Yehudi Menuhin International Competition for Young Violinists
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| Formation | 1983 |
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| Founder | Yehudi Menuhin |
| Purpose | Classical music competition |
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Artistic Director
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Gordon Back |
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President
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Joji Hattori |
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Patron
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Zamira Menuhin-Benthall |
| Website | menuhincompetition |
The Yehudi Menuhin International Competition for Young Violinists (or simply the Menuhin Competition) is an international music competition for violinists under the age of 22. It was founded by Yehudi Menuhin in 1983 with the goal of nurturing young violinists. In its early years, the competition took place in Folkestone on the south coast of England. Since 1998, it has been held biennially in different cities around the world. Several of the competition's past laureates, including Julia Fischer, Tasmin Little, and Nikolaj Znaider, have gone on to major international careers.
A member of the European Union of Music Competitions for Youth (EMCY), the Menuhin Competition runs every two years, each time in a different city with the support of local sponsors. Recent competitions have been live-streamed on the Internet.
The competition is open to violinists of any nationality under the age of 22. The competitors are pre-selected by video recording and compete in three rounds during the actual competition. There is a required repertoire, which is chosen by the competition's organizers. However, the competitors also play a virtuoso violin work of their own choice as part of the semi-finals. In the first round, each competitor is also given a four to eight bar phrase on which to improvise for three minutes.
In later years the required repertoire and the gala concerts have included new works especially commissioned for the competition or works closely associated with the host country. At the 2010 Oslo competition, the previously required works by Paganini were replaced with works by the Norwegian violinist and composer Ole Bull to mark the bicentenary of his birth. The 2008 competition in Cardiff saw the world premiere of Welsh composer Mervyn Burtch's Elegy for King Arthur. The 2014 Austin, Texas competition included two world premieres of Texas-themed works: Donald Grantham's Black-eyed Suzy and Dan Welcher's The Cowboy and the Rattlesnake. The three commissioned works premiered at the 2016 London competition were John Rutter's Visions, Roxanna Panufnik's Hora Bessarabia and Òscar Colomina Bosch's Shpigl.
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