2014 Menuhin Competition Comes to US
In 2014, the prestigious Yehudi Menuhin International Violin Competition will be held in North America for the first time in its 29-year history.
The Menuhin Trust has selected the Butler School of Music at the University of Texas at Austin to host the competition’s first North American appearance. The decision to host the competition in the United States is due, in part, to the fact that more and more competitors and prize winners have come from America, including 2008 junior division first-prize winner Chad Hoopes. The senior division winner that year was Ray Chen.
“We are very excited that the Butler School of Music at the University of Texas–Austin has the vision and creativity to stage this unique music event,” noted Gordon Back, artistic director of the Menuhin Competition, which is based in the United Kingdom. The timing of the competition coincides with 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,” school director Glenn Chandler noted in a prepared statement. “The Butler School and the Menuhin Competition share a common goal of cultural exchange in education.”
Past winners of the Menuhin Competition have gone on to major international careers, including Nikolaj Znaider and Julia Fischer. To date, 23 of the prize winners have been from the United States.
The competition is open to violinists under the age of 22.
Accepted applicants vie for cash prizes, scholarships, concert engagements and the loan of fine violins. The competition is the only one of its kind, combining competition rounds with a 10-day festival of performances by and master classes with jurors. Past jurors have included such distinguished violinists as Maxim Vengerov, Pamela Frank, and Miriam Fried.
Violinist Yehudi Menuhin was one of the 20th century's most celebrated violinists. He founded the Menuhin Competition in 1983 with the goal of enabling young violinists from all over the world to study in an environment rich with cultural exchange. Menuhin established the Yehudi Menuhin School in England in 1963 and the Menuhin Festival in Gstaad, Switzerland, in 1957.
