HUDSON INTERNATIONAL MUSIC COMPETITION

Objectives

Showcasing and Developing Musical Talent

Provide young musicians the opportunity to showcase their individual talents, inspiring their unique potential in the field of music.

Offer high-level advice and guidance through professional evaluation, encouraging participants to make greater strides in musical performance.

Promoting International Cultural Exchange

Break geographical boundaries, enabling young musicians from around the world to interact and elevate their musical skills through online platforms.

Advocate for cross-cultural understanding, using the language of music to convey and share the beauty of different cultures, fostering international friendship.

Reward and Encourage

Recognize and support outstanding participants through cash prizes and scholarships.

Provide winners the chance to attend the Hudson School of Music in the United States and prestigious summer music festivals in Italy and Germany, broadening their musical horizons and deepening their learning experiences.

Diverse Learning Experiences

Combine competition and rewards to offer young musicians the opportunity to enter world-class music schools and international music events, propelling them on a journey of musical learning.

Encourage participants to not only hone their skills through competition but also enrich their musical education through communication.

The Hudson International Music Competition looks forward to cultivating more passionate and talented young musicians, injecting new vitality and creativity into the world music stage.

Repertoire/Registration Requirements

Repertoire Requirements

  • Participants can choose either one solo piece or one movement of a Suite/Sonata/Concerto from the Baroque, Classical, Romantic, or 20th/21st Century period.
  • All performances must be played from memory.
  • Only original pieces will be accepted, and no shortened versions are allowed.
  • The judges’ decisions are final and cannot be appealed.

Registration Materials

  • Registration Form
  • Passport or ID scan
  • One photograph
  • Personal artistic resume
  • Competition video
  • Registration fee

Video Recording Requirements

  • Each piece must be performed in one continuous take, with no cuts or edits.
  • No pitch correction is allowed.
  • Videos must be recorded within the past year.
  • Avoid background noise.
  • Performances must be recorded in concert attire.
  • Each piece should have a separate video.
  • While recording with a mobile phone is acceptable, it is not encouraged.
  • Ensure stable camera placement using a tripod, with horizontal recording.
  • Pay attention to avoid glare or reflections in the video.
  • The performer’s hands, face, body, and the instrument must be clearly visible throughout the recording.

Announcement

Premier of Hudson International Music Competition Winner’s Concert

Join us for the premiere of the Hudson International Music Competition Winner’s Concert on June 8th, 2024, at 8 PM Eastern Time. The concert will feature performances in four categories: Violin, Cello, Piano, and Percussion.

Please click the link below to watch the concerts:

Violin
https://youtu.be/JKvGsWxa2mE

Cello
https://youtu.be/yVJ7qQPddhQ

Piano
https://youtu.be/WtwekLi-sqg

Percussion
https://youtu.be/GmAFA16fAqI

Congratulations to all the winners! Enjoy the fantastic music! Thank you!

Congratulations to the winners of the Hudson International Music Competition! Out of 88 exceptional finalists, the judges have selected 29 prize winners. The competition was incredibly fierce, and the judges held exceptionally high standards, leaving some prizes vacant. This underscores the extraordinary talent and dedication required to achieve recognition in this prestigious event. We immensely appreciate all participants’ hard work and passion for music.

Warmest congratulations to our winners!

Violin:

Category A:

  • Yurina Ohsawa (Gold)
  • Jialin Hu (Silver)
  • Zi Fan Zhang (Bronze)

Category B:

  • Xinmu Lin (Gold)
  • Gabrielle Wai Yee Chan (Silver)
  • Shuyi Yang (Bronze)

Category C:

  • Stephan Zhang (Gold)
  • Emily Chen (Silver)
  • Songran Lao (Bronze)

Piano

Category A:

  • Vacant (Gold)
  • Alessandro Picciche (Silver)
  • Jia Chuan Qu (Bronze)

Category B:

  • Vacant (Gold)
  • Yue Qu Zhang (Silver)
  • Xiwen Liang and Wanqi Huang (Bronze)

Category C:

  • Jia Bao Liu (Gold)
  • Bai He Rong and Emma Bingei (Silver)
  • Yicong Li (Bronze)

Cello

Category A:

  • Vacant (Gold)
  • Vacant (Silver)
  • Yile Huang (Bronze)

Category B:

  • Shi Zi Yuan (Gold)
  • Daria Rousseva (Silver)
  • Vacant (Bronze)

Category C:

  • ZhongMing Chen (Gold)
  • Vacant (Silver)
  • Vacant (Bronze)

Percussion

Category A:

  • Ge Chi Qiu (Gold)
  • Yu Xiang Cheng (Silver)
  • Vacant (Bronze)

Category B:

  • Yishan Lu & Bangshuo Li (Gold)
  • Haodong Zhuang (Silver)
  • Sichen Chen (Bronze)

Category C:

  • Xinyue Cui (Gold)
  • Ziyang Qiao (Silver)
  • Vacant (Bronze)

Other Awards:

Most Promising Young Talent: Muqian Zhou
Outstanding Performance Award: Agleya Aleksandrova Kaneva, Aleksandar Tomislav Vichev
Excellence in Musicianship Award: Yurina Ohsawa

 

Hudson International Competition Committee

Competition Judges

Boris Berman

Boris Berman

Boris Berman is regularly performing in more than fifty countries on six continents. His highly acclaimed performances have included appearances with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Gewandhaus Orchestra, The Philharmonia (London), the Toronto Symphony, Israel Philharmonic, Minnesota Orchestra, Detroit Symphony, Houston Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, and the Royal Scottish Orchestra. A frequent performer on major recital series, he has also appeared in many important festivals.

Born in Moscow, he studied at Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory with the distinguished pianist Lev Oborin. In 1973, he left a flourishing career in the Soviet Union to immigrate to Israel where he quickly established himself as one of the most sought-after keyboard performers. Presently, he resides in New Haven, USA.

A teacher of international stature, Boris Berman heads the Piano Department of Yale School of Music and conducts master classes throughout the world. He has been named a Honorary Professor of Shanghai Conservatory, of the Danish Royal Conservatory in Copenhagen, and of China Conservatory in Beijing. He is frequently invited to join juries of various international competitions.

A Grammy nominee, Mr. Berman’s recorded all solo piano works by Prokofiev and Schnittke, complete sonatas by Scriabin, works by Mozart, Weber, Schumann, Brahms, Franck, Shostakovich, Debussy, Stravinsky, Berio, Cage, and Joplin. Most recently French label Le Palais des Degustateurs released Boris Berman’s recording of Brahms’s Klavierstücke and Variations, and a double CD retrospective of piano works by Ukranian composer Valentyn Silvestrov.

In 2000, the prestigious Yale University Press published Professor Berman’s Notes from the Pianist’s Bench. In this book, he explores issues of piano technique and music interpretation. The book has been translated to several languages. In November, 2017 Yale University Press has published the newly revised version of the book electronically enhanced with audio and video components. In 2008, Yale University Press has published Boris Berman’s Prokofiev’s Piano Sonatas: A Guide for the Listener and the Performer. Boris Berman has also been an editor of the new critical edition of Piano Sonatas by Prokofiev (Shanghai Music Publishing House).


Hans Jørgen Jensen

Hans Jørgen Jensen

Hans Jørgen Jensen, Professor of Cello at Northwestern University Bienen School of Music, is the recipient of numerous honors and awards, including the 2010 Artist Teacher Award from the American String Teachers Association (ASTA), the Presidential Scholars Program Teacher Recognition Award from the US Department of Education, and the Danish Music Critics Award in Copenhagen, one of Denmark’s most prestigious awards. Professor Jensen has performed and taught master classes across the United States, as well as in Canada, Australia, Brazil, Europe, Israel, Japan, and South Korea.

Many of his students are first prize winners in numerous national and international competitions, as well as members of major US orchestras and leading music schools. Professor Jensen is also a faculty member of the Glenn Gould School in Toronto, Canada, and the Meadowmount School of Music in Westport, New York. Jensen has published the following books: Fun in Thumb Position, The Galamian Scale System for Cello: Volume I and Volume II, CelloMind, and ViolinMind, the latter two books published by Ovation Press. Jensen studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Denmark with cellist Asger Lund Christiansen and at the Juilliard School with Leonard Rose and Channing Robbins.


Soovin Kim

Soovin Kim

Violinist Soovin Kim has performed with many of the major orchestras in the United States and abroad, presented recitals on the world’s most celebrated stages, and released recordings on the Koch Discover International, Delos, Azica Records, and Stomp/EMI (Korea) labels. He has worked and collaborated with such revered chamber musicians as Jeremy Denk and Mitsuko Uchida and for two decades was the first violinist in the Johannes String Quartet. Today, Kim is a member of the Chien-Kim-Watkins Trio with his wife, pianist Gloria Chien, and YSM faculty cellist Paul Watkins.

Kim won first prize at the 1996 Paganini International Violin Competition and has received the prestigious Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award, an Avery Fisher Career Grant, and a Henryk Szeryng Foundation Career Award. He received the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s 2021 Award for Extraordinary Service to Chamber Music.

Kim serves as Visiting Professor in the Practice of Violin at the Yale School of Music, where he teaches individual students, coaches chamber music ensembles, and presents a master class each semester. Kim previously served on the faculty of the New England Conservatory and the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University. He has also served as Lecturer/Artist-in-Residence and Assistant Professor at Stony Brook University and as an international scholar at Kyung Hee University in Seoul. He is the Artistic Director of Chamber Music Northwest and the Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival, which he founded, and maintains a relationship with the Marlboro Music Festival, with which he has performed on a dozen national tours over the course of nearly 15 years.

Kim earned his bachelor of music degree from the Curtis Institute of Music and studied before that at the Cleveland Institute of Music.


Paul NeuBauer

Paul Neubauer

Violist Paul Neubauer’s exceptional musicality and effortless playing led the New York Times to call him “a master musician.” He recently made his Chicago Symphony subscription debut with conductor Riccardo Muti and his Mariinsky Orchestra debut with conductor Valery Gergiev. He also gave the US premiere of the newly discovered Impromptu for viola and piano by Shostakovich with pianist Wu Han. In addition, his recording of the Aaron Kernis Viola Concerto with the Royal Northern Sinfonia was released on Signum Records and his recording of the complete viola and piano music by Ernest Bloch with pianist Margo Garrett was released on Delos.

Appointed principal violist of the New York Philharmonic at age 21, he has appeared as soloist with over 100 orchestras including the New York, Los Angeles, and Helsinki philharmonics; National, St. Louis, Detroit, Dallas, San Francisco, and Bournemouth symphonies; and Santa Cecilia, English Chamber, and Beethovenhalle orchestras. He has premiered viola concertos by Bartók (revised version of the Viola Concerto), Friedman, Glière, Jacob, Kernis, Lazarof, Müller-Siemens, Ott, Penderecki, Picker, Suter, and Tower and has been featured on CBS’s Sunday Morning, A Prairie Home Companion, and in Strad, Strings, and People magazines. A two-time Grammy nominee, he has recorded on numerous labels including Decca, Deutsche Grammophon, RCA Red Seal, and Sony Classical and is a member of SPA, a trio with soprano Susanna Phillips and pianist Anne-Marie McDermott. Mr. Neubauer is the artistic director of the Mostly Music series in New Jersey and is on the faculty of The Juilliard School and Mannes College.


Michael Burritt

Michael Burritt

Having performed on four continents and more than forty states, Michael Burritt is one of his generation’s leading percussionists. He is in frequent demand, performing concert tours and master classes throughout the United States, Europe, Asia, Australia and Canada. Mr. Burritt has three solo as well as numerous chamber recordings. In 2018 he recorded his Home Trilogy with the world-renowned percussion group Nexus, and is soon to release a new recording of solo and chamber works by Alejandro Viñao with the Grammy Award-winning Third Coast Percussion. In 2006 he recorded the Joseph Schwantner Percussion Concerto with the Calgary Wind Ensemble on the Albany label.

He has been a featured artist at nine Percussive Arts Society International Conventions. In 1992 he presented his New York solo debut in Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall and in 1998 performed his London debut in the Purcell Room at Queen Elizabeth Hall. Mr. Burritt has extensive chamber and orchestral experience and has performed with the Chicago Chamber Musicians, The Chicago Symphony, Nexus, Third Coast Percussion and the The Peninsula Music Festival Orchestra.

Mr. Burritt is also active as a composer, with three concertos to his credit as well as numerous solo and chamber works for marimba and percussion. His works for solo marimba have become standard repertoire for the instrument, and are frequently required repertoire on international competitions. Commissions include The World Marimba Competition in Stuttgart Germany, The Paris International Marimba Competition, Nexus and the Paris Percussion Group. Mr. Burritt is published with Keyboard Percussion Publications, C. Alan, Masters Music, and Innovative Percussion. Burritt is also an artist/clinician and product design/consultant for Malletech, where he has developed his own line of marimba mallets and the MJB Signature Marimba. He is an artist/educational clinician with the Zildjian Company, Evans Drum Heads, and Yamaha Drums. Mr. Burritt is the President Elect of Percussive Arts Society, was a member of the Board of Directors from 1996 to2008, a contributing editor for Percussive Notes magazine from 1991 to 2006 and was chairman of the PAS Keyboard Committee from 2004 to 2010. Michael Burritt is currently Professor of Percussion and chair of the Winds, Brass, and Percussion department at the Eastman School of Music.

Categories

Age Groups

  • Group A: Ages 9-11
  • Group B: Ages 12-14
  • Group C: Ages 15-17

Instruments

  • Violin
  • Viola
  • Cello
  • Piano
  • Percussion

Awards

Prizes

Grand Prize

Full scholarship to Hudson School of Music for four years, valued at $196,000 in total! + $1,000 cash prize, awarded to one winner selected from all Gold prize winners.

Gold Prize

$42,000 scholarship to Hudson School of Music + $2000 scholarship for German and Italian music festivals, one winner per age group.

Silver Prize

$21,000 scholarship to Hudson School of Music+ $1500 scholarship for German and Italian music festivals, one winner per age group.

Bronze Prize

$14,000 scholarship to Hudson School of Music + $700 scholarship for German and Italian music festivals, one winner per age group.

Other Prizes

Winners in the following categories will each be honored with a certificate of recognition, along with their specified prizes.

  • Outstanding Performance Award
  • Most Promising Young Talent
  • Excellence in Musicianship
  • Honorary Certificate

For other non-award-winning participants, we will also selectively award honorary certificates from the American Musicians Association, recognizing more outstanding contestants for their effort and dedication to their musical talent.

Scholarship to Hudson School of Music

Grand Prize Winner will receive a full scholarship to attend the prestigious Hudson School of Music, a top-ranked music school in the United States. This scholarship provides access to world-class music education and mentorship, valued up to $196,000.

International Festival Performances

Contestants who win the Special Prize, Gold Prize, or Silver Prize in the competition will have the opportunity to become contracted musicians with the Hudson Youth Orchestra. They will represent the orchestra in official performances at prestigious music festivals held in Italy, Germany, and the United States. Additionally, they will receive financial support to cover part of the expenses for participating in these renowned music festivals. Those who win the Bronze Prize, Outstanding Performance Award, Most Promising Young Talent Award, or Music Talent Excellence Award in the competition will become contracted interns with the Hudson Youth Orchestra and will represent the orchestra in performances at the prestigious music festivals held in Italy, Germany, and the United States.

Competition Structure and Deadlines

First Round Submission Deadline: May 4, 2024

Participants must complete the registration form and submit a video link of their performance to YouTube, Youku, or TikTok by May 4, 2024. The repertoire can include either one solo piece or one movement of a Suite/Sonata/Concerto from the Baroque, Classical, Romantic, or 20th/21st Century period.

Announcement of First Round Results: May 11, 2024

The highest-scoring participants from the first round will be selected to advance to the final round.

Final Round Submission Deadline: May 18, 2024

Finalists are required to upload a new performance piece by May 18, 2024, that is stylistically distinct from their first-round submission. For example, if a participant submitted a Baroque ​piece by Bach in the first round, they should choose a piece from a different period, such as Classical, Romantic, or Contemporary (e.g., Beethoven, Brahms, or John Cage) for the final round.

Announcement of Winners: May 25, 2024

The ultimate winners of the competition will be declared on the competition website on May 25, 2024.

A special live-stream award ceremony will be held on June 8, 2024

Repertoire/Registration Requirements

Repertoire Requirements

  • For the first and final rounds, participants can choose one solo piece or movement from a Suite/Sonata/Concerto from any of the listed musical periods.
  • Finalists are required to upload a new performance piece that is stylistically distinct from their first-round submission. For example, if a participant submitted a Baroque ​piece by Bach in the first round, they should choose a piece from a different period, such as Classical, Romantic, or Contemporary (e.g., Beethoven, Brahms, or John Cage) for the final round.
  • Marimba: Submit a classical piece for the preliminary round. In the final round, you can choose a piece of your choice.
  • Drum Set: For the preliminary round, submit a song in rock, jazz, pop, or any contemporary style. For the final round, you can choose a contrasting style to showcase your versatility.
  • All performances must be played from memory.
  • Only original pieces are accepted; shortened versions are not allowed.
  • The judges’ decisions are final and cannot be appealed.

Registration Materials

  • Registration Form
  • Passport or ID scan
  • One photograph
  • Personal artistic resume
  • Competition video
  • Registration fee

Video Recording Requirements

  • Performances must be in one continuous take, with no cuts or edits.
  • No pitch correction is permitted.
  • Videos must be recorded within the last year.
  • Participants should avoid background noise and wear concert attire.
  • A separate video is required for each piece.
  • Mobile phone recording is acceptable but not encouraged. Use a tripod for stable and horizontal recording.
  • Ensure there is no glare or reflections in the video.
  • The performer’s hands, face, body, and the instrument must be clearly visible throughout the recording.