Masaoka (25, Japan)
• Nihei Mayu (26, Japan)
• Hao Meow (24, China)
• Areg Navasardyan (18, Russia)
• Rachel Ostler (25, United States)
• Oleksandr Pushkarenko (28, Ukraine)
• Ririko Takagi (21, Japan)
• Yuna Toki (23, Japan)
• Coco Tomita  (16, Japan)
• Yukiko One (22, Japan)
• Leonid Zhelezny (24, Russia)

Founded in 1954, former competition 1st prize winners include: György Pauk, Salvatore Accardo, Oleh Krysa, Jean-Jacques Kantorow, Viktor Pikaizen, Grigori Zhislin, Miriam Fried, Gidon Kremer, Ilya Kaler, Dmitri Berlinsky, Leonidas Kavakos, Isabelle Faust, Ning Feng and VC Young Artist InMo Yang.

The 2018 1st prize winner will receive €20,000.

The 2018 jury will comprise: Sergei Krylov (Jury Chair), Dimitri Berlinsky, Bin Huang, Heiner Madl, Svetlana Makarova, Daniel Smith and Anna Tifu.

PICTURED: 2015 PAGANINI INTERNATIONAL VIOLIN COMPETITION 1ST PRIZE WINNER, VC YOUNG ARTIST INMO YANG FROM SOUTH KOREA