Latest News

The Cleveland Orchestra is announced to perform at the Closing Gala Concert of the Menuhin Competition Austin 2014. It is one of the most sought-after performing ensembles in the world and will be performing at the Long Center for the Performing Arts on 2 March 2014. The concert with acclaimed German soloist and jury member Arabella Steinbacher and both 1st Prize winners of the competition will be the first performance of the orchestra in Austin since 1976.

It is thanks to a generous donation from Robert F. Smith, Chairman and CEO of Vista Equity Partners, that the Butler School of Music and the Menuhin Competition were able to bring the orchestra to Austin. Gordon Back, Artistic Director of The Menuhin Competition says: “We are thrilled to have the Cleveland, a world-class orchestra, as part of the festivities for the 2014 competition. Performing with the Cleveland Orchestra will be an amazing opportunity for our prize winners and an inspiration for all our young musicians.” Read full press release

Tickets will go on sale in June this year.

________________________________________________________________

The Menuhin Competition Austin 2014 is now open for applications and we are thrilled to introduce a jury including three former winners and six performers who are on the jury for the first time. Former competition prize winners on the jury are Joji Hattori, LU Siqing and Ilya Gringolts. As with every competition, all jury members will feature in masterclasses and concerts.The jury is chaired by American violinist Pamela Frank.

Glenn Richter, Interim Director of Butler School of Music said: “With nine celebrated performing jury members, and 42 top young violinists performing in Austin, Texas’ state capitol, the eyes of the classical music world, Texas, and America will be on this competition.” Read full press release

________________________________________________________________

On Saturday 9th February Kenneth Renshaw - first prize and EMCY Prize winner of the Menuhin Competition Beijing 2012 – will perform Saint-Saëns’ Concerto for violin and orchestra No. 3 in B minor with the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Jorge Uliarte. This concert is a co-operation between the Lithuanian National Philharmonic Society and the European Union of Music Competitions for Youth, EMCY.

Kenneth Renshaw also won First Prize, the Mozart Concerto Prize, and the Sonata Prize at the 6th International Louis Spohr Competition for Young Violinists in Weimar, Germany in 2010.

________________________________________________________________

1st Prize Junior winner of the Menuhin Competition Oslo 2010, Kerson Leong has just performed Mozart Violin Concerto 4 in the Quirinale Palace for the Italian President Giorgio Napolitano. Kerson was the soloist with the Vienna Chamber Orchestra at their Christmas concert in Rome.

Kerson says about his concert: "I had the most amazing experience playing for the president of Italy at the Quirinale Palace with the Vienna Chamber Orchestra. The orchestra was amazing and it was a great inspiration to perform with such a world class ensemble." He only found out an hour before the performance that the concert was broadcasted worldwide on radio, much to the delight of his father who was able to listen to it live in Canada.

________________________________________________________________

Kenneth Renshaw has been invited by the Peking Sinfonietta to return to China. He will perform Felix Mendelssohn's violin concerto in E Minor at Beijing Concert on 27 October. The concert also features Benjamin Britten's Spring Symphony and Eric Coates' London again Suite. The evening is supported by the UK Now Festival and the British Council.

Winning the competition has also secured a number of engagements in Europe next year. Kenneth will play with the Lithuanian Philharmonic in Vilnius next February. In the summer has been invited to both the Menuhin Festival and the Mecklenburg Vorpommern Music Festival.

As part of his Menuhin Competition prize, Kenneth currently plays on a Gasparao Lorenzini violin on loan from Christophe Landon.

________________________________________________________________

Ariel Horowitz was awarded the "Stuart Holland Memorial Award" in recognition of her accomplishments while studying at Morningside Music Bridge program in Calgary, Alberta, Canada this summer. "The Stuart Holland Memorial Scholarships are given out annually to a select few students who are deemed by our faculty to have the strongest contribution to the overall success of the program and have worked the hardest to take advantage of the many musical opportunities found in the program" says Paul Dornian, Director, Mount Royal Conservatory.

Congratulations Ariel!

________________________________________________________________

Past and present winners of the Menuhin Competition are performing at a number of international festivals this summer. Taiga Tojo (3rd Prize Junior 2012) has played with Henning Kraggerud at the Opening Concert of the Northern Norway Festival at the end of June. Callum Smart (5th Prize Junior 2010) will play at the Menuhin Festival Gstaad on 4 August. Kerson Leong (1st Prize Junior 2010) will play at the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Music Festival on 16 August and Chad Hoopes (1st Prize Junior 2008) will receive his audience award at the same festival on 18 August

________________________________________________________________

Current and future hosts of the Menuhin Competition met at the Closing Gala of this year's Menuhin Competition in Beijing. President Wang Cizhao from the Central Conservatory of Music was joined by Cui Tiankai, Vice Foreign Minister of Foreign Affairs of China and other Chinese officials to celebrate the success of this year's Competition.

The US Ambassador to China, Gary Locke was joined by a delegation from Austin, Texas including the Butler School's Director Glenn Chandler and the Music Officer of the Governor of Texas, Casey Monahan to take over "the bow" for 2014 from this year's hosts.

The celebrations were also attended by the Trustees of the Menuhin Competition including Yehudi Menuhin's daughter Zamira Menuhin-Benthall and several of Menuhin's grandsons.

Photo: Competition President Joji Hattori with US Ambassador Gary Locke

________________________________________________________________

Audiences in the completely filled Beijing Concert Hall welcomed every finalist with wild applause, and after each concerto they clapped, yelled and whooped with wild abandon. After countless hours spent in practice rooms, what can be more thrilling for talented youth than to travel to a foreign country, play with a foreign orchestra, and bring down a foreign house?

Before announcing the results, jury chair Pamela Frank stressed that music cannot be judged. “I am begging you not to let results or opinions of others define you; you are not defined by numbers, you are artists. The musical world is a better place with you all in it.”

The Prize Winners of the Senior Division of the Menuhin Competition Beijing are:

1st Prize - Kenneth Arthur Renshaw (USA) 18 years
2nd Prize - Ji Eun Anna Lee (Korea) 16 years
3rd Prize - Alexi Kenney (USA) 18 years
4th Prize - Siyan Guo (China) 20 years

Kenneth Arthur Renshaw took his victory the way Menuhin intended. “I’m very surprised,” he said. “Of course, although winning is an unbelievable result, I was just so happy to participate in this competition, because it was such a warm and inviting learning experience for everyone,” he continued. “I was just glad I could be a part of it.”

________________________________________________________________

We are thrilled to announce that the Menuhin Competition has been invited by the Butler School of Music (BSOM) at The University of Texas at Austin. It will be held in the USA for the first time from 21 February to 2 March in 2014.

“I am absolutely delighted that the next competition will be held in the country in which Yehudi Menuhin was born” said Gordon Back, Artistic Director.

2014 also marks the Butler School of Music’s centennial. “Hosting the Menuhin Competition’s first North American appearance is testament to the Butler School of Music’s rising prominence, not only in this country but around the world,” says BSOM Director Glenn Chandler. “The Butler School and the Menuhin Competition share a common goal of cultural exchange in education.”

__________________________________________________________________