17th Henryk Wieniawski International Violin Competition

Organised since 1935, the Wieniawski Competition is the oldest existing violin competition in the world and one of the most prestigious events in the classical music world. For over ninety years, it has cultivated the memory of the legacy of the outstanding Polish violinist and composer, bringing together successive generations of the brightest young talents from around the globe.

The Competition, deeply rooted in the tradition of Poznań, serves as the cultural showcase of the city and the Wielkopolska region, as well as one of the most important events in the country’s musical life. In the era of global digital communication, it reaches a multi-million audience on all continents, remaining a universal symbol of performing excellence, rich tradition, and uncompromising artistic passion.

Over the decades, the Wieniawski Competition has established its position as a prestigious gateway to an international career for the world’s most outstanding violinists.

The Competition is a founding member of the World Federation of International Music Competitions (WFIMC) based in Geneva, and its organisation is overseen by the Wieniawski Society in Poznań.

Wieniawski Society

We are an association that for many years has been preserving and promoting the legacy of the outstanding Polish composer and violin virtuoso – Henryk Wieniawski. Our work spans a wide range of artistic, scholarly, and educational activities.

We promote the highest standards of musical artistry. We are organisers of International Henryk Wieniawski Violin and Violin-Making Competitions, which are rated among the most prestigious events in the world. We co-hold nationwide competitions for young stringed instrument players and violin makers.

We create, research, and inspire. We open audiences to experience music in new and deeper ways. We organize concerts and festivals – including original events, such as the Sleeplessness Festival. We publish scholarly works and conduct research on classical music. We collect and share unique archival resources. We show that Wieniawski’s music is still vibrant and inspiring.

We connect people and build a community. We provide safe and friendly conditions for artists and their creative projects. By bringing together artists, institutions, and audiences from around the world we foster a community of music lovers.

In October 2026, Poznań will once again welcome the world’s most outstanding young violinists. The artists will showcase their talent and compete for the highest honours in one of the oldest and most prestigious violin competitions in the world, held under the patronage of Henryk Wieniawski since 1935.

Ticket Sales

Tickets for the auditions and concerts of the 17th International Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition are now available for purchase via Bilety24.pl.

For group ticket inquiries, including school bookings, please contact the Competition Office directly at basia@wieniawski.pl, tel. +48 61 852 26 42

Tickets for the 3rd Prizewinners’ Concert in Warsaw went on sale on September 14, 2026, via Bilety24.pl.

In-person ticket sales at the Adam Mickiewcz University Auditorium (Aula UAM) box office are scheduled to open on October 1, 2026. We strongly encourage purchasing online in advance, as ticket availability changes rapidly.

Tickets for Stage 4 auditions and the 2nd Prizewinners’ Concert are already sold out. 
The final batch of tickets for the Gala and Prizewinners’ Concert went on sale in the second half of September.

Discounts

When purchasing 10 or more tickets online for the competition auditions (9-22 October), a 10% discount applies automatically in the cart. This offer does not include the Opening Concert or the Gala.

Ticket price table

Towards the Centenary

For over ninety years Henryk Wieniawski has lent his name to international violin competitions. Since 1952 they have been held in Poznań; in 2026 the event will take place for the seventeenth time. The competition awaits representatives of the next generation of young virtuosos – often born in one country, educated in another, and living in yet another. What unites them, however, is music and – as always – the desire to measure their talents, technical skills and artistic imagination against their peers. For the venue of this confrontation they chose Poznań – a city that can boast the oldest violin competition in the world.

Although in successive editions we wish above all to meet the current expectations of the participants and of the competition audience – an extremely important part of this undertaking – we have never for a moment forgotten that the strength of the Wieniawski Competitions lies in their history. And especially in the names of the laureates and jurors. Let us therefore cast our minds back for a moment…

The beginnings: Warsaw 1935

In 1935 – on the centenary of our Patron’s birth – his nephew Adam, himself a composer, initiated international meetings of young violinists in Warsaw. The first laureates to leave the competition in glory were: the Frenchwoman Ginette Neveu (First Prize), on the threshold of a great career tragically cut short by an air disaster; the Russian David Oistrakh (Second Prize), whose subsequent role in the world of the violin it would be almost improper to recall; and the Englishman Henry Temianka (Third Prize). Among the prize-winners were also Ida Haendel, Bronisław Gimpel, Grażyna Bacewicz and many others whose artistic paths were disrupted by the Second World War, which also interrupted the beautifully begun history of the competition.

Revival in Poznań

Seventeen years later the competition was happily revived in Poznań – a city which, in view of the destruction of the capital, was for many reasons best suited to this role. Wieniawski himself had once been fond of it. And although in December 1952 only 23 violinists from 7 countries appeared, some of their names still move music lovers today. The very young Igor Oistrakh (David’s son) won the competition. Sharing Second Prize were Wanda Wiłkomirska and the Russian Julian Sitkovetsky. The 3rd Competition (1957, with 45 participants from 16 countries and David Oistrakh among the jury) was a rivalry between the Russian Roza Fajn and the audience’s favourite, the American Sidney Harth. In 1962 the undisputed winner was his compatriot, the phenomenal Charles Treger. Five years later (1967) the first Pole, Piotr Janowski, triumphed. The 6th Competition in 1972 belonged to three women violinists: the Russian Tatiana Grindenko, the Japanese Shizuka Ishikawa and the Pole Barbara Górzyńska, while the following edition in 1977 was dominated by men: Vadim Brodsky, Piotr Milewski and Mikhail Vaiman. The next competition (1981) took place with the legendary Henryk Szeryng as chairman of the jury and under the sign of Japanese dominance – besides Keiko Urushihara (First Prize), four more main prizes fell to Japanese contestants. The 9th Competition (1986) was the triumph of the Russian Yevgeny Bushkov. The jubilee tenth edition (1991), with a record number of 54 participants in the entire history of the event, ended in a double success for the Poles – Bartłomiej Nizioł and Piotr Pławner. In 1996, however, the jury under the honorary chairmanship of Yehudi Menuhin found no personality worthy of the gold medal and awarded only the Second Prize to the Japanese Reiko Otani.

A new era: from 2001

The first edition of the new century, and the twelfth overall, the 2001 Wieniawski Competition opened a new chapter in the history of the event. The organisers decided to entrust co-authorship of the programme, regulations and the composition of the jury to Shlomo Mintz, a violinist and pedagogue of recognised international authority. The artist indeed attracted a considerable group of over 100 interesting talents, from which he himself selected 46 candidates for the proper competition. It was won by the 16-year-old Russian Alena Baeva. The thirteenth edition built on the experience of the previous one. Together with the Board of the Wieniawski Society in Poznań, supported by a team of consultants at home and abroad, it was co-created by Konstanty Andrzej Kulka, one of the most outstanding Polish artists. Together with Wanda Wiłkomirska and Bartłomiej Nizioł – representatives of two very different generations of competition laureates – and eight other authorities of the violin from around the world, he sought the young virtuosos most worthy of the 2006 Wieniawski laurel. That distinction was awarded to the Pole Agata Szymczewska. The fourteenth edition was exceptional. The function of chairman of the jury was assumed by the world-class violinist Maxim Vengerov. The honorary chairwoman was Ida Haendel. For the first time participants were qualified for the competition on the basis of pre-selections which Vengerov personally conducted in nine cities around the world (Bergamo, London, Quebec, Yokohama, Seoul, Moscow, Baku, Brussels and Poznań). A novelty was also a stage with a chamber orchestra. First Prize and the Gold Medal of the Wieniawski Society were awarded to the outstandingly talented Korean violinist Soyoung Yoon.

Recent editions

The fifteenth edition (2016) brought the triumph of the Georgian-Turkish violinist Veriko Tchumburidze. Two equal Second Prizes went to Bomsori Kim (South Korea) and Seiji Okamoto (Japan). The jury was chaired by Maxim Vengerov, with Krzysztof Penderecki as honorary chairman. The competition was distinguished by a particularly high level of performance and a strong presence of international media. From this edition onwards all stages of the competition have been streamed live on the organiser’s YouTube channel, allowing the event to reach music lovers in the farthest corners of the world. The sixteenth edition (2022), postponed by a year because of the pandemic, took place under the chairmanship of Augustin Dumay. It was won by the Japanese violinist Hina Maeda. Second place was taken by Meruert Karmenova (Kazakhstan) and third by Qingzhu Weng (China). For the first time in the history of the competition the laureates embarked on an extensive world concert tour comprising more than eighty performances in 21 countries on five continents.

In 2026 the Wieniawski Competition celebrates its seventeenth edition. What surprises will it bring this time? What new talents will it discover and what emotions will the next confrontation of the world’s most outstanding young violinists bring?

1935 (Warsaw)
1st International Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition 

1st Prize: Ginette NEVEU – France
2nd Prize: David OISTRAKH – USSR
3rd Prize: Henry TEMIANKA – Great Britain
4th Prize: Boris GOLDSTEIN – USSR
5th Prize: Ljerko SPILLER – Jugoslavia
6th Prize: Mary Luisa SARDO – Italy
7th Prize: Ida HAENDEL – Poland
8th Prize: Hubert ANTON – Estonia
9th Prize: Bronisław GIMPEL – Poland

1952 (Poznań)
2nd International Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition

1st Prize: Igor OISTRAKH – USSR
2nd Prize: Julian SITKOVETSKY – USSR, Wanda WIŁKOMIRSKA – Poland
3rd Prize: Blanche TARJUS – France, Marina YASHVILI – USSR, Olga PARKHOMENKO – USSR
4th Prize: Emil KAMILAROV – Bulgaria, Edward STATKIEWICZ – Poland, Igor IWANOW – Poland, Henryk PALULIS – Poland
5th Prize: Csaba BOKAY – Hungary
Awards: Marta Hidy (Hungary); Ladislav Jásek (Czechoslovakia); Homi Kanga (India); Kalman Banyák (Hungary)

1957 (Poznań)
3rd International Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition

1st Prize: Rosa FAIN – USSR
2nd Prize: Sidney HARTH – USA
3rd Prize: Mark KOMISSAROV – USSR
4th Prize: Augustin LEON-ARA – Spain
5th Prize: Ayla ERDURAN – Turkey
6th Prize: Vladimir MALININ – USSR
Awards: Jiri Sumpik (Czechoslovakia); Zenon Płoszaj (Poland); Jean Leber (France); Dora Iwanowa (Bulgaria); Daphne Godson (Great Britain)

1962 (Poznań)
4th International Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition

1st Prize: Charles TREGER – USA
2nd Prize: Oleh KRYSA – USSR
3rd Prize: Krzysztof JAKOWICZ – Poland
4th Prize: Isabella PETROSIAN – USSR
5th Prize: Miroslav RUSIN – USSR, Priscilla A. AMBROSE – USA
6th Prize: Tomasz MICHALAK – Poland
Awards: Andrzej Siwy (Poland); Aleksander Arenkow (USSR); Antoine Goulard (France); Evelio A. Tieles (Cuba); Jadwiga Kaliszewska (Poland)

1967 (Poznań)
5th International Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition

1st Prize: Piotr JANOWSKI – Poland
2nd Prize: Mikhail BEZVERKHNY – USSR
3rd Prize: Kaja DANCZOWSKA – Poland
4th Prize: Eduard TATEVOSIAN – USSR
5th Prize: Anatoli MELNIKOV – USSR
6th Prize: Michał GRABARCZYK – Poland, Mincho MINCHEV – Bulgaria
Awards: Maria Brylanka (Poland); Ginka Giczkowa (Bulgaria); Małgorzata Błażejewska (Poland)

1972 (Poznań)
6th International Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition

1st Prize: Tatiana GRINDENKO – USSR
2nd Prize: Shizuka ISHIKAWA – Japan
3rd Prize: Barbara GÓRZYŃSKA – Poland
5th Prize: Tadeusz GADZINA – Poland, Grachia ARUTIUNIAN – USSR
6th Prize: Stefan CZERMAK – Poland
7th Prize: Edward Zbigniew ZIENKOWSKI – Poland
Awards: Stefan Stałanowski (Poland); Magda Sarbu (Romania); Machie Oguri (Japan)

1977 (Poznań)
7th International Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition

1st Prize: Vadim BRODSKY – USSR
2nd Prize: Piotr MILEWSKI – Poland, Mikhail VAIMAN – USSR
3rd Prize: Zakhar BRON – USSR, Peter ZAZOFSKY – USA
4th Prize: Charles A. LINALE – France
5th Prize: Hiro KUROSAKI – Austria, Anna A. WÓDKA – Poland
6th Prize: Kazuhiko SAWA – Japan
Awards: Asa Konishi (Japan); Keiko Mizuno (Japan)

1981 (Poznań)
8th International Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition

1st Prize: Keiko URUSHIHARA – Japan
2nd Prize: Elisa KAWAGUTI – Japan
3rd Prize: Aureli BŁASZCZOK – Poland
4th Prize: Seiji KAGEYAMA – Japan
5th Prize: Iwao FURUSAWA – Japan
6th Prize: Megumi SHIMANE – Japan
Awards: Lenuta Atanasiu-Ciulei (Romania); Bartosz Bryła (Poland); Lothar Strauss (NRD); Magdalena Suchecka (Poland)

1986 (Poznań)
9th International Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition

1st Prize: Evgeny BUSHKOV – USSR
3rd Prize: Nobu WAKABAYASHI – Japan, Robert KABARA – Poland
4th Prize: Viktor KUZNETSOW – USSR
5th Prize: Alexander ROMANUL – USA
6th Prize: Hiroko SUZUKI – Japan
Awards: Dorota Siuda (Polska); Lothar Strauss (NRD); Oleg Pochanowskij (USSR); Patricia Shih (Canada)

1991 (Poznań)
10th International Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition

1st Prize: Bartłomiej NIZIOŁ – Poland, Piotr PŁAWNER – Poland
2nd Prize: Chie ABIKO – Japan
3rd Prize: Reiko SHIRAISHI – Japan
4th Prize: Monika JARECKA – Poland
5th Prize: Tomoko YOSHIMURA – Japan
Awards: Jarosław Żołnierczyk (Poland); Sebastian Gugała (Poland); Roland Orlik (Poland); Eijin Nimura (Japan); Ewa Pyrek (Poland); Erika Dobosiewicz (Poland)

1996 (Poznań)
11th International Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition

1st Prize: not awarded
2nd Prize: Reiko OTANI – Japan
3rd Prize: Akiko TANAKA – Japan
4th Prize: Asuka SEZAKI – Japan, Łukasz BŁASZCZYK – Poland
5th Prize: Anna RESZNIAK – Poland
6th Prize: Maria Małgorzata NOWAK – Poland
Awards: Chiyoko Noguchi (Japan); Elina Vähälä (Finland); Andrzej Hop (Poland); Erika Dobosiewicz (Poland); Karina Buschinger (Germany)

2001 (Poznań)
12th International Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition

1st Prize: Alena BAEVA – Russia
2nd Prize: Soojin HAN – South Korea, Roman SIMOVIĆ – Yugoslavia
3rd Prize: Gaik KAZAZIAN– Armenia, Bracha MALKIN – USA, Hiroko TAKAHASHI – Japan
4th Prize: Mayuko KAMIO – Japan
5th Prize: Jarosław NADRZYCKI – Poland
6th Prize: Alexandra WOOD – Great Britain
Awards: Nicolas Dautricourt (France), Jakub Haufa (Poland), Mariusz Morys (Poland)

2006 (Poznań)
13th International Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition

1st Prize: Agata SZYMCZEWSKA – Poland
2nd Prize: Airi SUZUKI – Japan
3rd Prize: Anna Maria STAŚKIEWICZ – Poland
4th Prize: Lev SOLODOVNIKOV – Russia
5th Prize: Maria MACHOWSKA – Poland, Jarosław NADRZYCKI – Poland
6th Prize: Wojciech PŁAWNER – Poland
Award: Simeon Klimashevskiy – Russia

2011 (Poznań)
14th International Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition

1st Prize: Soyoung YOON – South Korea
2nd Prize: Miki KOBAYASHI – Japan
3rd Prize: Stefan TARARA – Germany
Honorary distinctions: Erzhan Kulibaev (Kazakhstan); Aylen Pritchin (Russia); Arata Yumi (Japan)

2016 (Poznań)
15th International Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition

1st Prize: Veriko TCHUMBURIDZE – Georgia/Turkey
2nd Prize ex aequo: Bomsori KIM – South Korea 
2nd Prize ex aequo: Seiji OKAMOTO – Japan
4th Prize: Luke HSU – USA
5th Prize: Richard LIN – Taiwan/USA 
6th Prize: Maria WŁOSZCZOWSKA – Poland
7th Prize: Ryosuke SUHO – Japan

2022 (Poznań)
16th International Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition

1st Prize:: Hina MAEDA – Japan
2nd Prize: Meruert KARMENOVA – Kazakhstan
3rd Prize:: Qingzhu WENG – China
Awards: Hana Chang (Japan / Singapore / USA); Jane Hyeonjin Cho (South Korea); Dayoon You (South Korea)

In the photo above: a group of the highest ranked participants of the 1st International Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition, which took place in Warsaw in 1935. From left to right: 3rd Prize winner Henry Temianka from Great Britain, 6th Prize winner Mary Luisa Sardo from Italy, 1st Prize winner Ginette Neveu from France and 2nd Prize winner David Oistrakh from the USSR. In the center, the winner of the 4th prize, Boris Goldstein (USSR).