Candidates Announced for Sendai Competition - Including VC ‘Young Artist’ Yoo Jin Jang

The 40 candidates have today been announced for the 2016 Sendai International Violin Competition, to be held in Sendai, Japan from May 21st to June 5th - including VC 'Young Artist' Yoo Jin Jang.

This year’s competitors are:

• VC ‘Young Artist’ Yoo Jin Yang (25, South Korea)
• Ribon Aida (25, Japan)
• Mask Akama (22, Japan)
• Nikita Akulov (25, Russia)
• Naoka Aoki (23, Japan)
• Mizuki Chiba (20, Japan)
• Fuki Fujie (25, Japan)
• Yuichiro Fukuda (25, Japan)
• Yoko Ishikura (19, Japan)
• Meruert Karmenova (22, Kazakhstan)
• Karen Kido (21, Japan)
• Damin Kim (25, South Korea)
• Stephen Kim (20, United States)
• Honoka Kishimoto (21, Japan)
• Daniil Kogan (22, Canada/Russia)
• Ryota Kuratomi (24, Japan)
• Kevin Lin (22, Taiwan/United States)
• Siena Matsuoka (22, Japan)
• Daichi Nakamura (25, Japan)
• Kaoru Oe (22, Japan)
• Kyoto Ogawa (23, Japan)
• Seiji Okamotao (21, Japan)
• Yurina Otsuka (26, Japan)
• Sungmi Park (24, South Korea)
• Yue Qian (20, China)
• Anna Savkina (21, Russia)
• Julie Svecena (21, Czech Republic)
• Kelly Talim (20, United States)
• Yabing Tan (25, China)
• Gabriel Tchalik (26, France)
• Mayu Tomotaki (20, Japan)
• Natsumi Tsuboi (22, Japan)
• Eimi Wakui (23, Japan)
• Momo Wong (21, Japan/United States)
• Harming Xie (26, China)
• Minami Yoshida (17, Japan)
• Arata Yumi (24, Japan)
• Yang Zhang (25, China)

Open to violinists of any nationality, born before or after January 1st 1988, the 2016 1st prize winner will receive JPY 3,000,000 (US $25,000), a CD recording – and a number of prestigious international performance opportunities.

The 2016 jury includes: Chairperson Yuzuko Horigome, Vice-Chairpersons Masafumi Hori & Rodney Friend, Boris Belkin, Mauricio Fuks, Huang Mengla, Tomoko Kato, Younguck Kim, Cho-Liang Lin, Regis Pasquier, Kyoko Takezawa and Gidon Kremer.

Previous 1st prize winners include: VC ‘Young Artists’ Richard Lin & Clara Jumi Kang.

PICTURED: 2016 Sendai International Violin Competition Competitor, VC ‘Young Artist’ Yoo Jin Jang