South Korean Gyehee Kim, 23, won the violin section of the 2016 George Enescu Competition in Romania.

The young violinist performed Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35 in the final organized at the Romanian Athenaeum in Bucharest on September 19. She was accompanied by the George Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Christoph Poppen.

Kim will get a cash prize of EUR 15,000, and the chance to perform on the George Enescu Festival’s stage alongside famous orchestras. She will also participate in the iPalpiti Festival of International Laureats in Los Angeles, the U.S.

Although she is only 23 years old, Gyehee Kim has already performed with orchestral ensembles such as the Russian Symphony, Torun Symphony, Gnessin Academy of Music, and Bulgaria Pleven Philharmonic. She is a student at the Seoul National University.

Kim previously won the second place at the Torun International Violin Competition (2016), and the third place at the Tchaikovsky Competition for Young Musicians (2014).

Another South Korean, Donghyun Kim, won the second place in the George Enescu Competition’s violin section while Kazakhstan’s Erzhan Kulibaev finished third. The cash prize for the second place amounts to EUR 10,000, and the third place prize has a value of EUR 5,000.

The jury of the violin section was composed of French violinist Pierre Amoyal (jury president), Remus Azoitei, Florin Croitoru, Mikhail Kopelman, Silvia Marcovici, Mihaela Martin, Eduard Schmieder, and Miczyslaw Szlezer.

This year’s edition of George Enescu Competition started on September 3 and will end on September 25. Chinese artist Tian Tian and Italian Caterina di Cecca have already been selected the winners of the composition section, while American Zlatomir Fung won the cello section.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com