Next Menuhin Competition hosted in Oslo

The next Menuhin Competition will take place in Oslo from 16 to 25 April 2010. It will also be a celebration of the 200th anniversary of Norway's great violinist Ole Bull. To honour Bull, we have added some new elements to the competition repertoire - read more.

The competition will be hosted by four of the leading Norwegian Music Organisations - the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra , the Norwegian Academy of Music, the Barratt Due Institute, the Norwegian Council for Schools of Music and Performing Art  and the Oslo Opera House.

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Who can take part in the Competition?

The Competition is open to violinists of any nationality under the age of 22.  Junior competitors must be under 16 years of age and senior competitors under 22 years of age on the 25 of April 2010 (everybody born after 25 April 1988).  Violinists aged 15 may also enter the Senior Section.

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How are the Competitors selected?

The Menuhin Competition always receives more applications than it can accept participants. Each competition section (Junior and Seniors) takes 22 of the world's best players.

Applicants have to send a DVD with their performance of the required application repertoire and a number of documents including references. After the application deadline (31 October 2009) an international pre-selection jury will choose the strongest applicants to become competitors of the 2010 competition.

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What's new in 2010?

To celebrate the great Norwegian violinist Ole Bull, we have for the first time replaced Paganini's works in the repertoire with works by Ole Bull. As those are not widely available, you can download them from this website in May.

We also have, for the first time ever, added a short piece for improvisation to the Junior repertoire. We know this is quite unusual but improvisation has a long tradition and forms an important element in artistic performance. It was practiced and developed by composers and performers such as Tartini, Mozart, Liszt and Ole Bull through to Ysaye and Kreisler. These days when most players are not composers and few composers are performing artists it is important to introduce young musicians to improvisation as a means to explore their own musicality.

The competition is devoted to Yehudi Menuhin’s philosophy of nurturing musicality by encouraging spontaneity and individuality in young musicians. Inspired by the celebration of Ole Bull, the competition and its Norwegian hosts feel a strong sense of responsibility to encourage the nearly lost tradition of improvisation in classical music. It is the first time we include improvisation in the competition repertoire. We would like it to be another artistic skill for our competitors to learn. However, knowing the challenge this poses, it will not be pivotal in determining who passes into the Finals.

Henning Kraggerud, a leading Norwegian violinist, will give an open workshop in improvisation at the Norwegian Academy of Music on Saturday April 17th, 2010 at 12.00pm and competitors are invited to take part in the workshop prior to their performance.

We are also introducing a quick study element to the Senior repertoire. It will give competitors an opportunity to show their creativity, spontaneity and musical individuality. Competitors have 30 minutes to prepare a newly commissioned three minute work on their own before performing it for the jury and audience.

And with Arne Nordheim’s contemporary Partita für Paul, a work for violin and digital delay unit, we  introduce the use of electronic equipment in the competition for the first time.