International Violin Competition Henri Marteau

The International Violin Competition Henri Marteau (German: Internationaler Violinwettbewerb Henri Marteau) is a violin competition named after the famous violinist and violin teacher Henri Marteau. It is open to violinists of all nationalities aged under 25 and takes place every three years at Haus Marteau in Lichtenberg, Bavaria and at Freiheitshalle in Hof, Bavaria, Germany.

The 6th International Violin Competition Henri Marteau took place from April 24 to May 6, 2017.

The 125th birthday of the German-French violinist and composer Henri Marteau in 1999 inspired "Freundeskreis der Musikbegegnungsstätte Haus Marteau e. V." to initiate the competition and to hold it in 2002 and 2005. In 2007, the District of Upper Franconia under its president Günther Denzler took over the sponsorship. Since then the artistic and general coordination has been conferred to the orchestra Hofer Symphoniker. The competition became a member of the World Federation of International Music Competitions in 2012.

The goals of the competition are to encourage highly skilled young musicians aged under 25 on their way to an international career and to underline the importance of musical education for young people, and to enable the exchange between young talented musicians and renowned violinists and violin professors. The competition tries also to make the name and work of Henri Marteau better known.

The competition promotes young musicians by providing cash and non-cash awards and by providing a subsequent support program which includes scholarships, the procurement of concerts and a broadcast production with Bayerischer Rundfunk which is the media partner of the competition and an ideal platform for the performances of the young musicians through an intense media coverage.

Since 2011, the competition commissions works as required pieces for the participants. In 2011, renowned Turkish composer and pianist Fazıl Say created Cleopatra op. 34 for solo violin. For the 2014 competition, American composer Steven Mackey was commissioned; he created Repeated Notes for solo violin. For 2017, German/Danish composer Søren Nils Eichberg has written the piece Improvisation über einen Gedanken aus dem Violinkonzert von Henri Marteau for solo violin.

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