Competitions › Tibor Varga International Violin Competition

Tibor Varga International Violin Competition

Sion, Switzerland

Next edition

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

Overview

Violin competition in Sion for violinists aged 17 to 30, run by the Sion Violon Musique Foundation. It has preselection, three rounds with solo, violin-and-piano and chamber repertoire, and a final with orchestra. Rules quoted are from the 2025 edition regulations.

Organiser: Sion Violon Musique Foundation
Instruments: Violin
Category: Solo violin
Age limits: Born between 31 August 1994 and 22 August 2008 (17 to 30, 2025 edition); former first-prize winners excluded

Rules & repertoire

Registration & fee

2025 edition: deadline 23 April 2025 (midnight, UTC+1); fee USD 150 (about CHF 150), non-refundable; programme changes allowed until 25 June 2025 in exceptional cases.

Rounds & time limits

Preselection (video): duration not stated
Round 1 (solo violin): maximum 30 minutes
Round 2 (violin and piano): maximum 45 minutes
Round 3 (chamber music): maximum 30 minutes
Final (with orchestra): duration not stated; solo piece maximum 5 minutes

Repertoire

Preselection (video): Paganini Caprice of free choice, plus first movement of a round 2 sonata from List A. Round 1 (solo): two consecutive movements of a Bach partita or sonata (not the Chaconne from Partita No. 2), one Ysaye Sonata Op. 27, and the commissioned Shin Kim Capricio. Round 2 (violin and piano): a sonata from list A or B, and a virtuoso piece of choice. Round 3 (chamber): Amy Beach Stella Viatoris, Beethoven Irish Song WoO 152 No. 8, or a listed trio. Final: one concerto from a list of six, from memory, plus a solo violin piece of up to 5 minutes.

Jury & prizes

Jury

2025 jury: Pavel Vernikov (President, Switzerland); Monika Baer (Switzerland); Ariadne Daskalakis (USA); Sunny Lee (South Korea); Fumiaki Miura (Japan); Lucie Robert (Canada); Anton Sorokow (Russia); final additions Adrian Oetiker (pianist) and Thomas Grossenbacher (cellist); Shin Kim votes only on the round 1 interpretation prize

Prizes

CHF: 1st 20,000; 2nd 10,000; 3rd 5,000; Tibor Varga prize (Shin Kim work) 3,000; youth jury prize 500; audience prize 500.

Past editions

2025 — Sion, Switzerland (23-30 August 2025) source
1st prize: Aozhe Zhang
2023 — Sion source
1st prize: Seohyun Kim (South Korea)
2021 — Sion source
1st prize: Maria Ioudenitch (USA)
2019 — Sion source
1st prize: Anna Agafia Egholm (Denmark)
2017 — Sion source

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