To the finale
Ji Won Song, Suyeon Kang, Xiang Yu and Nigel Armstrong are the four senior finalists in this year’s Menuhin Competition.
 In front Nigel Armstrong (US). Behind from left: Ji Won Song (Korea), Xiang Yu (China) and Suyeon Kang (Australia), |
Nine competitors performed in the Senior semi finals on Thursday, and in the early evening the jury announced the results of who will going forward to the Finals at the Oslo Opera House on Saturday 24 April.
The level of playing was very high and choosing only four finalists was not an easy task for the jury.
“You all played really fantastically well” said jury chairman Erich Gruenberg when he announced the finalists.
The jury was very impressed by the way the semi finalists played Arne Nordheim. It even inspired the president of The Menuhin Competition Trust, Mr. Joji Hattori, to award a special prize of 5000 Norwegian crowns to the best performance of Nordheim’s Partita fuer Paul.
Mr. Gruenberg was in no doubt that even though not all nine of the competitors made it to the finals, they can all look forward to great careers as musicians.
Stating also that the standard of the competitors seemed to rise from competition to competition, he encouraged the musicians to search as much for the spirit in music as for the technique.
