Violinist Im Dokyung Wins Stuttgart Violin Competition

Winner of the 2019 Michael Hill Competition
Second Album 'Reverie' to be Released This April

Violinist Lim Do-kyung, a former Kumho Young Artist, took first place at the 2nd Stuttgart International Violin Competition, the Kumho Cultural Foundation announced on the 26th.

Lim Do-kyung received a prize money of 30,000 euros (approximately 43.19 million KRW) and, as a special award, will be loaned a 1746 Giovanni Battista Guadagnini violin for three years. She also secured opportunities to perform with orchestras such as the Stuttgart Philharmonic and the Chemnitz Robert Schumann Philharmonic.

The Stuttgart International Violin Competition is hosted by the Guadagnini Foundation and the Stuttgart State University of Music, established in 2018. The first competition was held in 2021 and is held every three years. It targets young violinists under the age of 28, aiming to support talented young string players and provide diverse musical experiences. At the 1st competition in 2021, violinist Kim Kye-hee, a former Kumho Young Artist, placed fourth. At the 2024 competition, violinist Kim Su-yeon, a former Kumho Rising Star, participated as a juror.

Im Do-kyung Photo by Kumho Cultural Foundation

At the 2nd Stuttgart International Violin Competition, 24 violinists advanced to the finals through a preliminary video screening. From the first and second rounds of the finals held from the 20th, four finalists including Lim Do-kyung were selected. They performed the first chamber music final with the string quartet Lotus Quartett on the 24th and the second orchestral concerto final on the 25th.

Lim Do-kyung won the final round held at the Beethoven Hall in Stuttgart by performing Sibelius' Violin Concerto with the Stuttgart Philharmonic Orchestra. Second place went to Ruslan Talas from Kazakhstan, third to Matthew Hakkarainen from the United States, and fourth to Xiaozhuo Wang from China.

Lim Do-kyung studied abroad early and was active mainly overseas before debuting on the domestic stage in 2022 with the Kumho Young Artist Concert. At the age of 21 in 2019, she won first place at the Michael Hill International Violin Competition and released her debut album "Amabile" under the Atoll label as a prize for winning.

Lim Do-kyung said, "After winning the Michael Hill International Violin Competition in 2019, many opportunities were lost due to COVID-19, so I was disappointed. I am very happy to win the Stuttgart Competition this time, and it feels like a dream to think about the violin I received as a prize and the numerous performance opportunities. I hope to appear more often on Korean stages in the future," sharing her thoughts on the award.

In Korea, Lim Do-kyung studied under the late Yang Hae-yeop, Yang Sung-sik, Kim Pil-gyun, and Cho Yu-rim. She graduated with a bachelor's degree from the Curtis Institute of Music in the United States, studying under Shmuel Ashkenasi and Aaron Rosand, and received the Milka Violin Artist Award. She then completed her master's degree at the Royal College of Music in the UK as a full scholarship student, studying under Kim So-ok. Her second album, "Reverie" (몽상, Lin Records), recorded as a scholarship student for the Royal College of Music's 200th anniversary, is scheduled to be released in April.

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