Violinist Yang In-mo Wins Sibelius Violin Competition... 'First Korean Winner'

2015 Paganini Competition: Following the First Korean Winner's Achievement

Violinist Yang In-mo.

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Heeyoon] Violinist Yang Inmo (27) has won the prestigious Jean Sibelius International Violin Competition.

On the 29th (local time), at the finals of the 12th Jean Sibelius Competition held in Helsinki, Finland, the jury announced that Yang Inmo took first place.

This competition is named after the Finnish composer Sibelius (1865?1957). It is a world-renowned competition for violinists under the age of 30, and this is the first time a Korean has won.

In the finals, Yang Inmo triumphed over five competitors to achieve victory. Second place went to Nathan Meltzer from the United States, and third place to Dmytro Udovychenko from Ukraine.

With his win, Yang Inmo received a prize of 30,000 euros (approximately 40 million KRW) and, for the first time in the history of the Sibelius Competition, an NFT (non-fungible token) trophy. Additionally, he was sponsored with a historic instrument, the 'Giovanni Battista Guadagnini' made in 1772 in Turin, Italy. Previously, Yang Inmo had performed using a 1718 'Bostonian' Stradivarius violin supported by an anonymous patron.

The competition has produced masters such as Oleg Kagan, the winner of the first competition in 1965, Victoria Mullova, Leonidas Kavakos, and Sergey Khachatryan.

Among Korean performers, Shin Jiya placed third and Baek Jooyoung placed fourth. In the 2015 competition, Christel Lee, a Korean-American and student of Kyung-Wha Chung, won first place.

The competition was originally scheduled for 2020 but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and held this year. This year, 240 participants applied, and six advanced to the finals.

Having once again made his name known through this victory, Yang Inmo is currently one of the most prominent young violinists in the global music scene.

Yang Inmo studied at Korea National University of Arts and the New England Conservatory in the United States, and is currently studying at the Hanns Eisler School of Music Berlin in Germany. Earlier, in 2015, he became the first Korean to win the Paganini Competition, establishing himself as a talented young master.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.