Bulgarian Victoria Vassilenko, 23, won the piano section at this year’s edition of George Enescu Competition, organized in Bucharest.

The young pianist performed Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor, Op. 15 in the competition’s final, accompanied by the George Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by John Axelrod.

The piano final, which took place at the Romanian Athenaeum in Bucharest on September 25, also closed this year’s edition of the contest.

Following her performance at the Romanian event, Victoria Vassilenko will receive a cash prize of EUR 15,000, and the chance to perform on the George Enescu Festival’s stage alongside famous orchestras. Conductor John Axelrod also offered her a special award: the opportunity to perform under his baton, together with the Royal Orchestra of Seville.

Victoria Vassilenko graduated from the National School of Music in Sofia, and the Queen Sofia College of Music. She is now a student at the New Bulgarian University, and the Lake Como International Piano Academy. She held numerous recitals and concerts as a soloist with orchestras such as the Royal Symphony Orchestra of Liverpool, Brussels Chamber Orchestra, Lincolnwood Chamber Orchestra (USA), Classic FM Orchestra and BNR Symphony Orchestra.

The Bulgarian artist previously won the second prize at the “James Mottram” International Piano Competition in Manchester, UK.

Japanese Takuma Ishii won the second place at George Enescu Competiton’s piano section, and Chile’s Danor Quinteros finished third. The cash prize for the second place amounts to EUR 10,000, and the third place prize is EUR 5,000.

The 2016 edition of the George Enescu Competition ended on September 25 with a special event: a video mapping show lighted up the Romanian Athenaeum’s beautiful building on the music of famous Romanian composer George Enescu.

The competition had three other winners. South Korean Gyehee Kim won the violin section, Chinese artist Tian Tian and Italian Caterina di Cecca were the winners of the composition section, and American Zlatomir Fung won the cello final.

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