The Schoenfeld International String Competition held a press conference on January 6, 2020 officially launching the 5th edition to take place July 15 to 29.

The press conference was made extra special by the presence of a delegation from the World Federation of International Music Competitions (WFIMC), an organization of more than 122 of the world’s leading classical music competitions founded in 1957. The delegation featured Didier Schorkh, President, Peter Paul Kainrath, Vice President, and Florian Riem, Interim Secretary General. The visiting delegation announced that Schoenfeld and Harbin will play host to the WFIMC’s 2023 General Assembly, marking the first time that the organization’s most important annual event will take place in China.

The conference included the announcement that the biennial Schoenfeld International String Competition will now accept applications from outstanding young violinists, cellists, and chamber music groups for its summer 2020 edition. Representing the Harbin Municipal People’s Government, the Director of the Harbin Cultural & Tourism Bureau announced that the Schoenfeld International String Competition will permanently reside in the city of Harbin. This significant commitment well illustrates the support and passion that the city’s leaders have for the Schoenfeld Competition, and the unique connection Harbin City has to classical music.

The Schoenfeld International String Competition in Harbin built its excellent international reputation with the help of world-class artists who have served on the Competition’s jury. Previous chairs include, Jean-Jacques Kantorow, David Geringas, Lynn Harrell, Shlomo Mintz, David Cerone, Jorge Mester, and Christoph Poppen. In 2018, the Schoenfeld Competition launched the innovative “Schoenfeld Deans and Art Leaders’ Summit,” bringing together heads of the leading institutions, top journalists, artistic managers, concert curators, as well as local elites from related fields. These unique exchanges dealt with topics ranging from young artist career development, to the future of the elite music education, to the development of international music competition in the contemporary Chinese context.

Peter Paul Kainrath said at the conference, “A competition needs to be run by people close to the international music life, curious about future developments, ambitious to promote their own candidates in the best possible way, guiding them to the most unexpected way of a career development. And being now in China I have to underline the huge potential of this country offering probably the most interesting opportunities for a young musician to experience different kind of stages, of audiences and reactions.

Today, the Schoenfeld International String Competition is one of the most important competitions to covers two major string disciplines and chamber music thanks in part to its membership in the World Federation of International Music Competitions. The success of the competition flows from the support of the local government and the vision of the Competition’s artistic leadership since its founding in 2013.

Florian Riem noted that “In these times when everything is over-commercialized, we need to look at what competitions can bring out in an artist … We, the World Federation of International Music Competitions, would like to applaud the Schoenfeld International String Competition in the beautiful Music City: Harbin, for their efforts in setting an exemplary standard to our industry.”

The President of WFIMC, Didier Schnorhk said “The WFIMC believes that having its first General Assembly in China hosted by the Schoenfeld International String Competition in Harbin is a wonderful opportunity. Leaders of the musical world and delegates will come to this City and discover its openness to the world, they will understand more deeply the specificity of the Schoenfeld competition, and they will appreciate the benefits of intercultural understanding.”

Text by Yeung-ping CHEN, Chief Operating Officer, Schoenfeld International String Competition & Associate Professor, South China Normal University

For more information, please visit: schoenfeldcompetition.com