Only two Koreans, two Finns in Sibelius semis

Unusually for a major tournament these days, the 20 semi-finalists of the Sibelius violin competition in Helsinki include just two contenders from the Asian talent hothouse. There are also two local favourites.

Our observers have been impressed in the early stages by  Friederike Starkloff, 25, who earlier this year became concertmaster of the NDR Radiophilharmonie in Hannover.

Full list, in alphabetical order:

Sarah Christian, Germany
Sara Etelävuori, Finland
Anna Göckel, France
Mayumi Kanagawa, USA
Bomsori Kim, South Korea
Christel Lee, USA
Kerson Leong, Canada
Zeyu Victor Li, China
Richard Lin, USA, Taiwan
Kyung Ji Min, South Korea
Pekko Pulakka, Finland
Fedor Rudin, France
Friederike Starkloff, Germany
Elly Suh, USA
Stephen Tavani, USA
Diana Tishchenko, Ukraine
Emmanuel Tjeknavorian, Austria
Xiao Wang, China
Minami Yoshida, Japan
Nancy Zhou USA