Prize winners

Prize winners 1991-2021

In addition to the placements, the Foundation of Lower Saxony also awards cash prizes for changing performances such as an audience award, a chamber music award or a special prize for the best interpretation of the commissioned work. Here you can find all prize winners of the last competitions.

Maria Ioudenitch

An American with a Russian heart and soul, Maria Ioudenitch was born in Balashov, Russia and grew up in Kansas City, where she studied with Ben Sayevich. She then continued her studies at the Curtis Institute of Music with Shmuel Ashkenasi and Pamela Frank, and the New England Conservatory with Miriam Fried.

Timothy Chooi

Timothy Chooi was born in Canada in 1993 and is currently earning his Master’s degree at the Juilliard School. This spring, he won the Schadt Violin Competition. He had already made a name for himself as an awardee of numerous competitions, among them the Michael Hill Violin Competition. This summer, he was awarded the ‘Prix Yves Paternot’ of the Verbier Festival Academy as ‘Most outstanding Young Musician’, earning him a performance in next year’s festival program.

Sergey Dogadin

Sergey Dogadin is the winner of ten international competitions, including the second prize (first prize not awarded) at the 2011 International Tchaikovsky Competition and the first prizes at the 2015 Joseph Joachim International Violin Competition Hanover and the 2018 Singapore International Violin Competition.
Since making his major debut in 2002 at the Saint Petersburg Philharmonia with the Saint Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra under Vasily Petrenko, Dogadin has performed with leading orchestras at world-renowned venues such as the Golden Hall of the ‘Musikverein’ in Vienna, Berlin Philharmonic Hall, the ‘Herkulessaal’ in Munich, ‘Concertgebouw’ in Amsterdam, ‘Suntory Hall’ in Tokyo, Symphony Hall in Shanghai, the ‘Auditorio Nacional’ in Madrid, the Zurich and Dusseldorf ‘Tonhalle’, and the Concert Hall of the Mariinsky Theatre.

Dami Kim

Highly praised Korean violinist Dami Kim is currently expanding her career on many stages around the world.
The recipient of a number of awards and honors, Kim has won the first prize in 2012 Joseph Joachim International Violin Competition in Hanover, Germany, where she received a G. B. Guadagnini for three years and a CD recording contract with Naxos. She is a laureate of both 2014 International Violin Competition of Indianapolis, USA where she received „Best Performance of Classical Concerto” and „Best Performance of Beethoven Sonata” Prizes.

Alexandra Conunova

Alexandra Conunova attracted public and critical acclaim when she won First Prize at the Joseph Joachim Violin Competition in Hanover in the autumn 2012. She was praised by the jury for her vivid tone and her highly virtuoso dramatic art and Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung wrote that she „shows with what radiance of tone she is able to endow her music-making. Her interpretations of Bach’s baroque dances are sometimes austere and yet wonderfully cantabile, at other times truly dance-like or – as in the Bourrée – with a high degree of virtuosity”.

Fumiaki Miura

Fumiaki Miura is not only the youngest ever winner of the Joseph Joachim Hannover International Violin Competition (2009) but also the one with the most prizes – having also been awarded both the Music Critics' and the Audience Prize. The young Japanese violinist is already proving himself to be one of the most accomplished of his generation.

Suyoen Kim

Suyoen Kim was born in Münster, Germany, to Korean parents in 1987. She started to learn the violin with Houssam Mayas when she was five. At the age of nine she switched to Professor Helge Slaatto at Musikhochschule Münster, being at the time the youngest junior student in Germany. She continued her studies there until graduating with a Diplom in June 2008. She then pursued postgraduate studies at the KronbergAcademy with Ana Chumachenco and under the Further Masters Studies program – for which she received funding from the Steigenberger/Rath Scholarship.

Nemanja Radulovic

Winner of „Best Violin Newcomer of the Year” at the 2015 Echo Klassik Awards, Serbian-French violinist Nemanja Radulović has taken the classical music world by storm in recent years through his combination of thrilling virtuosity, depth of expression, and adventurous programming. An exclusive recording artist to Deutsche Grammophon, Nemanja's most recent album features his long-awaited interpretations of the Tchaikovsky Concerto as well as a new arrangement of Tchaikovsky's Rococco Variations played on viola.

Frank Huang

Frank Huang joined the New York Philharmonic as Concertmaster, The Charles E. Culpeper Chair, in September 2015. As the First Prize Winner of the 2003 Walter W. Naumburg Foundation’s Violin Competition and the 2000 Hannover International Violin Competition, he has established a major career as a violin virtuoso.

Since performing with the Houston Symphony in a nationally broadcast concert at the age of 11 he has appeared with orchestras throughout the world including The Cleveland Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra.

Michiko Kamiya

Born in Japan, Michiko Kamiya started playing the violin at the age of five and studied with Koichiro Harada. After completing the soloist diploma course at Toho Gakuen School of Music, Kamiya studied with Dorothy DeLay and Masao Kawasaki at the Juilliard School and Gyorgy Pauk in London.

Robert Chen

Robert Chen has been concertmaster of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra since 1999. During his years as the CSO concertmaster, he has been featured as soloist with Riccardo Muti, Daniel Barenboim, Pierre Boulez, Bernard Haitink, Christoph Eschenbach, Charles Dutoit, Ton Koopman, Osmo Vänskä, Vasily Petrenko, Nicholas Kraemer and James Conlon. He gave the CSO premiere of György Ligeti’s Violin Concerto, Elliott Carter’s Violin Concerto, and Witold Lutoslawski’s Chain Two, as well as the world premiere of Augusta Read Thomas’s Astral Canticle.

Antje Weithaas

Brimful of energy, Antje Weithaas’ brings her compelling musical intelligence and technical mastery to every detail of the music. Her charisma and stage presence are captivating, but never overshadow the works themselves. She has a wide-ranging repertoire that includes the great concertos by Mozart, Beethoven and Schumann, new works such as Jörg Widmann’s Violin Concerto, modern classics by Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Ligeti and Gubaidulina, and lesser performed concertos by Hartmann and Schoeck.