VC LIVE | 2025 Cooper International Violin Competition
We're coming to you LIVE from Oberlin, Ohio, for the 2025 Thomas and Evon Cooper International Competition | Open to young musicians aged between 13 and 18, a total of $40,000 is available in prize money, with the First Prize carrying a value of $20,000 | This year, the violin jury will comprise Sibbi Bernhardsson (Chair), Catherine Cho, Francesca dePasquale, Peter Herresthal, Xie Nan, and William van der Sloot
VC LIVE | 2025 Cooper International Violin Competition
We're coming to you LIVE from Oberlin, Ohio, for the 2025 Thomas and Evon Cooper International Competition | Open to young musicians aged between 13 and 18, a total of $40,000 is available in prize money, with the First Prize carrying a value of $20,000 | This year, the violin jury will comprise Sibbi Bernhardsson (Chair), Catherine Cho, Francesca dePasquale, Peter Herresthal, Xie Nan, and William van der Sloot
VC LIVE | 2025 Cooper International Violin Competition
We're coming to you LIVE from Oberlin, Ohio, for the 2025 Thomas and Evon Cooper International Competition | Open to young musicians aged between 13 and 18, a total of $40,000 is available in prize money, with the First Prize carrying a value of $20,000 | This year, the violin jury will comprise Sibbi Bernhardsson (Chair), Catherine Cho, Francesca dePasquale, Peter Herresthal, Xie Nan, and William van der Sloot
As we await results, meet our final finalist, Seohyun Kim! Seohyun talks with Amber about preparing for her first international competition.
Amber: "How are you feeling right now?"
Seohyun: "I'm really excited, I'm looking forward to it. It's my first international competition, so it was scary but I met really good friends here, they're all nice and I love Oberlin Conservatory."
Amber: "What's your favorite school subject?"
Seohyun: "I like Korean and Math. I practiced this piece from three months ago. First I search the composer—for Faust, the technique is hard, so I play it slowly."
Good luck!
#ViolinChannel #CooperCompetition
Calvin Alexander, a finalist playing tonight, talks with Amber about the repertoire that earned him this spot.
Amber: "So I want to ask you a little bit about some of the repertoire you’ll be playing tonight. Which of those pieces are you really looking forward to?”
Calvin: “Out of all my second round repertoire I’m most excited to share Poème. When I first played Poème a few years ago it was the first moment I felt so emotionally connected and vulnerable with the music. I have lots of fond memories going back to this piece.
This summer I really worked on my performance mindset and freeing myself up, and I think especially with my first round, I was able to completely free up my mind and just relax with what I’m doing. So I think if I had to name one sort of strength in my playing, I think I’m really able to loosen up, free myself up and really allow myself to share.”
Good luck Calvin!
Meet Sameer Agrawal
Meet Sameer Agrawal, one of the three finalists this year! Sameer talks with Communications Assistant Amber Rogers about his love of music.
Amber: "So when was the moment you realized you wanted to take violin to a professional level?"
Sameer: "I'm not sure if there was a singular moment, but definitely when I was 10 or 11 I realized there's something about music itself that I really love. I love exploring music, not just playing it but also understanding how music works and the history behind it. It's so interesting to me that I can't really imagine myself doing anything else.
I really love seeing violinists that really go for it and have so much depth to their sound. I really love the music that I play."
Meet Bianca Ciubancan, who won 5th Place in the Cooper International Competition as well as the prize for the best performance of Bach. She talks with Communications assistant Amber Rogers about her life and music.
Amber: "Who is your favorite violinist, or a violinist you're inspired by?"
Bianca: "I'd say maybe Authur Grumiaux; he's one of my favorites. He's got a special sound and I know he used to have a lot of fun. That's what I'm thinking, just having fun playing music."
Amber: "That's good you mentioned having fun, because sometimes it gets uptight, serious, but you always want to have a little joy."
Bianca: "I really enjoy the Beethoven Sonata #3, first movement, because although it's really challenging, it's so lively, there's so many characters, and it has a lot of operatic elements—it's a lot of fun to play."
Congratulations Bianca!
#ViolinChannel #CooperCompetition #ViolinistLife
Meet Audrey Goodner, winner of 4th place in the Cooper Competition as well as the awards for Best Performance of Mozart and for Best Performance of Jessie Montgomery's "Rhapsody No. 1." She talks with Communications Assistant Amber Rogers about her life and musical practice.
Amber: "Do you have any advice when managing practicing and schoolwork and balancing all of that?"
Audrey: "Yes, my advice would be that it's not about quantity, but more about quality. So if you can get 1-2 hours of good focused practicing, and then take a break and do your homework—that's a good balance.
Near the middle of [this piece] it's just, like, a huge organ going it's just so relaxed and graceful, and elegant."
Congrats Audrey!
#ViolinChannel #CooperCompetition #ViolinistLife #MusicAwards2022
Meet Kento Hong
Meet Kento Hong, winner of 6th place in the Cooper Competition, as well as the Audience Prize! Kento talks with Communications Assistant Amber Rogers about his life and musicianship.
Amber: "How do you manage stress in your daily life?"
Kento: "I try to manage it by micromanaging things, trying to break things down and looking at it from a smaller perspective, then building it up from there."
Amber: "So how does that apply when you're practicing?"
Kento: "I would look at pieces—concertos, sonatas—and break them up into different passages, with more difficult ones being focused more and looking at the nuances between passages.
When I look at Tchaikovsky, I look at the sad, melancholic themes of the violin concerto, and try to evoke it with different tones of vibrato—the different colors that are almost singing, kind of yearning—this idea of all this sadness that comes from this piece."
Congratulations Kento!
#ViolinistLife #ViolinChannel #CooperCompetition #MusicAwards
Going live with the finalists announcement!
And our top three finalists are...
Oberlin Conservatory's international competition for ages 13-18, alternating violin and piano.
