The inaugural Shanghai Isaac Stern International Violin Competition, with a $100,000 first prize, is feeling its way into the murky waters of international contests.

Among the 36 selected entrants, announced last night, are few names we recognise. One that leaps out is Sergei Dogadin, the Russian who won the 50,000 Euro first prize at the Joachim competition last October.

He did so without declaring that he had been a student of one of the judges, Boris Kushnir, who also failed to acknowledge the relationship. Dogadin had previously come second at the Tchaikovsky competition in Moscow.

Kushnir will be one of the judges at Shanghai.

That’s how the circuit works.

Here’s the list of 36 contestants, selected from their DVD entries.

Takamori Arai (Japan)

Yu-Ting Chen (Taiwan, China)

Alexandra Conunova (Romania)

Sergei Dogadin (Russia)

 

Elvin Ganiyev (Azerbaijan)

Fangyue He (China)

Sirena Huang (United States)

Petteri Iivonen (Finland)

Yoo Jin Jang (South Korea)

Yiliang Jiang (China)

Bomsori Kim (South Korea)

Gyehee Kim (South Korea)

Jee Won Kim (South Korea)

Mayu Kishima (Japan)

Alina Kobialka (United States)

Erzhan Kulibaev (Russia)

Zeyu Li (China)

Richard Lin (United States)

Fanglei Liu (China)

Ming Liu (China)

Kyung Ji Min (South Korea)

Raphaëlle Moreau (France)

Andrea Obiso (Italy)

Dongfang Ouyang (China)

Yoo Min Seo (South Korea)

Ji Won Song (South Korea)

Kristie Su (United States)

Yun Tang (China)

Stefan Tarara (Germany)

Boyang Tian (China)

Danbi Um (South Korea)

Xiao Wang (China)

Wendi Wang (China)

Jinru Zhang (China)

Yang Zhang (China)

Stephanie Zyzak (United States)