The Paganini Competition (also known as the Premio Paganini or Paganini Concorso Internazionale di Violino) is an international violin competition named after the famed virtuoso Niccolò Paganini, considered the founder of modern violin technique. Established in 1954, it is currently held biennially at the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa, Italy, typically in September or October.
The Premio Paganini is one of the most important violin competitions. Following a pre-selection stage, the contest consists of three rounds: preliminaries, semi-finals, and finals. The required repertoire includes works for solo violin, violin and piano accompaniment, and violin with orchestra, featuring compositions by Niccolò Paganini and a contemporary work commissioned by the competition. Performers may also include works by other composers in their programs.
History The Paganini Competition was established in 1954 in Genoa as part of the city’s Colombian Celebrations, following a proposal first made in 1940 by music critic Carlo Marcello Rietmann. The initiative, delayed by World War II, was realized under Councillor for Fine Arts Lazzaro Maria De Bernardis and composer Luigi Cortese, who served as the first Artistic Director.
Originally held at the Niccolò Paganini Conservatory, the competition later moved to the Teatro Margherita to accommodate larger audiences and, since 1992, has taken place at the Teatro Carlo Felice. It gained international recognition early on and became a founding member of the World Federation of International Music Competitions in 1957.
Over time the competition has undergone several structural changes: it shifted from an annual to a biennial event, introduced open preliminary rounds in the 1980s, and later added international pre-selections in cities such as Genoa, New York, Vienna and Tokyo. Since 2004, contemporary works have been commissioned for competition performance, and the organizational role has been shared with the Fondazione Teatro Carlo Felice.
Eligibility Participants of all nationalities may participate, provided they are at least 15 by the applicant deadline and no older than 31 years of age through the duration of the competition.
Competition
The competition was held annually between 1954 and 2001. Since then, its frequency has varied, including a five-year hiatus between 2010 and 2015. Under current rules, it is scheduled to take place every two years.
Preliminaries: Preliminary repertoire includes two selections for solo violin or violin and piano accompaniment, and two of Niccolò Paganini’s Caprices, Op. 1.
Semi-Finals: Candidates perform three or four works for solo violin or violin and piano, including one virtuosic piece by Paganini and one contemporary composition.
Finals: Candidates perform two works with orchestra, one of which must be by Paganini. These may be complete concertos or selected movements.
Jury The international jury consists of seven to nine members, who are usually violinists but sometimes conductors, composers, and other musicians.
In February 2018, prior to that year's competition, chairman Fabio Luisi resigned in protest at what he described as external interference in the jury selection process by city cultural official Elisa Serafini.
Awards The first prize, known as the Premio Paganini, is not necessarily awarded each edition. The winner is given the opportunity to perform on Paganini’s 1743 Il Cannone violin by Guarneri 'del Gesù', and may receive concert and recording engagements. Joint winners are no longer awarded.
Six musicians place, though occasionally seven have been awarded prizes. Since 1989, special distinctions and prizes may also be granted by external institutions or donors.
Special awards Prize in memory of Dr. Enrico Costa: Offered by the Costa Family to the youngest participant admitted to the Final. Prize in memory of Renato De Barbieri: Offered by the Government of the Province of Genoa to one of the finalists for the best interpretation of Paganini’s Capricci within the Preliminary and Semifinal Stages. Prize of the Association Amici di Paganini: Offered by the Association for the finest performance of the Paganini Concerto. Prize in memory of Mario Ruminelli: Offered by the Ruminelli Family to the best placed finalist Friends of the Nuovo Carlo Felice Association prize: Offered for the best performance of the commissioned work.
Winners
Year Winner Country 1954 1955 1956 György Pauk Gérard Poulet 1957 1958 Salvatore Accardo 1959 Stuart Canin 1960 1961 Emil Kamilarov 1962 Maryvonne Le Dizès 1963 Oleh Krysa 1964 Jean-Jacques Kantorow 1965 Viktor Pikaizen 1966 1967 Grigori Zhislin 1968 Miriam Fried 1969 Gidon Kremer 1970 1971 Mose Sekler 1972 Eugene Fodor 1973 Alexander Kramarov 1974 1975 Yuri Korchinski 1976 Lenuţa Ciulei 1977 Ilya Grubert 1978 Eugen Sârbu 1979 Florin Paul 1980 1981 Ilya Kaler 1982 1983 1984 1985 Dmitri Berlinsky 1986 1987 Lu Siqing 1988 Leonidas Kavakos 1989 1990 Natalia Prischepenko 1991 Massimo Quarta 1992 Julia Krasko 1993 Isabelle Faust 1994 Bin Huang 1995 1996 Soovin Kim 1997 Giovanni Angeleri 1998 Ilya Gringolts 1999 Sayaka Shoji 2000 Natalia Lomeiko / 2001 Mariusz Patyra 2002 Mengla Huang 2004 2006 Feng Ning 2008 2010 2015 In Mo Yang 2018 Kevin Zhu 2021 Giuseppe Gibboni 2023 Simon Zhu 2025 Aozhe Zhang
Breakdown of winners and finalists by nationality
+Winners by nationality 8 5 5 4 4 4 3 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
+Finalists by nationality 45 37 27 25 20 13 12 12 10 9 8 7 7 3 3 3 3 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
Highest number of prizes held Prize winners with a minimum of three prizes, including special prizes and prizes across multiple editions, are listed here.
Giovanni Angeleri (Italy) - 7 prizes Eijin Nimura (Japan) - 5 prizes Yuki Manuela Janke (Germania/Japan) - 4 prizes Jean-Pierre Wallez (France) - 4 prizes In Mo Yang (South Korea) - 4 prizes Kevin Zhu (US) - 4 prizes Ilya Gringolts (Russia) - 3 prizes Mengla Huang (China) - 3 prizes Stephanie Jeong (US) - 3 prizes Dami Kim (South Korea) - 3 prizes Feng Ning (China) - 3 prizes Mariusz Patyra (Poland) - 3 prizes Gabriele Pieranunzi (Italy) - 3 prizes Sayaka Shoji (Japan) - 3 prizes Reiko Watanabe (Japan) - 3 prizes Hyun Seo Kim (South Korea) - 3 prizes
Past prize-winners I Edition - 1954 Not awarded
II Edition - 1955 1st Prize: Not awarded 2nd Prize: Not awarded 3rd Prize: Luciano Vicari (Italy) 4th Prize: Liliane Beretti (France) and (Netherlands)
III Edition - 1956 1st Prize: György Pauk (Hungary) and Gérard Poulet (France) 2nd Prize: Not awarded 3rd Prize: Not awarded 4th Prize: Carmencita Lozada (Philippines), Luciano Vicari (Italy) and Jean-Pierre Wallez (France)
IV Edition - 1957 1st Prize: Not awarded 2nd Prize: Salvatore Accardo (Italy) and Pierre Doukan (France) 4th Prize: Jean-Pierre Wallez (France) 5th Prize: Not awarded
V Edition - 1958 1st Prize: Salvatore Accardo (Italy) 2nd Prize: Jean-Pierre Wallez (France)
VI Edition - 1959 1st Prize: Stuart Canin (US) 2nd Prize: Saschko Gawriloff (Germany) 3rd Prize: Liliane Caillon (France) 4th Prize: Catherine Courtois (France) 5th Prize: Eleonora Dell'Aquila (Italy) 6th Prize: Johannes Brüning (Germany)
VII Edition - 1960 1st Prize: Not awarded 2nd Prize: Jean-Pierre Wallez (France) and Yossi Zivoni (Israel) 4th Prize: Gigino Maestri (Italy) 6th Prize: Josef Sivo (Austria)
VIII Edition - 1961 1st Prize: (Bulgaria) 2nd Prize: Elaine Skorodin (US) and Carmencita Lozada (Philippines) 4th Prize: Bice Antonioni (Italy) and Paulette Bedin (France)
IX Edition - 1962 1st Prize: Maryvonne Le Dizès (France) 2nd Prize: Etsuko Hirose (Japan) 3rd Prize: Liliane Caillon (France) 4th Prize: Marilyn Dubow (US)
X Edition - 1963 1st Prize: Oleh Krysa (USSR) 2nd Prize: Valentin Zuk (USSR) 3rd Prize: Shizuko Ishii (Japan) 4th Prize: Paul Zukofsky (US) 5th Prize: Diana Cummings (Great Britain) 6th Prize: Igor Politkovsky (USSR)
XI Edition - 1964 1st Prize: Jean-Jacques Kantorow (France) 2nd Prize: Pierre Amoyal (France) and Yoko Kubo (Japan) 4th Prize: Hisako Tokue (Japan) and Tomotada Soh (Japan) 6th Prize: Antoine Goulard (France)
XII Edition - 1965 1st Prize: Viktor Pikaizen (USSR) 2nd Prize: Philippe Hirschhorn (USSR) 3rd Prize: Andrei Korsakov (USSR) 4th Prize: Yoko Kubo (Japan) 5th Prize: Elisabeth Balmas (France), Joshua Epstein (Israel) and Jacques Israelievitch (France)
XIII Edition - 1966 1st Prize: Not awarded 2nd Prize: Robert Menga (US) 3rd Prize: Isako Shinozaki (Japan) 5th Prize: Nicolai Marangosof (Bulgaria) and Kineko Okumura (Japan)
XIV Edition - 1967 1st Prize: Grigori Zhislin (USSR) 2nd Prize: Vladimir Spivakov (USSR) 3rd Prize: Patrice Fontanarosa (France) 4th Prize: Petar Delcev (Bulgaria) 5th Prize: Sergio Diacenko (USSR) 6th Prize: Mikhail Gantwarg (USSR)
XV Edition - 1968 1st Prize: Miriam Fried (Israel) 2nd Prize: Hamao Fujiwara (Japan) 3rd Prize: Gabriella Ijac (Romania) 4th Prize: Petar Delcev (Bulgaria) 5th Prize: Masako Yanagita (Japan) 6th Prize: Emmanuel Krivine (France)
XVI Edition - 1969 1st Prize: Gidon Kremer (USSR) 2nd Prize: Kathleen Lenski (US) 3rd Prize: Joshua Epstein (Israel) 4th Prize: Isidora Schwarzberg (USSR) 5th Prize: Sergey Kravchenko (USSR) 6th Prize: Josef Rissin (USSR) 7th Prize: Adam Korniszewski (Poland)
XVII Edition - 1970 1st Prize: Not awarded 2nd Prize: Mintcho Mintchev (Bulgaria) 3rd Prize: Thomas Goldschmidt Egel (Germany) and Michał Grabarczyk (Poland) 5th Prize: Adam Korniszewski (Poland) 6th Prize: Keiko Wataya (Japan)
XVIII Edition - 1971 1st Prize: Mose Sekler (USSR) 2nd Prize: Bogodar Kotorovych (USSR) 3rd Prize: Roswitha Randacher (Austria) 4th Prize: Tadeusz Gadzina (Poland) 5th Prize: Elvira Nakipbecova (USSR) 6th Prize: Maria Balint (Hungary)
XIX Edition - 1972 1st Prize: Eugene Fodor (US) 2nd Prize: Yoko Sato (Japan) 3rd Prize: Gerardo Ribeiro (Portugal) 4th Prize: Georgi Tilev (Bulgaria) 5th Prize: Teresa Glabowna (Poland)
XX Edition - 1973 1st Prize: Alexander Kramarov (USSR) 2nd Prize: Yuval Yaron (Israel) 3rd Prize: Vania Milanova (Bulgaria) 4th Prize: Sungil Lee (Korea) 5th Prize: Giuliano Carmignola (Italy) and Stefan Stalanowski (Poland)
XXI Edition - 1974 1st Prize: Not awarded 2nd Prize: Lynn Chang (US) and Eugen Sârbu (Romania) 4th Prize: Rasma Lielmane (Mexico) 5th Prize: Josif Rissin (Israel) 6th Prize: Jean-Claude Velin (France) 7th Prize: Marie-France Pouillot (France)
XXII Edition - 1975 1st Prize: Yuri Korchinski (USSR) 2nd Prize: Petru Csaba (Romania) 6th Prize: Mark Fornaciari (Italy) and Anna Aleksandra Wodka (Poland)
XXIII Edition - 1976 1st Prize: Lenuța Ciulei (Romania) 2nd Prize: Karen Eley (US) 3rd Prize: (Romania) 4th Prize: Fudeko Takahashi (Japan) 5th Prize: Joanna Madroszkiewicz (Poland)
XXIV Edition - 1977 1st Prize: Ilya Grubert (USSR) 2nd Prize: Sachiko Nakajima (Japan) 3rd Prize: Yumi Mohri (Japan) 4th Prize: Edward Zienkowski (Poland) 5th Prize: Alexey Bruni (USSR) 6th Prize: Ola Rudner (Sweden)
XXV Edition - 1978 1st Prize: Eugen Sârbu (Romania) 2nd Prize: Karen Eley (US) and Piotr Milewski (Poland) 4th Prize: Takashi Shimitzu (Japan) 5th Prize: Berthilde Dufour (France) 6th Prize: Daniel Stabrawa (Poland)
XXVI Edition - 1979 1st Prize: Florin Paul (Romania) 2nd Prize: Yuriko Naganuma (Japan) 3rd Prize: Alexis Galpérine (France) 4th Prize: Mariko Senju (Japan) 5th Prize: Rodolfo Bonucci (Italy)
XXVII Edition - 1980 1st Prize: Not awarded 2nd Prize: Niculae Tudor (Romania) 3rd Prize: Sonig Tchakerian (Italy) 4th Prize: Eduard Wulfson (USSR) 5th Prize: Mitsuko Ishii (Japan) 6th Prize: Daniel Stabrawa (Poland) and Walter Bertrand (France)
XXVIII Edition - 1981 1st Prize: Ilja Kaler (USSR) 2nd Prize: Leonid Sorokov (USSR) 3rd Prize: Frank Almond (US) 4th Prize: Kuniko Nagata (Japan) 5th Prize: Mircea Călin (Romania)