Around the Music Festival

The final rounds of the International Violin Competition of Indianapolis took place on October 2 and 3, with 27-year-old Chinese-American Karisa Chiu winning the competition. Second place went to 25-year-old Korean-American Elli Choi, while 18-year-old Aozhe Zhang from China took third place.

The competition was established in 1982 under the artistic direction of Josef Gingold. Held every four years, it has launched the careers of violinists such as Leonidas Kavakos, Mihaela Martin, Kyoko Takezawa, and Frank Huang. In the final round, the six finalists performed Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Leonard Slatkin.

In addition to a cash prize of $75,000 (approximately 11.84 million yen), Chiu receives four years of career management and opportunities for international concert appearances, as well as a recording contract and the chance to give a recital at Carnegie Hall. She is also granted the loan of the competition-owned 1683 Stradivarius violin known as the “Ex-Gingold” until the next competition in 2030.

She began studying the violin at the age of two under her father, Cornelius Chiu—a violinist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra—and went on to attend the Curtis Institute of Music. She won the Isang Yun International Violin Competition in South Korea in 2021 and completed her master’s degree at the Cleveland Institute of Music in 2024.

PHOTO：International Violin Competition of Indianapolis　/　Denis Ryan Kelly Jr.


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