News: Christel Lee wins Sibelius Competition

The first prize in the 11th International Sibelius Violin Competition has been awarded to the American violinist Christel Lee, 25. Born in Bloomington, Indiana, she studied in at the Munich School of Music and Theatre, the Kronberg Academy and at Juilliard in New York.

She’s playing in Birmingham and Dublin next week. You can view her competition performances here.

Here’s the full list of winners:

I prize 25 000 €    Christel Lee, USA
II prize 18 000 €    Emmanuel Tjeknavorian, Austria
III prize 12 000 €    Friederike Starkloff, Germany

Three other finalists, Mayumi Kanagawa (USA), Minami Yoshida (Japan) and Nancy Zhou (USA) received a prize of 2000 € each. Also the following special prizes were awarded:

• The Foundation of Helsinki Conservatory of Music awarded a special prize of 3000€ to Emmanuel Tjeknavorian for the best interpretation of Sibelius Violin Concerto
• City of Järvenpää awarded a special prize of 2000 € to Friederike Starkloff for the best interpretation of commissioned piece in second round. The commissioned piece was one of the award-winning pieces from Jean Sibelius Composition Competition 2015.
• The best Finnish contestant Pekko Pulakka got the special prize from the Finnish Broadcasting Company Yleisradio; invitation to make a recording for Yle.

Christel Lee will perform at the following concerts in December:

• Soloist of The Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, conductor Hannu Lintu at Jean Sibelius 150th Anniversary Concert in Hämeenlinna on 8 December.
• Soloist of The Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, conductor John Storgårds on 10 December in Birmingham and 12 December in Dublin.

First published in the Amati Magazine, December 2015.