International violin competition opening in Poland

Penderecki will conduct German orchestra Die Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen’s gala concert.

South Korea’s Soyoung Yoon, the 2011 winner of the event, will appear as the soloist in Beethoven’s Violin Concerto in D major.

Forty-eight violinists from 17 countries, including the United States, Canada, Ukraine, Israel, Georgia, Russia, New Zealand, China, Japan and Poland, will begin first-round auditions on Sunday.

They were selected from 250 candidates by famous violin virtuoso and conductor Maxim Vengerov, who chairs the competition jury, in preliminary auditions held in Poland, Canada, Japan and Switzerland.

Prizewinners' names will be announced on 22 October.

Held for the first time in Warsaw in 1935, the Wieniawski Competition is the world’s oldest violin competition. It moved to Poznań after a lapse of 17 years and has been held in that city every five years since 1952.

Its past prizewinners include Ginette Neveu, David Oistrakh, Ida Haendel, Grażyna Bacewicz and Agata Szymczewska.

Henryk Wieniawski (1835-1880) is regarded as one of the world's greatest violinists after Paganini. His compositional output includes two violin concertos, mazurkas, polonaises, etudes and caprices. (mk/vz/pk)