Karisa Chiu wins Indianapolis International Violin Competition

The 27-year-old American violinist receives the $75,000 gold medal, with Elli Choi taking silver and Aozhe Zhang bronze.

American violinist Karisa Chiu has won the gold medal at the 2026 International Violin Competition of Indianapolis. The results were announced on 3 October following the orchestral finals, in which she performed Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra conducted by Leonard Slatkin.

Chiu, 27, receives $75,000. Fellow American Elli Choi, 25, won the silver medal and $30,000, while China’s Aozhe Zhang, 18, took bronze and $15,000.

Support beyond the prize

The top three medallists receive four years of career management and international concert engagements. The gold-medal package also includes a recording contract and a Carnegie Hall recital opportunity.

Laureates can borrow instruments from the competition’s collection until its next edition in 2030, with the available instruments including the 1683 “ex-Gingold” Stradivari.

An established competition

Founded in 1982 under Josef Gingold’s artistic leadership, Indianapolis takes place every four years and is a member of the World Federation of International Music Competitions. Its past laureates include Leonidas Kavakos, Mihaela Martin, Kyoko Takezawa and Frank Huang.

Chiu previously won the 2021 Isangyun Violin Competition in South Korea. She earned her bachelor’s degree at the Curtis Institute of Music and completed a master’s degree at the Cleveland Institute of Music in 2024.

She began learning the violin at two with her father, Cornelius Chiu, a violinist in the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.