Author Archives: aodessa
Harald Schoneweg (Germany)
Chairman of the Jury
Marc Bouchkov (Belgium)
Soyoung Yoon (South Korea)
Andrii Murza (Ukraine)
Founder and artistic director
Mario Hossen (Austria–Bulgaria)
Aleksey Semenenko (Germany-Ukraine)
Co-organizer and artistic director
Rūta Lipinaitytė (Lithuania)
Zohrab Tadevosyan (Spain-Armenia)
Doug Sheldon (USA)
Christiane von Velsen (Germany)
Initiator and Honorary Jury member
The competition is supported by the mayor of Odessa, Department of Culture of Odesa City Council and Odesa Special Stolyarsky Music School.
The competition is open to the violinists from all countries.
The age of contestants of junior category should not exceed 16 years old, and senior – 23 years old, at the time of opening the competition (June 14, 2018).
The application must be submitted via the competition website www.odesacompetition.com by 31 March 2018.
The first selection round will be held on the basis of the video recordings of contestants, among which jury members will choose 12 candidates from each age group to participate in live audition of the second round.
Live auditions will be held in the Great Hall of the Stolyarsky School.
The awarding ceremony and gala concert of laureates will be held on June 17th in the Great Hall of the Stolyarsky School.
The Jury: Andrej Bielow, Stanislav Pronin, Bogdana Pivnenko, Alexey Semenenko, Andrey Murza.
3 prizes in each age group will be awarded according to the results of the Odessa International Violin Competition.
Prises are:
Junior group
I prize – 10.000 UAH.
II Prize – 5.000 UAH.
III prize – 3.000 UAH.
Senior group
I prize – 20.000 UAH.
II Prize – 10.000 UAH.
III prize – 5.000 UAH.
The special prizes from the partners of the competition will be awarded as well: German publishing house «Bärenreiter», German manufacturer of strings and accessories «Pirastro», Swiss association «Legato» and Ukrainian musical resource «Moderato».
Odessa International Violin Competition opens a new page in the cultural life of the city that can rightfully be considered the capital of the violin performing arts of Ukraine.
Right there in Odessa in 1933, the Special Music School for gifted children was founded by professor Peter Stolyarsky who brought up a generation of outstanding violinists of the 20th century, among which are David Oistrakh and Nathan Milstein. The Stolyarsky School became a factory of talents discovering new names, whose performances captivate audience at the best venues of the world.
The competition is open to young violinists from all countries, and provides an opportunity to receive worldwide recognition and a ticket to a great creative life from the homeland of musicians whose names are written in gold in the world history of classical music.
Goals of the competition are: development of international cultural connections, popularization of Ukrainian musical culture, strengthening of international reputation of Odessa as one of the centres of musical art, support and preservation of traditions of the Odessa violin school.
General conditions
1. The Monheimer Kulturwerke is organizing the 3rd Odesa International Violin Competition (hereinafter called the Competition) In the period from 17th to 24th August 2025.
2. Due to Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine the Competition cannot be held in Odesa (Ukraine) and will take place in Monheim am Rhein (Germany).
3. The Competition organization strongly condemns Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine and expects all registered competitors to share this view.
4. By registering for the Competition, the competitors declare their agreement with these regulations.
5. If there are reasonable grounds to suspect that a competitor is not complying with the regulations, the Competition committee may exclude the competitor from the competition.
Terms of participation
1. The competition is open to violinists representing a professional level of performance between 18 and 30 years old (who are aged at least 18 y/o on 17 August 2025 and have not yet reached the age of 31 y/o on 24 August 2025).
2. Laureates of the 1st Prize of previous Competitions are not allowed to participate in this Сompetition.
Application
1. Application will be available from 1 April 2025 via www.muv.ac
2. Candidates wishing to participate in the Competition have to submit an application form with all required documents, video recordings of the Preliminary round and a non-refundable application fee of €100 by 25 May 2025 at the latest.
3. Formal approval takes place automatically once a candidate’s complete application form has been submitted. Candidates will receive an email confirming the formal approval of their application.
4. If a candidate encounters technical problems during the application or/and did not receive the formal approval of their application, the candidate must inform the Competition secretariat about the problem as soon as possible by sending an email to: info@odesacompetition.com
Pianists and orchestra
1. Candidates may play with pianists provided by the Competition, having no more than two hours of rehearsal time before the Second round.
2. Candidates can also bring their own pianist at their own expense.
3. Each of the candidates will have one rehearsal with the Orchestra.
4. The rehearsal time of the candidates with the Orchestra will be divided in proportion considering the duration of the chosen concerto.
Jury
1. The Jury are designed from international renowned musicians the majority of whose represent countries other than the country in which the competition is held.
2. Members of the jury may not vote for a candidate with whom they have or have had a close connection (kinship or private relationships) or who is, or has been, one of their students.
3. The vote of the jury chairman, with the same number of points, is casting.
4. It is forbidden to have contact with any of the Jury members during the competition. After the announcement of the results, those candidates who did not qualify to the next round are welcome to ask the Jury for their comments.
5. The Jury reserves the right not to award all prizes, but also to split prizes between competitors (except the first prize).
6. The decisions of the Jury are final and incontestable.
Media rights
1. The organisers of the Competition reserve a right to: publicize the participant’s image in materials related to the candidates (including articles and reviews in the social media); the recordings of the competition performances made by any audio, video, digital or other means of recording; radio, online, TV broadcasts or other publicity of the participant’s image, including commercial usage of such recordings, without any payment to the participants.