Competitions › Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition

Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition

Gateshead, United Kingdom

Next edition

No future edition is announced on the official pages we could check.

Overview

Viola competition held alongside the Cecil Aronowitz competition, run by the Tertis and Aronowitz viola competitions organisation with the British Viola Society. Round 1 is judged from recordings, followed by semi-finals and a final.

Organiser: Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition and British Viola Society (as announced on official pages); prizes donated by the Tertis Foundation (2013)
Instruments: Viola
Category: Solo viola
Age limits: From age 19 to 30

Rules & repertoire

Registration & fee

Not published on the official pages we could check.

Rounds & time limits

Round 1: judged from DVDs/recordings
Semi-finals
Final

Repertoire

Required set work for all competitors in the 2013 edition: Six Sorano Variants by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies.

Jury & prizes

Jury

Brian Hawkes (Chairman, UK) Betil Basegmezler (Turkey) Yuri Bashmet (Russia, President) Sarah-Jane Bradley (UK) Samuel Rhodes (USA) Jean Sulem (France) Hong-Mei Xiao (China)

Prizes

2013: 1st GBP 7,000 (Lillian Tertis Memorial Prize); 2nd GBP 5,000 (Ruth Fermoy Memorial Prize); 3rd GBP 3,000 shared (Artur Rubinstein Memorial Prize); total prize fund GBP 15,000

Past editions

2025 — The Glasshouse, Gateshead source
2013 — Erin Arts Centre, Port Erin, Isle of Man source
1st Prize (Lillian Tertis Memorial Prize, GBP 7,000): Ziyu Shen (China); 2nd: Kei Tojo (Japan); 3rd (shared): Shuangshuang Liu and Matthew Lipman

Summarised from official sources, last checked 10 Nov 2026. Main source