The Sendai International Music Competition is a triennial violin and piano music competition held in Sendai, Japan, presented in association with the Sendai International Music Competition Organizing Committee, City of Sendai and the Sendai Cultural Foundation. In the competition there is no overall winner, rather there are six winners each from the violin and piano categories, with the first-placed winners receiving the highest prize. Although the competition is international, most award-winners have been from either Europe or Asia. The first award-winner from outside those continents was American Sean Kennard, who finished fifth in the 2004 competition's piano category.

History The Sendai International Music Competition is held every three years. at the Sendai City Youth Cultural Centre in Japan. It has the stated purpose of "contributing to the development of world musical culture and the promotion of international cultural exchange through the discovery of young talented musicians". It was established in 2001 to commemorate Sendai City's 400th anniversary, and has been a member of the World Federation of International Music Competitions (WFIMC) since 2005. Five competitions have been held, the most recent being in 2013, with the next scheduled to take place on 21 May to 26 June 2016.

Format The competition consists of four stages: a pre-selection round, followed by a preliminary round, and then the semi-final and the final rounds in which all pieces are performed with an orchestra. The competition is split into two categories: violin and piano. The number of contestants who progress from the preliminary round to the semi-finals cannot exceed 12 and the contestants passing through to the final cannot exceed six. In the preliminary, semi-final, and final stages of the competition the performances are chosen from a predetermined repertoire; the contestants must choose a different piece for each round. The judging panel decides the placing of the prizewinners from first through sixth. The prize money is as follows:

Place Cash prize Additional prizes First ¥3,000,000 (~25,000 USD) Diploma and Gold Medal Second ¥2,000,000 (~17,000 USD) Diploma and Silver Medal Third ¥1,000,000 (~8,500 USD) Diploma and Bronze Medal Fourth ¥800,000 (~6,750 USD) Diploma Fifth ¥700,000 (~6,000 USD) Diploma Sixth ¥600,000 (~5,000 USD) Diploma

Winners The first competition was held in 2001. Chinese Mengla Huang and Bulgarian Svetlin Roussev topped the violin category and the Italian Giuseppe Andaloro took first prize in the piano section. In the second tournament in 2004, Japanese Saeka Matsuyama won the violin part in the final and Xiaotang Tan from China came in first place in the piano category. In the 2007 finals, which contained five Russian contestants, the violin section was topped by Russian Alena Baeva while in the piano category the Japanese Yuya Tsuda came first. The 2010 violin competition was won by the German/South Korean Clara-Jumi Kang, while Vadym Kholodenko of Ukraine won the piano competition. As of 2013 there have been five competitions.

2001 Category Place Winner Country Violin First Mengla Huang First Svetlin Roussev Third Mi Sa Yang Fourth Yukiko Ishibashi Fifth Rintaro Omiya Sixth Kei Shirai Piano First Giuseppe Andaloro Second Jin Sang Lee Third Wang Yuja Fourth Daria Rabotkina Fifth Roberto Plano Fifth Amir Tebenikhin

2004 Category Place Prize winners Country Violin First Saeka Matsuyama Second Maksim Brylinskiy Third Dan Zhu Fourth Andreas Janke Fifth Valya Dervenska Sixth Yuki Manuela Janke Piano First Xiaotang Tan Second Masataka Takada Third Michael Namirovsky Fourth Elizaveta Dmitrieva Fifth Sean Kennard Sixth Florence Boissolle

2007 Category Place Prize winners Country Violin First Alena Baeva Second Erin Keefe Third A-Rah Shin Fourth Andrey Baranov Fifth Sayaka Chiba Sixth Haurka Nagao Piano First Yuya Tsuda Second Yi-Chih Lu Third Oxana Shevchenko Fourth Ilya Ovchinnikov Fifth Ka-Ling Colleen Lee Sixth Vyacheslav Gryaznov

2010 Category Place Prize winners Country Violin First Clara-Jumi Kang / Second Andrey Baranov Third Nagao Haruka Fourth Kim Bomsori Fifth Kim Dami Sixth Giora Schmidt Piano First Vadym Kholodenko Second Maria Masycheva Third Marianna Prjevalskaya Fourth Sato Hiroo Fifth Moon Zheeyoung Sixth Kwan Yi

2013 Category Place Prize winners Country Violin First Richard Lin Second Narita Tatsuki Third Tomii Chieri Fourth Anna Savkina Fifth Bomsori Kim Sixth Suliman Tekalli Piano First Sunwoo Yekwon Second Suh Hyung-Min Third Artem Yasynskyy Fourth Sun-A Park Fifth Katada Airi Sixth Hong Jihwan

2016 Category Place Prize winners Country Violin First Jang Yoojin Second Stephen Kim Third Aoki Naoka Fourth Anna Savkina Fifth Meruert Karmenova Sixth Okamoto Seiji Piano First Kim Hyun Jung Second Evan Wong Third Kitabata Yoshito Fourth Bruce Xiaoyu Liu Fifth Shin Changyong Sixth Sakamoto Aya

2019 Category Place Prize winners Country Violin First No Award Second Shannon Lee Third Tomotaki Mayu Fourth Kitada Chihiro Fifth Elias David Moncado Sixth Arai Rio Sixth Ko Donghwi Piano First Choi Hyounglok Second Baron Fenwick Third Daria Parkhomenko Fourth Sato Motohiro Fifth Hirama Kyoshiro Sixth Kim Junhyung

2022 Category Place Prize winners Country Violin First Nakano Lina Second Dennis Gasanov Second Ma Tianyou Third No Award Fourth Hong Seonglan Fifth Kitsuwa Miyu Sixth Nakamura Yukino Piano First Jiaqing Luo Second Jonas Aumiller Third Ota Shion Fourth Jeonghwan Kim Fifth Kim Song Hueon Sixth George Harliono

2025 Category Place Prize winners Country Violin First No Award Second Boha Moon Third Aozhe Zhang Fourth Jinzhu Li Fifth Seohyeon Park Sixth Haram Kim Sixth Hairui Lei Piano First Elizaveta Ukrainskaia Second Aleksandr Kliuchko Third Amano Kaoru Fourth Julian Gast Fifth Shimata Riito Sixth Jan Nikovich

References

General

2001 Violin Prize-Winners. Sendai International Music Competition. Retrieved on 22 May 2008. 2001 Piano Prize-Winners. Sendai International Music Competition. Retrieved on 22 May 2008. 2004 Violin Prize-Winners. Sendai International Music Competition. Retrieved on 22 May 2008. 2004 Piano Prize-Winners. Sendai International Music Competition. Retrieved on 22 May 2008. 2007 Prize-Winners. Sendai International Music Competition. Retrieved on 22 May 2008.

Specific

External links Official website