No first prize has been awarded at the Tibor Varga International Violin Competition in Sion, Switzerland. But two tied laureates, Stella Chen (USA) and Saki Tozawa (Japan), won Second Prize of this year’s 100 percent female final round.
The international jury was chaired by Enzo Restagno and composed of Lera Auerbach, Miguel Da Silva, Esther Hoppe, Dong-suk Kang, Silvia Marcovici and Pavel Vernikov
Stella Chen began her studies at the Juilliard School of Music (class of Itzhak Perlman), before completing this course with a Master in Violin Perfomance obtained in 2016 at the Conservatory of New England. At the same conservatory, Stella is currently doing her PhD in « musical arts » under the supervision of Donald Weilerstein and Sylvia Rosenberg. The young violinist is a regular in the competitions, having already – among other things – obtained the 4th prize of the 2008 Menuhin competition and the first prize of the LA Philharmonic Bronislaw Kaper Awards.
Violinist Saki Tozawa begins the violin at the age of six, with his mother, before studying in the class of Nobuko Yasui. She quickly won numerous prizes, first in Japan (Grand Prize of the competition of Kanagawa, first prize of the contest of violin of Osaka) and then on the international scale. Currently a student at the Tokyo University of Arts, Saki follows the teachings of Gérard Poulet and Natsumi Tamai.
