International Violin Competition of Indianapolis

The International Violin Competition of Indianapolis (IVCI) is a classical violin competition which takes place once every four years in Indianapolis, Indiana. Since its founding in 1982, "The Indianapolis" has been regarded as the Olympics of the Violin, and dubbed "the ultimate violin contest" by the Chicago Tribune.

History

Founded in 1982 under the artistic guidance of Josef Gingold and Founding Director Thomas J. Beczkiewicz, the IVCI became recognized by the World Federation of International Music Competitions and has been a member of that federation since 1984. Gingold, an esteemed professor of violin at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University in Bloomington, IN, had served on the juries of every major violin competition in the world and became the IVCI's Founding Artistic Director. In 1994, artistic leadership passed to one of his most well-known pupils, Jaime Laredo, who retains the title of Jury President to this day.

For the 11th Quadrennial Competition in September 2022, the prize for the Gold Medal winner included a cash prize of US$75,000, a gold medal, a recording contract, and a recital debut at Carnegie Hall. The Gold, Silver and bronze medalists receive career management for four years, and Laureates have the opportunity to use one of several instruments owned by the IVCI, including the 1683 "ex-Gingold" Stradivarius violin.

The 12th Quadrennial Competition will take place in September/October 2026.

Competition

The competition is typically composed of four parts:

Preliminaries (40 participants). The first round consists of a 45-minute recital, concentrating on J.S. Bach's Sonatas and partitas for solo violin, violin sonatas by Mozart, plus two of Paganini's 24 Caprices for Solo Violin or Paganiniana by Nathan Milstein, or H. W. Ernst's No. 6 from Six Polyphonic Etudes: Variations on The Last Rose of Summer, or one Paganini Caprice plus H. W. Ernst's Grand Caprice on Schubert's Der Erlkönig, Op. 26. Each participant must also perform one encore work. Semi-Finals (16 participants). Each participant performs a 75-minute recital consisting of any violin sonata by Beethoven, plus two additional works (typically with piano accompaniment). Each participant is given a list of over sixty works from which to choose. Included in this round is a compulsory work, commissioned specifically for each Competition. Classical Finals (6 participants). Each Finalist performs a violin concerto by Mozart or Haydn, plus an encore work by Fritz Kreisler, arranged by Jaakko Kuusisto (1994 IVCI Laureate), performed with a chamber orchestra. Finals (6 participants). Each Finalist performs one of 20 major violin concertos with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra.

Commissioned works +YearWork TitleComposer1982ImprovvisazioneJoonas Kokkonen1986For Solo ViolinLeon Kirchner1990Rhapsody and PrayerGeorges Rochberg1994SubitoWitold Lutoslawski1998 Autumn MusicNed Rorem2002As Night Falls on BarjeantaneRichard Danielpour2006A Night at the Chinese OperaBright Sheng2010String ForceJoan Tower2014Fantasy for Solo ViolinEllen Taaffe Zwilich2018Suite No. 3 for Solo ViolinWilliam Bolcom2022IncontroJohn Harbison

Past winners (laureates)

Year Gold Silver Bronze Fourth Fifth Sixth2022Sirena HuangJulian RheeMinami YoshidaClaire WellsSooBeen Lee2018IVCI Winners Announced. International Violin Competition of Indianapolis. Retrieved 2018-09-16./ Richard Lin Risa Hokamura Luke Hsu Anna Lee Ioana Cristina Goicea/ Shannon Lee2014 Jinjoo Cho Tessa Lark Ji Young Lim Dami Kim Yoo Jin Jang Ji Yoon Lee2010/ Clara-Jumi Kang Soyoung Yoon Benjamin Beilman Haoming Xie Antal Szalai Andrey Baranov2006 Augustin Hadelich Simone Lamsma Celeste Golden Yura Lee Ye-Eun Choi Bella Hristova2002 Barnabás Kelemen Sergey Khachatryan Soovin Kim Frank Huang Susie Park Alina Pogostkina1998 Judith Ingolfsson Liviu Prunaru Ju-Young Baek Svetlin Roussev Andrew Haveron Bin Huang1994 Juliette Kang Stefan Milenkovich David Chan Jaakko Kuusisto Michiko Kamiya Robin Sharp1990 Pavel Berman Marco Rizzi Ivan Chan Virginie Robilliard David Kim Martin Beaver1986 Kyoko Takezawa Leonidas Kavakos Andrés Cárdenes Chin Kim Sungsic Yang Annick Roussin1982 Mihaela Martin Ida Kavafian Yuval Yaron Olivier Charlier Nai-Yuan Hu Yuriko Naganuma

From the competition website.

Jury members +YearJury PresidentJury Members1982Josef GingoldMichael Colgrass, Miriam Fried, Franco Gulli, Irving Kolodin, Jaime Laredo, Raymond Gallois Montbrun, Igor Ozim, Henry Roth, Hidetaro Suzuki, Zvi Zeitlin1986Josef GingoldHenryk Szeryng (Vice President), Michèle Auclair, Dorothy DeLay, Ilona Fehér, Stefan Gheorghiu, Franco Gulli, Yfrah Neaman, Igor Ozim, Ruggerio Ricci, Hidetaro Suzuki1990Josef GingoldDorothy DeLay, Pavel Kogan, Joonas Kokkonen, Mihaela Martin*, Elmar Oliveira, Igor Ozim, Aaron Rosand, Josef Suk, Hidetaro Suzuki, Tibor Varga1994Jaime LaredoPierre Amoyal, Tuomas Haapanen, Ida Kavafian*, Cho-Liang Lin, Igor Oistrakh, Igor Ozim, György Pauk, Hidetaro Suzuki1998Jaime LaredoPierre Amoyal, Franco Gulli, Ida Kavafian*, Young Uck Kim, Malcolm Lowe, Igor Oistrakh, Ruggiero Ricci, Kyoko Takezawa*2002Jaime LaredoOlivier Charlier*, Tuomas Haapanen, Ida Kavafian*, Mikhail Kopelman, Cho-Liang Lin, Malcolm Lowe, György Pauk, Kyoko Takezawa*2006Jaime LaredoPierre Amoyal, Pamela Frank, Rodney Friend, Cho-Liang Lin, Malcolm Lowe, Igor Oistrakh†, Joel Smirnoff, Kyoko Takezawa*2010Jaime LaredoPamela Frank, Rodney Friend, Yuzuko Horigome, Jean-Jacques Kantorow, Boris Kuschnir, Cho-Liang Lin, Mihaela Martin*, Joel Smirnoff2014Jaime LaredoMiriam Fried, Dong-Suk Kang, Boris Kuschnir, Cho-Liang Lin, Philip Setzer, Dmitry Sitkovetsky, Kyoko Takezawa*, Ellen Taaffe Zwilich2018Jaime LaredoPamela Frank, Rodney Friend, Dong-Suk Kang, Cho-Liang Lin, Mihaela Martin*, Dmitri Sitkovetski, Arnold Steinhardt, Kyoko Takezawa*2022Jaime LaredoNoah Bendix-Balgley, Ivan Chan, Jinjoo Cho*, Yuzuko Horigome, Dong-Suk Kang, Cho-Liang Lin, Mihaela Martin*, Liviu Prunaru * IVCI Laureate

†Unable to attend

Juried Exhibition of Student Art (JESA)

Source:

The Juried Exhibition of Student Art (JESA) is one of the most far-reaching multi-disciplinary art projects for grades one through twelve in the state of Indiana. Held in conjunction with the Quadrennial International Violin Competition of Indianapolis, the 2022 JESA involved over 21,000 school children and 151 art teachers across 57 counties across the state. JESA is one of the few programs that awards a cash prize to each school or sponsoring organization of the Grand Award Winners as well as to the students. The IVCI awarded $18,000 in prizes to outstanding artists and their schools or sponsoring organizations in 2022.

The program was designed to affirm the highest standards of visual arts; to encourage the pursuit of visual arts as a career; to help integrate the disciplines of the performing and the visual arts; to increase community support for the arts; and to heighten student awareness of the IVCI and its cultural importance to the entire state.

New for 2026, JESA will be expanded and held in the state of Ohio for the very first time. Rules and regulations for both states will be posted when available so check this site for the latest information.

See also List of attractions and events in Indianapolis

References

External links Official Competition Website