The XIII International Jean Sibelius Violin Competition concluded in Helsinki, with South Korean violinist Sueye Park clinching the First Prize after three compelling final performances at the Helsinki Music Centre. The results were announced by jury chair John Storgårds on 29 May.
Final Results:
- 🥇 1st Prize: Sueye Park
- 🥈 2nd Prize: Minami Yoshida
- 🥉 3rd Prize: Claire Wells
In a historic first for the competition, finalists were required to perform two concertos: Jean Sibelius’s Violin Concerto in D minor, Op. 47, and a contemporary concerto composed between 1994 and 2015. Sueye Park showcased her versatility and technical prowess with performances of:
- Oliver Knussen’s Violin Concerto (2002) with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Dima Slobodeniouk.
- Jean Sibelius’s Violin Concerto (1905) with the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Pietari Inkinen.
Born in Seoul in 2000, Park began playing the violin at the age of four. By nine, she was studying under Ulf Wallin at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler in Berlin, later continuing her education with Clive Brown at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna.
Park has performed as a soloist and chamber musician across Europe, South Korea, Israel, Tunisia, and Indonesia, collaborating with esteemed artists such as Adrian Brendel, Yoel Levi, Osmo Vänskä, and Tatjana Masurenko. Her discography with BIS Records includes a debut recording of the 24 Paganini Caprices, the critically acclaimed Journey Through a Century—selected as “Recording of the Year” by Gramophone in 2021—and recent releases featuring Isang Yun’s Third Violin Concerto and the complete violin and piano works of Karol Szymanowski.
She performs on a 1753 Giovanni Battista Guadagnini violin (“ex-Hamma”), generously loaned by the Samsung Foundation of Culture.
The Sibelius Competition, held every five years since 1965, is one of the most prestigious events in the violin world. This year’s final round featured six finalists performing with both the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, under the batons of conductors Dima Slobodeniouk, Pietari Inkinen, and Geoffrey Paterson.
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