BREAKING | Finalists Announced at 2018 Paganini Competition – Including 3 VC Young Artists

The 6 finalists have been announced at the 2018 Paganini International Violin Competition, in Genoa, Italy - including 3 VC Young Artists

The 6 finalists have just minutes ago been announced at the 2018 Paganini International Violin Competition, in Genoa, Italy - including 3 VC Young Artists.

The 2018 Paganini International Violin Competition finalists are:

• VC Young Artist Fedor Rudin (25, France)
• VC Young Artist Kevin Zhu (17, United States)
• VC Young Artist Luke Hsu (27, United States)
• Yiliang Jiang (21, China)
• Stephen Kim (22, United States)
• Oleksandr Pushkarenko (28, Ukraine)

For the final round, to be hosted in the evenings of the 13th and 14th of April, each candidate will present either the Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Brahms or Sibelius Violin Concerti, plus Paganini’s 1st or 5th Violin Concerti - with the Orchestra della Fondazione Teatro Carlo Felice di Genova.

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, an invitation to perform on Paganini's 1743 'Cannon' Guarneri del Gesu violin - plus a number of important European and international solo debuts.

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

PICTURED: 2018 Paganini International Violin Competition Finalists, VC Young Artists Fedor Rudin (left), Kevin Zhu (centre) and Luke Hsu (right)