The US$50,000 competition, the first of its kind, aims to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the Vietnam Connection Music Festival and the 65th founding anniversary of VNAM.

According to Meritorious Artist Dr. Bui Cong Duy, Deputy Director of VNAM, Deputy Head of the Organising Committee and Chairperson of the Jury Council, the violin category gathers 29 candidates, while the chamber music division features 11 participating groups.

The format of the contest is built in accordance with the standards of most prestigious competitions in the world. After the qualification round through video clips, the judges will determine 24 qualifiers for the main draw (Round 1), then 12 among them for the semifinals (Round 2) and the best six for the final competition in each category.

As revealed by the organising committee, many of the contestants have participated and achieved high results in well-known competitions, such as the Queen Elizabeth International Competition 2019 in Brussels (Belgium), Tchaikovsky International Competition 2019 in Moscow (Russia), International Violin Competition in Sendai (Japan), Schoenfeld International Music Competition in Harbin (China), and International Violin Competition “Premio Rudolfo Lipizer” in Gorizia (Italy).

In addition, many of the candidates come from famous music academies worldwide, including Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, London Royal Academy of Music, Central Conservatory of Music (Beijing), Tokyo University of the Arts (or Geidai), and Royal Conservatory of Brussels (Belgium).

Vietnam has five contestants selected for the 29-competitor violin category and seven groups of candidates for the chamber music competition.

The jury board is made up of 16 globally renowned artists, such as People’s Artist Viktor Tretyakov, who claimed top prize at the 1966 Tchaikovsky competition along with many other international prizes, alongside Stephanie Chase, Vilmos Szabadi, Xi Chen, Max Levinson, Kyung Sun Lee, and Honna Tetsuji.

In addition to an opening performance with the participation of Vietnam’s talented violinist Bui Cong Duy, all the members of the jury board will join together to deliver a show with the Sun Symphony Orchestra on the gala night, on August 8.