U.S. violinist Mayumi Kanagawa (opening photo) has won the final of the violin section of this year’s George Enescu International Competition with a performance of Camille Saint-Saëns’s Concerto No. 3 in B minor for violin and orchestra op. 61. She was accompanied by the George Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Alan Buribayev.

South Korea’s Hyeonjeong Lee took the second place, and Japan’s Wakana Kimura the third in what was an all-female final.

Thirteen-year-old Hyeonjeong Lee performed Johannes Brahms’sConcerto in D major for violin and orchestra op. 77, while twenty-one-year-old Wakana Kimura performed Béla Bartók’s Concerto No. 2 for violin and orchestra Sz. 112.

The jury of the violin section included violinists Dmitry Sitkovetsky, also the president of the jury, Mihaela Martin, Liviu Prunaru, Silvia Marcovici, Shlomo Mintz, Boris Garlitsky, David Halen and managers Doug Sheldon and Benjamin Schwartz.

The first prize is worth EUR 15,000, the second prize EUR 10,000, and the third prize EUR 5,000. The winners are also offered the opportunity to perform in the 2025 and 2026 editions of the George Enescu International Festival and Competition, as well as in concerts organized during the philharmonic seasons in the country.

Three special prizes were also offered. The Stefan and Valentin Gheorghiu Award for the best performance of a Sonata by George Enescu, amounting to EUR 3,000, was won by Mayumi Kanagawa.

The prize for the best performance of the assigned work - B.A.C.H., Passacaglia for solo violin by Vlad Maistorovici - was won by Hyeonjeong Lee. The prize is worth EUR 2,000.

The audience award, amounting to EUR 1,000, was won by Hyeonjeong Lee.

American-Japanese violinist Mayumi Kanagawa is 30 years old and is based in Berlin. She has performed with numerous ensembles, including the Mariinsky Theater Orchestra, the National Orchestra of Belgium, the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, the German Chamber Orchestra of the Bremen Philharmonic, the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, in repertoires that include works starting from Bach and reaching to Britten or Berg. Currently, she is the ambassador of the new Ribbon project, run by El Sistema Japan, which offers instruments and musical education to children in the foster care system.

Hyeonjeong Lee is currently studying with Sunny Lee at the Seoul Central Conservatory. She began studying the violin at the age of six and had her first recital at Yeongsan Yangjae Hall at the age of nine. She won the first prize in the Leonid Kogan International Competition for Young Violinists in 2022, where she was the youngest participant. The same year, she won the grand prize and a scholarship at the Rising Stars Grand Prix International Music Competition in Berlin. Recently, she performed with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra (2024), the Seoul Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra (2023), and the G.I.M.P.O. Philharmonic Orchestra (2021).

Wakana Kimura started playing the violin at the age of 4, and at the age of 16, she began taking lessons with Mauro Iurato in Italy. In 2018 and 2019 she participated in courses at the Forum Musikae International Academy in Madrid, the International Summer Academy at the Mozarteum University (2018), but also at the Orpheus International Music Academy (2017, 2019). Since 2021, she has been studying violin with Lothar Strauss and, from 2022, chamber music with Stefan Mendl at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. She won awards at the International Antonio Vivaldi Competition, the International Competition of the Forum Musikae Academy, the Premio Rodolfo Lipizer International Violin Competition, and the Stefanie Hohl Competition.

(Photos: Alex Damian, courtesy of Enescu Competition)

simona@romania-insider.com