Romania’s George Enescu Competition names winners of violin, piano sections

South Korean Yeon-Min Park (in opening photo) is the winner of the Piano Final of the 2020/2021 George Enescu Competition, held in Bucharest.

She was awarded the first prize following a performance of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor Op. 30. She was accompanied by the George Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by John Axelrod. She also received a Special Mention from the jury for the best interpretation of an Enescu sonata in the Semifinals.

Romanian Adela Liculescu came second, while Polish Marcin Wieczorek ranked third. Liculescu performed Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in B flat minor Op. 23. Wieczorek performed Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor Op. 11.

The Piano Section Jury was presided by Cristina Ortiz and included Dana Borsan, Hyoung-Joon Chang, Philippe Dinkel, Peter Jablonski, Andrei Pisarev, Roland Pöntinen, Josu de Solaun, and Zhe Tang.

The value of the prizes in the Piano Section totals EUR 30,000. The first prize amounts to EUR 15,000, the second prize to EUR 10,000 and the third is worth EUR 5,000.

In the Violin Section, Romanian Valentin Serban won the grand prize with a performance of Sibelius’ Violin Concerto in D minor Op. 47. He was accompanied by the George Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Wilson Hermanto.

Jaewon Wee from South Korea came second, and the third prize went to Tassilo Probst from Germany. The second-place winner performed Brahms’ Violin Concerto in D major Op.77, while Probst performed Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto in D major Op. 35.

The Violin Section Jury was presided by Dmitry Sitkovetsky and included Remus Azoitei, Koichiro Harada, Silvia Marcovici, Mihaela Martin, Igor Petrushevski, Eduard Schmieder, and Krzysztof Wegrzyn.

The value of the prizes in the Violin Section amounted to EUR 30,000. The first prize was worth EUR 15,000, the second prize EUR 10,000 and the third EUR 5,000.

(Photos Andrei Gandac, courtesy of the George Enescu Competition)