In mid-May, violinist Augustin Hadelich prepared to embark on a whirlwind tour of Europe, flying from New York to Germany to perform the Brahms Violin Concerto with the Würzburger Philharmoniker before heading to Newcastle and then on to Helsinki, for a performance of Mozart’s Concerto No. 5 with renowned conductor Miguel Harth-Bedoya. The already exhausting junket was complicated further by the fact that Hadelich was slated to fly Icelandair with a layover in Reykjavik, where travel remained at a standstill because of the lingering volcanic ash cloud. Having played on several continents in the past four years, 26-year-old Hadelich has become a well-seasoned traveler. So, unfazed, he re-routed his trip via London and arrived in Germany, jetlagged, but ready to play.

Hadelich’s dizzying performance schedule is a testament to his talent. The New York Times raved: “[Hadelich] plays with dazzling technique, a gorgeous tone, and penetrating, spontaneous musicality.” And Hadelich’s rise to fame has been buoyed by his 2006 victory at the prestigious International Violin Competition of Indianapolis.

“It really got things going for me,” Hadelich says. “Suddenly with this competition people heard my name for the first time.”

In September, the music community will be hearing the name of another young gifted violinist when the IVCI, often referred to as the “Olympics of the violin world” because it is held every four years and boasts considerable prestige, crowns another laureate. For 17 days, violinists aged 16 to 29 will compete over four intensive rounds. The program is “designed to test the breadth of their musicianship,” IVCI executive director Glen Kwok says.

When the late, great violinist Josef Gingold founded the IVCI in 1982, he wanted to create an event in the United States that would match the caliber of the prestigious European competitions on whose juries he’d served. Today, the Indianapolis, as it is fondly known, is the only North American violin competition recognized by the World Federation of International Music Competitions and has become one of the most respected in the world, having helped launch the careers of Kyoko Takezawa, Leonidas Kavakos, and now Hadelich.

“Your winners show the success of a competition,” Kwok says. “If you can show that your winners can go on to successful careers, [it] shows they have tremendous talents.”

After each competition, the organizers help the winners maximize that potential by providing career support. “One of the main reasons we don’t do a competition annually is that it allows us to cultivate the beginnings of their careers,” Kwok adds.

During the four years of their “reign,” the top six participants are booked for engagements around the world, including a solo recital at Carnegie Hall. The Josef Gingold Gold Medal recipient also receives funding for a CD. But Kwok says the financial awards pale in significance to the career management benefits. “All the cash prizes in the world won’t launch a career for someone,” he says. “It’s the concerts that allow them to learn repertoire.”

Kwok is particularly proud of the success the competition has brought to Hadelich. “His career has blossomed so beautifully.”

Celebrated violinist Jaime Laredo, the IVCI’s jury president, adds: “I’m sure [Hadelich] would have achieved tremendous success anyway, but it saved him a lot of time.”

Becoming the Next Hadelich

In hopes of joining the pantheon of Indianapolis laureates, 165 violinists from 23 countries applied for the 2010 competition. Each hopeful submitted an audition DVD, which included a daunting amount of music—performances of one Paganini caprice, two contrasting movements of solo Bach, and the first movement of a concerto from the competition’s finals list. “It’s quite a lot of material,” Kwok says. “But that allows us to judge not only their technical ability, but their musicianship.”

The task for the judges wasn’t easy. “The process was so painful,” Laredo says. “We could easily have taken a hundred [candidates]. To narrow it down to 40 was brutal—a lot of sleepless nights.”

Once selected, those 40 have an even more taxing feat before them as they practice for the intense competition. Although only six competitors make it to the finals, all of the participants must be prepared to play in each round, amounting to over three hours of music, including unaccompanied Bach, a violin-piano Beethoven sonata, several show pieces, and a work by contemporary composer Joan Tower, which has been commissioned expressly for the IVCI.

Hadelich spent much of his pre-Indianapolis training selecting what to play. “I had to seriously prepare for it, maybe for half a year,” he says. “The most essential thing is just to figure out the strongest pieces for me, what repertoire I’m best at. Bartók is one of my favorite composers, and I felt I would be comfortable with it on stage,” he says, referring to the solo sonata that earned him praise in 2006.

When they arrive in Indianapolis, participants are “treated like royalty,” Laredo says. “It’s amazing how many people in the city are paying attention and listening to it on the radio.”

Reminiscent of the actual Olympic sports games, there is an opening night ceremony at which participants and judges parade through the streets behind the flags of their home countries. After these festivities, the focus becomes more serious; participants begin to rehearse with pianists and prepare for the first round of competition.

These preliminary days are particularly stressful, Hadelich recalls. “When I started my first round, I was extremely nervous,” he says. “The kind of nervousness I’d had in auditions, but never in concert. I tried to find ways not to go entirely crazy. I was able to distract myself by watching tennis.”

The IVCI’s organizers are well aware of how anxious the young musicians can get and do what they can to help combat nerves. They refer to the musicians as “participants” instead of “competitors,” place them in comfortable host family settings, and schedule breaks between performances. This empathy also goes into the selection of judges, who are all active performers.

“[They] understand very well what the participants are going through when they’re playing onstage if the participants have a memory slip or something,” Kwok says. “It’s very different from an ice skating competition when you’re judging and making deductions off of errors. We’re not looking for errors. We’re looking for complete artistic performance.”

Though the judges are hard-pressed to pinpoint precisely what makes for a gold medalist, they know it when they see it. “They’re all different,” Laredo says. “None of them sound alike, and I’m very, very proud of that. Most important is: do I want to hear this person again?”

When Hadelich took the stage in 2006, Laredo immediately had that response. “When he put the bow on the string, something just spoke to me,” Laredo recalls. “Something really, really special was happening here, and I thought, I can’t wait to hear this guy again.”

The organizers feel certain that this year’s competition will bring additional talent to the laureate pool and will offer a chance to see more wonderful performances.

“We try so hard to make them feel that they’re there to make music,” Laredo says. “It has become a festival of the violin.”