# International Violin Competition of Indianapolis

The International Violin Competition of Indianapolis (IVCI) is a classical violin competition which takes place once every four years in Indianapolis, Indiana. Since its founding in 1982, "The Indianapolis" has been regarded as the Olympics of the Violin, and dubbed "the ultimate violin contest" by the Chicago Tribune.

## History

Founded in 1982 under the artistic guidance of Josef Gingold and Founding Director Thomas J. Beczkiewicz, the IVCI became recognized by the World Federation of International Music Competitions and has been a member of that federation since 1984. Gingold, an esteemed professor of violin at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University in Bloomington, IN, had served on the juries of every major violin competition in the world and became the IVCI's Founding Artistic Director. In 1994, artistic leadership passed to one of his most well-known pupils, Jaime Laredo, who retains the title of Jury President to this day.
For the 11th Quadrennial Competition in September 2022, the prize for the Gold Medal winner included a cash prize of US$75,000, a Gold Medal, a recording contract, and a recital debut at Carnegie Hall. The Gold, Silver and bronze medalists receive career management for four years, and Laureates have the opportunity to use one of several instruments owned by the IVCI, including the 1683 "ex-Gingold" Stradivarius violin.
The 12th Quadrennial Competition will take place in September/October 2026.

## Competition

The competition is typically composed of four parts:
* Preliminaries (40 participants). The first round consists of a 45-minute recital, concentrating on J.S. Bach's Sonatas and partitas for solo violin, violin sonatas by Mozart, plus two of Paganini's 24 Caprices for Solo Violin or Paganiniana by Nathan Milstein, or H. W. Ernst's No. 6 from Six Polyphonic Etudes: Variations on The Last Rose of Summer, or one Paganini Caprice plus H. W. Ernst's Grand Caprice on Schubert's Der Erlkönig, Op. 26. Each participant must also perform one encore work.
* Semi-Finals (16 participants). Each participant performs a 75-minute recital consisting of any violin sonata by Beethoven, plus two additional works (typically with piano accompaniment). Each participant is given a list of over sixty works from which to choose. Included in this round is a compulsory work, commissioned specifically for each Competition.
* Classical Finals (6 participants). Each Finalist performs a violin concerto by Mozart or Haydn, plus an encore work by Fritz Kreisler, arranged by Jaakko Kuusisto (1994 IVCI Laureate), performed with a chamber orchestra.
* Finals (6 participants). Each Finalist performs one of 20 major violin concertos with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra.

## Commissioned Works

| Year | Work Title | Composer |
| 1982 | Improvvisazione | Joonas Kokkonen |
| 1986 | For Solo Violin | Leon Kirchner |
| 1990 | Rhapsody and Prayer | Georges Rochberg |
| 1994 | Subito | Witold Lutoslawski |
| 1998 | Autumn Music | Ned Rorem |
| 2002 | As Night Falls on Barjeantane | Richard Danielpour |
| 2006 | A Night at the Chinese Opera | Bright Sheng |
| 2010 | String Force | Joan Tower |
| 2014 | Fantasy for Solo Violin | Ellen Taaffe Zwilich |
| 2018 | Suite No. 3 for Solo Violin | William Bolcom |
| 2022 | Incontro | John Harbison |

## Past Winners (Laureates)

| Year | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Fourth | Fifth | Sixth |
| 2022 | Sirena Huang | Julian Rhee | Minami Yoshida | Claire Wells | SooBeen Lee | Joshua Brown [wikidata] |
| 2018 | / Richard Lin | Risa Hokamura | Luke Hsu | Anna Lee | Ioana Cristina Goicea | / Shannon Lee |
| 2014 | Jinjoo Cho | Tessa Lark | Ji Young Lim | Dami Kim | Yoo Jin Jang | Ji Yoon Lee |
| 2010 | / Clara-Jumi Kang | Soyoung Yoon | Benjamin Beilman | Haoming Xie | Antal Szalai | Andrey Baranov |
| 2006 | Augustin Hadelich | Simone Lamsma | Celeste Golden | Yura Lee | Ye-Eun Choi | Bella Hristova |
| 2002 | Barnabás Kelemen | Sergey Khachatryan | Soovin Kim | Frank Huang | Susie Park | Alina Pogostkina |
| 1998 | Judith Ingolfsson | Liviu Prunaru | Ju-Young Baek | Svetlin Roussev | Andrew Haveron | Bin Huang |
| 1994 | Juliette Kang | Stefan Milenkovich | David Chan | Jaakko Kuusisto | Michiko Kamiya | Robin Sharp |
| 1990 | Pavel Berman | Marco Rizzi | Ivan Chan | Virginie Robilliard | David Kim | Martin Beaver |
| 1986 | Kyoko Takezawa | Leonidas Kavakos | Andrés Cárdenes | Chin Kim | Sungsic Yang | Annick Roussin |
| 1982 | Mihaela Martin | Ida Kavafian | Yuval Yaron | Olivier Charlier | Nai-Yuan Hu | Yuriko Naganuma |
From the competition website.

## Jury Members

| Year | Jury President | Jury Members |
| 1982 | Josef Gingold | Michael Colgrass, Miriam Fried, Franco Gulli, Irving Kolodin, Jaime Laredo, Raymond Gallois Montbrun, Igor Ozim, Henry Roth, Hidetaro Suzuki, Zvi Zeitlin |
| 1986 | Josef Gingold | Henryk Szeryng (Vice President), Michèle Auclair, Dorothy DeLay, Ilona Fehér, Stefan Gheorghiu, Franco Gulli, Yfrah Neaman, Igor Ozim, Ruggerio Ricci, Hidetaro Suzuki |
| 1990 | Josef Gingold | Dorothy DeLay, Pavel Kogan, Joonas Kokkonen, Mihaela Martin*, Elmar Oliveira, Igor Ozim, Aaron Rosand, Josef Suk, Hidetaro Suzuki, Tibor Varga |
| 1994 | Jaime Laredo | Pierre Amoyal, Tuomas Haapanen, Ida Kavafian*, Cho-Liang Lin, Igor Oistrakh, Igor Ozim, György Pauk, Hidetaro Suzuki |
| 1998 | Jaime Laredo | Pierre Amoyal, Franco Gulli, Ida Kavafian*, Young Uck Kim, Malcolm Lowe, Igor Oistrakh, Ruggiero Ricci, Kyoko Takezawa* |
| 2002 | Jaime Laredo | Olivier Charlier*, Tuomas Haapanen, Ida Kavafian*, Mikhail Kopelman, Cho-Liang Lin, Malcolm Lowe, György Pauk, Kyoko Takezawa* |
| 2006 | Jaime Laredo | Pierre Amoyal, Pamela Frank, Rodney Friend, Cho-Liang Lin, Malcolm Lowe, Igor Oistrakh†, Joel Smirnoff, Kyoko Takezawa* |
| 2010 | Jaime Laredo | Pamela Frank, Rodney Friend, Yuzuko Horigome, Jean-Jacques Kantorow, Boris Kuschnir, Cho-Liang Lin, Mihaela Martin*, Joel Smirnoff |
| 2014 | Jaime Laredo | Miriam Fried, Dong-Suk Kang, Boris Kuschnir, Cho-Liang Lin, Philip Setzer, Dmitry Sitkovetsky, Kyoko Takezawa*, Ellen Taaffe Zwilich |
| 2018 | Jaime Laredo | Pamela Frank, Rodney Friend, Dong-Suk Kang, Cho-Liang Lin, Mihaela Martin*, Dmitri Sitkovetski, Arnold Steinhardt, Kyoko Takezawa* |
| 2022 | Jaime Laredo | Noah Bendix-Balgley, Ivan Chan, Jinjoo Cho*, Yuzuko Horigome, Dong-Suk Kang, Cho-Liang Lin, Mihaela Martin*, Liviu Prunaru |
* IVCI Laureate
†Unable to attend

## Juried Exhibition of Student Art (JESA)

Source:
The Juried Exhibition of Student Art (JESA) is one of the most far-reaching multi-disciplinary art projects for grades one through twelve in the state of Indiana. Held in conjunction with the Quadrennial International Violin Competition of Indianapolis, the 2022 JESA involved over 21,000 school children and 151 art teachers across 57 counties across the state. JESA is one of the few programs that awards a cash prize to each school or sponsoring organization of the Grand Award Winners as well as to the students. The IVCI awarded $18,000 in prizes to outstanding artists and their schools or sponsoring organizations in 2022.
The program was designed to affirm the highest standards of visual arts; to encourage the pursuit of visual arts as a career; to help integrate the disciplines of the performing and the visual arts; to increase community support for the arts; and to heighten student awareness of the IVCI and its cultural importance to the entire state.
New for 2026, JESA will be expanded and held in the state of Ohio for the very first time. Rules and regulations for both states will be posted when available so check this site for the latest information.