2012 Menuhin Competition Winners!

By Greg Olwell posted April 18, 2012

Two violinists from the United States took top honors at the Menuhin International Violin Competition, which took place April 6–15, including one who is the competition’s youngest-ever winner.

Concluding this past weekend in Beijing’s Central Conservatory of Music, the ten-day event culminated with 18-year-old Kenneth Arthur Renshaw taking top prize in the senior division and 11-year-old Kevin Zhu winning first prize in the junior division. Zhu is the youngest winner in the competition’s history. “I had goose bumps from beginning to end the last two days,” jury chair Pamela Frank told the competitors before announcing the prizewinners. “It’s not that you’re great for your age, you’re simply great. And the most important thing was that you’re all so unique,” she added. “Keep your youthful abandon, keep your joy, and keep developing your own unique voices, because they’re remarkable. The future is very secure in your hands.”

Both winners are students at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music prep program and study with violin instructor Li Lin.

President Wang Cizhao, head of the Central Conservatory of Music and the host committee in Beijing, is thrilled with the success of the event and hopes the Menuhin Competition will return to China in the future. Prizewinners and jurors celebrated with a closing gala concert and handover celebration attended by the US ambassador to Beijing and a number of guests from Austin, Texas, where the next Menuhin Competition is scheduled to be held in 2014.