The three finalists of the 12th Joseph Joachim Violin Competition by the Stiftung Niedersachsen have been announced

Angela Chan (27, Hong Kong/China), Kyumin Park (27, South Korea) und Jacques Forestier (19, Canada) are the finalists of the 12th Joseph Joachim Violin Competition in Hanover. They will receive a prize money of 10,000 euros each for reaching the final and are allowed to call themselves “Laureate of the Joseph Joachim Violin Competition”. The three violinists advanced to the round of the best eight and convinced the international jury, chaired by soprano Juliane Banse, in two demanding semi-final concerts. In the final on 28 September 2024 in the Großer Sendesaal of the NDR Konzerthaus, they will now play alongside the NDR Radiophilharmonie under the baton of Stephan Zilias. They will present a concerto for violin and symphony orchestra and, as a soloist, the world premiere of this year's commissioned work for the competition, “Feder” by Enno Poppe. The jury will decide afterwards who will receive the “Joseph Joachim” main prize, worth 30,000 euros. The world-famous violinist Gidon Kremer will accompany the final concerts as an additional juror.

The schedule for the final concerts:

Final concert 1: Kyumin Park
14:00 to 15:15

Enno Poppe
Feder (WP) for Solo Violin

Ludwig van Beethoven
Violin Concerto in D major, op. 61

– 15-MINUTE INTERMISSION –

Final concert 2: Angela Chan
15:30 to 16:30

Enno Poppe
Feder (WP) for Solo Violin

Johannes Brahms
Violin Concerto in D major, op. 77

– 30-MINUTE INTERMISSION –

Final Concert 3: Jacques Forestier
17:00 to 17:50

Enno Poppe
Feder (WP) for Solo Violin

Antonín Dvořák
Violin Concerto in A minor, op. 53

– INTERMISSION UNTIL 20:00 –

Award ceremony
20:00 to 21:00

Tickets are available in advance at the ticket portal reservix.de and at all affiliated ticket shops, including the box office at the Künstlerhaus Hannover, or at the box office at the venue (from 13:00). The final concerts and the award ceremony can also be followed live at https://www.jjv-hannover.de/livestream and on the NDR Kultur website. On 29 September 2024, NDR Kultur will broadcast the live recording of all three concerts from 21:30 to midnight in the series ‘Podium der Jungen’.

In the concert series “Zu Gast in Niedersachsen” (The Competition across the State), the violin virtuosos Alexander Won-Ho Kim, Eunjoong Park, Louisa Staples, Alexandra Weissbecker and Xunyue Zhang who have not reached the final, can be heard in five parallel concerts throughout the state on 26 September 2024. The concert venues are the Museum Schloss Fürstenberg in Fürstenberg/Weser (Louisa Staples), the monastery church of St. Marienberg in Helmstedt (Eunjoong Park), the church of St. Bartholomew in Neuenkirchen (Alexander Won-Ho Kim), the Ruller Haus in Wallenhorst-Rulle (Alexandra Weissbecker) and the Schloss Gödens near Sande (Xunyue Zhang). Tickets are available from the local concert organisers.

Since 1991, the Stiftung Niedersachsen has been organising the Joseph Joachim Violin Competition, named after the famous violinist, composer and pedagogue Joseph Joachim, every three years. Antje Weithaas and Oliver Wille have been the artistic directors and hosts of the competition since 2019. With the competition, they are giving curious young violinists the chance to showcase their instrumental excellence and to courageously demonstrate their individuality. The Joseph Joachim Violin Competition is a member of the World Federation of International Music Competitions (WFIMC).

Dates and venues 2024
Joseph Joachim Violin Competition is being held from 16 to 28 September 2024 in Hanover/Germany. The preliminary and semi-final rounds took place at the “Richard Jakoby Saal” of the Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media. Concert venue of the final is the “Großer Sendesaal” of the “NDR Konzerthaus” in Hanover.

Tickets and livestream
Tickets for the Joseph Joachim Violin Competition are on advance sales via the ticket portal reservix.de and at all affiliated advance booking offices, including the advance booking office at the Künstlerhaus Hannover, or at the box office at the venue. All competition concerts will also be streamed live at www.jjv-hannover.de

Participants 2024
21 young violinists from nine countries travelled to Hanover for the Joseph Joachim Violin Competition. The participants are from South Korea, Japan, China, Germany, Hungary, the USA, Canada, Russia and the UK. Nine participants currently live and study in Europe, seven of them in Germany. The average age is 22. Two participants are only 16 years old, the oldest participant is 31 years old. Eight reached the semi-final rounds on 20 September 2024: Alexander Won-Ho Kim, Eunjoong Park, Alexandra Weissbecker, Louisa Staples, Kyumin Park, Angela Chan, Jacques Forestier und Xunyue Zhang. Three of them have reached the finale: Kyumin Park, Angela Chan and Jacques Forestier.

Competition jury
The jury of the 2024 competition consists of internationally renowned and distinguished personalities who bring very different perspectives and experiences from concert and musical life to their assessment: Soprano Juliane Banse chairs the jury and carry out the assessments together with violinists Lorenza Borrani, Feng Ning, Liza Ferschtman, András Keller (from the semi-final onwards), Gidon Kremer (final only) and Kathrin Rabus as well as violist Kim Kashkashian, pianist Alexander Lonquich (from the semi-final onwards) and conductor Stephan Zilias.

Prizes
The Joseph Joachim Violin Competition awards notable monetary prizes, which are provided by the Stiftung Niedersachsen. The main prize, the “Joseph Joachim”, is endowed with 30,000 euros. However, all three finalists will be honoured the title “Laureate of the Joseph Joachim Violin Competition” and receive a monetary prizes of 10,000 euros each for reaching the final. Other cash prizes include the 2,000 euro audience prize, the 5,000 euro prize for the best interpretation of the commissioned work and among the semi-finalists 3,000 euros for the best chamber music performance.
Additionally, there will be several prestigious non-monetary prizes: Warner Classics will select a participant to produce a debut album with, which will be internationally promoted and marketed. The G. Henle Verlag will provide vouchers for Ur-text sheet music editions, both in printed and digital form. Other non-cash prizes include the loan of the valuable Guadagnini violin from the Fritz Behrens Stiftung. karsten witt musik management GmbH will invite one participant to a kwmm Academy music management course, while the Kronberg Academy will welcome two young violinists to take part in its violin masterclass. In addition, more than 30 international concert invitations from major organisers and orchestras will be awarded to all participants from the semi-final onwards.

Artistic Directors: Antje Weithaas and Oliver Wille
Antje Weithaas, 1st prize winner of the first Joseph Joachim Violin Competition in 1991, has been the director since 2019. Today, she is one of the most internationally recognised violin virtuosos and a world-class violin teacher. As a soloist, Antje Weithaas works with the world's most renowned orchestras. As an inspiring play-lead of play-conduct projects, she was responsible for the musical profile of the Camerata Bern for almost ten years as its artistic director. Her CD recordings are reference recordings and have met enthusiastic reactions, such as the complete recording of Beethoven's violin sonatas with Dénes Várjon or the solo sonatas and partitas by Bach and Ysaÿe.
Oliver Wille continues the competition's close cooperation with the Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media (HMTMH). He has been a professor of string chamber music there since 2011 and leads an internationally successful quartet class, among other projects. Since 2021, he has been the university's Vice President and Commissioner for the Arts. As a founding member of the innovative, acclaimed Kuss Quartet, he has helped defining chamber music for more than 30 years. In addition to an international concert career, the Kuss Quartet has become known for its new concert formats. Oliver Wille has also been the artistic director of the Sommerliche Musiktage Hitzacker since 2015.

Partners
The Joseph Joachim Violin Competition brings together important institutions from Hanover and Lower Saxony's musical life. The Stiftung Niedersachsen cooperates with the Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media, the NDR Radiophilharmonie, the Fritz Behrens Stiftung, Warner Classics and the G. Henle publishing house, Kronberg Academy and karsten witt musik management GmbH. NDR Kultur is a cultural partner of the competition. In addition, more than 30 concert partnerships have been concluded with renowned festivals, orchestras and concert halls. The Violin Channel, The Strad and Amadeus TV will accompany the 2024 competition as media partners.

About Stiftung Niedersachsen
The Stiftung Niedersachsen has been committed to art, culture, science and education throughout the state since 1987. As a state cultural foundation, it strengthens the diversity of culture in Lower Saxony by supporting non-profit projects and helps to raise the profile of the cultural location. Each year, the foundation supports around 200 projects and is itself operationally active with funding programs.