Just one male left in Menuhin semi-finals
mainWe reported some concern when the Menuhin Competition selectors picked three times as many girl contestants as boys in a field of 22.
The result? One lone boy left among nine semi-finalists.
There is also only one UK entrant in the pack.
| Louisa | Staples | Female | 16 | UK |
| Do Gyung (Anna) | Im | Female | 18 | South Korea |
| Ziyu | He | Male | 16 | China |
| Ariel | Horowitz | Female | 19 | USA |
| Youjin | Lee | Female | 20 | South Korea |
| Yu-Ting | Chen | Female | 20 | Taiwan |
| Qing Yu | Chen | Female | 16 | USA |
| Jeein | Kim | Female | 20 | South Korea |
| SongHa | Choi | Female | 16 | South Korea |
Sounds like the boys had better start practicing.
Would people be saying this if there were just one female left, or would NL be talking about discrimination and the need to encourage women and change ingrained attitudes?
Also, four out of nine are from South Korea, a reasonably large country, but not the size of China or the US. Can there really be that many exceptionally talented violinists there or does this whole process reward highly disciplined products of a violin-playing factory line rather than the truly exceptional?
The secret violinist factory at Chongju indeed produces exceptionally talented young players, but what nodoby knows is that they are equipped with high tech implementated micro chips for expression (made in Japan) which makes them stand-out from the competition.
What’s your suggestion for the jury?
Violin competition…talk about antiquated.
Competition is for quantifiable results. I.e. A.C Milan beat F.C Barcelona. The only music competition I would pay to see would be the Naked violinist vs. any and all challengers.
The photograph seems to suggest Menuhin was already contemplating such possibility.