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The finals of the 2025 Il Piccolo Violino Magico competition took place on 13 July at the Zotti Auditorium in San Vito al Tagliamento, Italy. First prize was awarded to South Korean violinist Choi Soojin (b.2012). She receives €5,000 and a violin by Fabio Piagentini, made from Italian wood from the Tavisio forest and donated by the Risonanze Festival.
Laura Jin (b.2012) from Australia received the €3,000 second place; Japanese-American violinist Tokura Lin (b.2011) was awarded the €2,000 third prize and the fourth prize went to Rakočević Nina (b.2011) from Serbia, who received €1,000. All four finalists were also given a coupon from Larsen Strings and an Artonus case.
Special prizes were also awarded. These include the €1,000 CIDIM Prize for the best performance of a Baroque concerto, which went to Jorba-Wu Sacha and Kim Seong-on; the €500 Alema Prize for the best performance of Mozart’s repertoire, which went to Zhang Ziqian; and the €500 Pitars Prize for the best performance of the virtuoso piece, awarded to Matsushima Sumireko.
Born in Seoul, South Korea, Choi Soojin started learning the violin at the age of seven at her local academy. When she was ten, she began studying with Sun-ny Lee at the Seoul Center Conservatory. In 2024, she performed at the Kumho Prodigy Concert. Other competition success includes first place at the Music Education News Concours in 2020, the Grand Prize at the Asia Tchaikovsky Competition for Young Artists in 2024 and first prize at the Ehwa Kyunghyang Music Competition.
The jury was chaired by Pavel Vernikov and included Latica Honda-Rosenberg, So-Ock Kim, Jens Lohmann, Alberto Martini, Yury Revich and Dmitry Smirnov.
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