Romanian Valentin Serban wins 1st Prize at George Enescu International Violin Competition

Romanian violinist Valentin Serban won the First Prize of the George Enescu International Music Competition - Violin section, having performed in the final Jan Sibelius' Violin Concerto in D minor, Op. 47, accompanied by the George Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra led by well-known conductor Wilson Hermanto. The second and third prize category winners were South Korea's Jaewon Wee and Tassilo Probst from Germany, the organizers of the event said. The Violin Jury, chaired by Dmitry Sitkovetsky, included Remus Azoitei, Koichiro Harada, Silvia Marcovici, Mihaela Martin, Igor Petrushevski, Eduard Schmieder and Krzysztof Wegrzyn. The judging was done in a hybrid system, with six members of the panel watching the performances of the semifinalists live, at the Romanian Athenaeum in Bucharest, and two joining in via online streaming. 31-year old Valentin Serban obtained his bachelor's degree at the Transilvania University of Brasov and took masterclass courses at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Graz, under the guidance of Silvia Marcovici. He has performed in Romania, France, Germany, Austria and Italy. Serban has been a member of the Les Dissonances Orchestra in Paris since 2018 and a guest concertmaster of the Romanian Youth Orchestra. The winner of the First Prize of the George Enescu 2021 International Music Competition takes home 15,000 euros and also has the opportunity to perform on the stage of the Enescu Festival, along with some of the most important orchestras in the world; other special awards and opportunities for international promotion add in. The second prize is 10,000 euros and the third prize - 5,000 euros. Also, the organizers of the 2021 iPalpiti Festival of International Laureats offered finalists Tassilo Probst and Jaewon Wee the chance to participate in this large-scale event, with the travel costs being fully covered by the organizers. The special Kronberg Academy Award went to the youngest finalist in the Violin section, 19-year-old Tassilo Probst. The winners of the first prizes in the three sections of the Competition - violin, piano and cello, will perform as special guests in a concert at the prestigious Musikverein Hall in Vienna on October 15, 2021, together with the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra under the baton of maestro Yalchin Adigezalov. The prize is offered by IMK, courtesy of Igor Petrushevski, a member of the jury. A 4,000-euro special prize was offered to Alberto Ferro, as the best piano accompanist in George Enescu's sonatas for piano and violin; Ferro accompanied Giuseppe Cardaropoli (Italy) in the semifinals. South Korean cellist Jaemin Han won the grand prize in the Cello section of the George Enescu International Competition, with Dmitri Shostakovich's Cello Concerto No.1 in E flat major performed together with the George Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Nicolas Altstaedt. 25-year-old German cellist Sebastian Fritsch won the second prize, and the third prize went to Romanian Stefan Cazacu, 27. Because of the COVID pandemic, the first two rounds of the 2020 George Enescu International Music Competition took place online between August 29 and September 20, 2020, and saw the participation of 205 young musicians. AGERPRES (RO - author: Daniel Popescu, editor: Antonia Nita; EN - author: Simona Klodnischi, editor: Simona Iacob)