The 2016 Carl Nielsen International Violin Competition winners were announced late on Friday night. First prize was awarded jointly to 23 year old Ji Yoon Lee from South Korea and 25 year old Liya Petrova from Bulgaria and third prize was awarded to 25 year old Luke Hsu from the United States.
Nikolaj Znaider, President of the Jury commented: “We are delighted to award Ji Yoon Lee and Liya Petrova joint first prize. It was impossible for us to separate these two excellent violinists, equally deserving to win. The jury is convinced that both artists have exciting careers ahead of them. » Earlier, Znaider had said that personally he was not happy with the choice of the finalists. That may be the explanation for the decision to create a joint fourth prize which has been awarded to this year’s three semi-finalists: JI Won Song (23), Karen Kido (21) and Soo-Hyun Park (26).
Additional prizes were awarded as follows: Soo-Hyun Park (26) received ‘Best Danish Interpretation’ for the performance of a new work by composer Jesper Koch (2 000 euros), Ji Yoon Lee received both the ‘Odense Symphony Orchestra Prize’ (1 500 euros) and ‘Children’s Jury Prize’ (1 500 euros).
