In 2021, Dmytro Udovychenko, born in Kharkiv in 1999, was the last violinist who won 1st prize at the Odesa International Violin Competition. The early-accomplished virtuoso was already a junior student at the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen at the age of fourteen, where he later studied with Prof. Boris Garlitsky. Udovychenko is a multiple prizewinner of national and international competitions, including the Folkwang Prize 2022, the International Violin Competition in Singapore and the XII. International Jean Sibelius Violin Competition in Helsinki, Finland. Udovychenko is the current winner of the prestigious Queen Elisabeth Competition 2024 in Belgium. This comes with the opportunity to play on the valuable „Higgins“ Stradivarius from 1708, which is on loan from the Nippon Music Foundation for four years. Today, Udovychenko is one of the leading violinist of his generation.