George Enescu Competition 2024: Mayumi Kanagawa wins violin final

U.S. violinist Mayumi Kanagawa(opening photo) has won the final of the violin section of this year’s George Enescu International Competition with a performance of Camille Saint-Saëns’s Concerto No. 3 in B minor for violin and orchestra op. 61. She was accompanied by the George Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Alan Buribayev.

South Korea’s Hyeonjeong Lee took the second place, and Japan’s Wakana Kimura the third in what was an all-female final.

Thirteen-year-old Hyeonjeong Lee performed Johannes Brahms’s Concerto in D major for violin and orchestra op. 77, while twenty-one-year-old Wakana Kimura performed Béla Bartók’s Concerto No. 2 for violin and orchestra Sz. 112.

The jury of the violin section included violinists Dmitry Sitkovetsky, also the president of the jury, Mihaela Martin, Liviu Prunaru, Silvia Marcovici, Shlomo Mintz, Boris Garlitsky, David Halen and managers Doug Sheldon and Benjamin Schwartz.

The first prize is worth EUR 15,000, the second prize EUR 10,000, and the third prize EUR 5,000. The winners are also offered the opportunity to perform in the 2025 and 2026 editions of the George Enescu International Festival and Competition, as well as in concerts organized during the philharmonic seasons in the country.

Three special prizes were also offered. The Stefan and Valentin Gheorghiu Award for the best performance of a Sonata by George Enescu, amounting to EUR 3,000, was won by Mayumi Kanagawa.

The prize for the best performance of the assigned work - B.A.C.H., Passacaglia for solo violin by Vlad Maistorovici - was won by Hyeonjeong Lee. The prize is worth EUR 2,000.

The audience award, amounting to EUR 1,000, was won by Hyeonjeong Lee.

American-Japanese violinist Mayumi Kanagawa is 30 years old and is based in Berlin. She has performed with numerous ensembles, including the Mariinsky Theater Orchestra, the National Orchestra of Belgium, the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, the German Chamber Orchestra of the Bremen Philharmonic, the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, in repertoires that include works starting from Bach and reaching to Britten or Berg. Currently, she is the ambassador of the new Ribbon project, run by El Sistema Japan, which offers instruments and musical education to children in the foster care system.