Yu-Chien Tseng
Taiwanese violinist Yu-Chien Tseng (20) won First Prize at the Inaugural Singapore International Violin Competition with his performance of Sibelius’s Violin Concerto. He was ahead of 148 other entrants from 27 countries after two weeks of intense competition. As the winner, Tseng takes home the pot of $50,000. Second Prize went to another Taiwanese violinist, Richard Lin, Tseng’s longtime friend at Curtis.
Born in Taipei, Taiwan, Yu-Chien Tseng began to play the violin at the age of five and performed as a soloist with the Taipei Symphony Orchestra at the age of six. He won the third prize of the Menuhin Competition (junior division) in 2006, and in 2008 entered the Curtis Institute of Music (US) where he is currently studying with Ida Kavafian.
Yu-Chien is a prizewinner of several international competitions: the Queen Elisabeth Competition (2012) in Belgium (fifth prize and Klara and Musiq’3 audience awards), the Isang Yun International Violin Competition (2011) in Korea (first prize, and best interpretation prize for works by Isang Yun), the 14th International Tchaikovsky Competition (jury discretionary award), the 53rd Premio Paganini International Violin Competition (2010) in Italy (prize for the best performance of the Paganini concerto), the 10th Pablo Sarasate International Violin Competition (2009) in Spain (first prize, best performance prize for works by Sarasate – he was the youngest first prizewinner ever in the history of this competition).
