The last three remaining participants in the 2013 Cooper International Violin Competition made the most of their final opportunity onstage, offering outstanding performances in concert with The Cleveland Orchestra in the competition’s Concerto Finals at Severance Hall on Friday, July 26.
After more than a half-hour of jury deliberation, 16-year-old Kyumin Park of South Korea and 18-year-old William Ching-Yi Wei of Taiwan were named co-champions, marking the first tie in the four-year history of the Cooper Competition. Eighteen-year-old Ming Liu of China earned second place.
Wei and Park opened and closed the concert, respectively, with performances of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto in D Major, Opus 35; Liu played Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 2 in G Minor, Opus 63. The concert was conducted by Jahja Ling, music director of the San Diego Symphony.
Narrowed from an initial field of 24 of the world’s finest young violinists, the final three performers (pictured with conductor Jahja Ling in a photo by Robert Mastroianni) weathered three tightly contested elimination rounds held on the Oberlin campus over five days last week.
For their shared victory, Wei and Park each will take home a grand prize of $10,000—one of the largest prizes for any international youth violin competition. Liu earns a $6,000 prize for second place. All three finalists are honored with a full scholarship to attend the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, each valued at more than $175,000. Two nights earlier, Wei also earned the $500 Audience Prize for his Recital Final performance.