The International Johann Sebastian Bach Competition 2018 has announced its three winners. The competition, which ran from 11-21 July, covers piano, harpsichord and violin.
In the piano strand, Rachel Naomi Kudo from the US took first place, which comes with €10,000 in all three disciplines. Second place went to Arash Rokni (Iran), while Jonathan Ferrucci (Australia/Italy) finished third.
In harpsichord, first prize went to Israel’s Avinoam Shalev, with Andrew Rosenblum (US) in second and Anastasia Antonova (Russia) in third. For violin, Polish player Maria Włoszczowska was the winner, with Maia Cabeza (US/Canada) and Hed Yaron Meyerson (Germany/Israel) in second and third respectively.
“The incredible standard of participants, from the first audition to the final, was very impressive,” said competition president Robert Levin. “The jury was faced with the challenging task of not only judging the candidates’ technical skills, but also their ability to deal with the depth of Bach’s musical language and its spiritual eloquence.”
The next edition of the competition runs from 13-25 July 2020.
