Lone male wins Montreal

Lone male wins Montreal

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norman lebrecht

June 06, 2019

The US violinist Hao Zhu, who was declared winner last night of the triennial Concours Musical International de Montréal, has got what it takes to impress a jury.

Zhu, 22, is a past winner of the American String Teachers Association National Solo Competition and, with the Viano String Quartet, of the 2018 Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition.

In Montréal he also won the audience prize. He was the only male among six finalists.

Full results:
First prize (C$30,000): Hao Zhou, 22, USA
Second (C$15,000): Johanna Pichlmair, 29, Austria
Third: (C$10,000): Fumika Mohri, 25, Japan/Germany

 

Comments

  • John Rook says:

    Are we still trying to make this a gender issue? Please, for everyone’s sake, stop.

  • Bill says:

    Is the fact that the winner was the lone male finalist interesting to anyone other than Norman? Give my post a thumbs-up if you think that is important, and a thumbs-down if not. Surely we’ve all seen or heard fine violinists of both sexes by now…

    • Karl says:

      Cho-Liang Lin was talking about that subject in a pre-concert talk. He noted how the violinists in the NY Philharmonic are mainly Asian women and how they should rename the orchestra the Asia philharmonic.

  • Karl says:

    Yeah men! I voted for him ( as an audience member). That Shostakovitch 1st is a real powerhouse concerto.

  • fflambeau says:

    Some other interesting tidbits:

    “Zhou is a student at the Colburn Conservatory of Music, CA, US, where his teacher is Martin Beaver, the Canadian former first violinist of the Tokyo String Quartet.”

    “Zarin Metha, former president and executive director of the New York Philharmonic, chaired a jury comprising Pierre Amoyal, Kim Kashkashian, Borish Kuschnir, Cho-Liang Lin, Mihaela Martin, Barry Shiffman, Dmitry Sitkovetsky and Pavel Vernikov.”

    Congratulations!

    Source: https://www.thestrad.com/news/hao-zhou-wins-montreal-violin-competition/9068.article

  • Fiddlist says:

    Again, why do you post about Montreal competition but not Michael Hill? The MHIVC has a larger first prize, and a list of past laureates headlined by Feng Ning.

    You are the musical Ikea – NZ does not exist for you?

    • Peter L. says:

      This time he is not interested in the nasty game of this competition. What a coincidence! Some of the most brilliant and young players, the Japanese Coco Tomita, the Polish Olga S. and the very young Spanish lady Maria Duenas were left out in the first round leaving free field to students from North American Universities. The same rotten game America vs. Europe???

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