Result: An American outsider wins the Sibelius

The results are in:

I prize €25 000                   Christel Lee, USA

II prize €18 000                  Emmanuel Tjeknavorian, Austria

III prize €12 000                Friederike Starkloff, Germany

Three other finalists, Mayumi Kanagawa (USA), Minami Yoshida (Japan) and Nancy Zhou (USA) received a prize of €2000 each.

The finalists placed second and third started the last round as joint favourites.

Christel Lee, 25, studied with Kyung Wha Chung at Julliard, graduating four years ago. Of South Korean origin, she was born in the US and raised in Canada.

picture: Dorothee Falke

Other prizes:
The Foundation of Helsinki Conservatory of Music awarded a special prize of  €3000 to Emmanuel Tjeknavorian for the best interpretation of Sibelius Violin Concerto
City of Järvenpää awarded a special prize of €2000 to Friederike Starkloff for the best interpretation of commissioned piece in second round.  The commissioned piece was one of the award-winning pieces from Jean Sibelius Composition Competition 2015.
The best Finnish contestant Pekko Pulakka got the special prize from the Finnish Broadcasting Company Yleisradio; invitation to make a recording for Yle.