All-Woman Final Set For 2018 Shanghai Isaac Stern International Violin Competition

On Friday, Shanghai Isaac Stern International Violin Competition (SISIVC) Organisers announced the 6 Finalists who will move on to the Final Round.

2018 SISIVC Finalists (in performance order):

• Nancy Zhou, United States (age 25)
• Yun Tang, China (age 26)
• Diana Tishchenko, Ukraine (age 28)
• Jia Yi Chen, China (age 22)
• Chang Yuan Ting, Canada (age 18)
• Olga Šroubková, Czech Republic (age 25)

Semi-Final Round Tested Contestants' Musical Understanding and Interpretation

The Semi-Final Round included diverse repertoire and consisted of three sections - the string quartet in which each of the 12 contestants performed the first movement of Haydn's String Quartet No. 2 in D minor, Op. 76 "Quinten" with members of the Shanghai Quartet (Violinist Yi-Wen Jiang, Violist Honggang Li, and Cellist Nicholas Tzavaras); one sonata and one Kreisler work in which each contestant performed with invited young collaborative pianists from the Shanghai Conservatory and Manhattan School of Music Zhen Chen, Yingjia Xue, and Qiuning Huang; and Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 5 in A Major, K. 219 with an originally-composed cadenza, performed with a chamber orchestra created from members of the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra and led by SSO conductor-in-residence Zhang Jiemin.

The 13 jury members for the Semi-Final round included: David Stern (co-chair), Vera Tsu Weiling (co-chair), Zakhar Bron, Martin Campbell-White, Guillaume Molko (replacing Augustin Dumay, who withdrew due to injury), Daniel Heifetz, Emmanuel Hondré, Sreten Krstic, Weigang Li, Siqing Lu, Dora Schwarzberg, Philip Setzer, and Lina Yu. The scoring sheet for all eliminated Quarter and Semi-Finalists is available to download here: http://shcompetition.com/en/Download.html

Two Concertos Loom Large for Final Round

Beginning on Thursday night, the 6 Finalists will perform two concertos with the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, led by conductor Michael Stern: Qigang Chen's new violin concerto La joie de la souffrance, and their choice of one other violin concerto (chosen in advance).

Final Schedule:

30 August: Concertos (19:00)

• Nancy Zhou - La joie de la souffrance, Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto
• Yun Tang - La joie de la souffrance, Dvo?ák Violin Concerto

31 August: Concertos (19:00)

• Diana Tishchenko - La joie de la souffrance, Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto
• Jia Yi Chen - La joie de la souffrance, Dvo?ák Violin Concerto

1 September: Concertos (19:00)

• Chang Yuan Ting - La joie de la souffrance, Brahms Violin Concerto
• Olga Šroubková - La joie de la souffrance, Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto

The winners will be announced following the 1 September sessions and after the jury has tabulated the scores (approximately 22:00).

For more information about the Shanghai Isaac Stern International Violin Competition (SISIVC), please visit: shcompetition.com/en

Watch all sessions live at the SISIVC YouTube page (https://bit.ly/2BII8G9) or on Amadeus.TV (http://shcompetition.amadeus.tv/)