SEMI-Final Round

Congratulations to the 8 violists who qualified for the semi-finals in a first live round at the very highest level.

The program for the 2025 semifinals can be found here: Semifinals Part 2 program on October 12, 2025
Semifinal Part 1 program on October 11, 2025
Semifinal Part 2 program on October 12, 2025

The jury has selected the following 8 violists for the semi-finals:

...

Jaeyoung Kim (23)
KOREA

Martta Kunnola (born 2005) is a Finnish viola student at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin, studying in Nils Mönkemeyer’s class. Previously, she studied at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München, also with Mönkemeyer, and at the Sibelius Academy’s Youth Department under Annariina Jokela, Lilli Maijala, and Teemu Kupiainen...

Martta Kunnola (19)
FINLAND

The Japanese violist An Maeyama is based in Kyoto as a member of the City of Kyoto Symphony Orchestra since April 2023.
An graduated from Kyoto City University of Arts as a top student...

An Maeyama (28)
JAPAN

Ayaka Taniguchi is a Japanese violist currently studying with Prof. Tabea Zimmermann at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Frankfurt am Main.

As a soloist, she has performed a wide range of works, from Baroque to contemporary music, in various concerts and recitals...

Ayaka Taniguchi (23)
JAPAN

The Chinese-born violist Yanan Wang received her first musical training from 2013 to 2018 at the High School of the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing with Hai Cao. Her artistic journey took her to Europe in 2018. Yanan completed her bachelor's degree at the Mozarteum University Salzburg in the class of William Coleman...

Yanan Wang (25)
CHINA

Violinist and violist Miranda Werner is currently pursuing her M.M. at the Yale School of Music, where she is a student of Soovin Kim. Last spring she graduated with High Distinction and Music Honors from Indiana University, where she studied violin with Mark Kaplan and viola with Mark Holloway...

Miranda Werner (25)
USA

Jinglin Zhou, a 23-year-old violist, is currently pursuing master degree of music on a full scholarship at the Juilliard School in New York, under the mentorship of Carol Rodland and Samuel Rhodes. Born in 2002 in Hunan, China, Jinglin began his musical journey at the age of 10 with violin before transitioning to viola...

Jinglin Zhou (23)
CHINA

Xunyu Zhou is 17, she studied at the Aﬃliated Middle School of Shanghai Conservatory of Music with professor Liu Nian from 2017 to 2024. She began her Bachelor degree with professor Tabea Zimmermann at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Frankfurt am Main from 2024...

Xunyu Zhou (17)
CHINA

SCHEDULE SEMI-FINALS

Saturday, October 11, 2025
• 11:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m. = Xunyu Zhou
• 12:15–1:15 p.m. = Jaeyoung Kim
• 3:00–4:00 p.m. = Ann Maeyama
• 4:15–5:15 p.m. = Miranda Werner

Sunday, October 12, 2025
• 11:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m. = Martta Kunnola
• 12:15–1:15 p.m. = Ayaka Taniguchi
• 3:00–4:00 p.m. = Jinglin Zhou
• 4:15–5:15 p.m. = Yanan Wang

• 6:30–6:45 p.m. = Announcement of the 3 finalists (Grand Concert Hall)

REPERTOIRE REQUIREMENTS

The 8 competitors who advance to the Semi-Final Round will be required to play a self-moderated, creative, varied (several epochs are desired) and appealing recital (in German or English) with a total length of 60 minutes, which should relate to Hindemith in its entirety and contain 10 to a maximum of 15 minutes of spoken text. It must contain Paul Hindemith's Sonata Op. 25 No. 4 in its entirety.

Works with and without piano accompaniment are permitted in the Semi-Final Round.
Works from previous rounds (including the pre-screening round) and works with orchestra are not permitted in the Semi-Finals.

During the competition we offer a workshop to familiarize yourself with the general requirements of moderation.

PARTICIPANTS IN THE 2nd LIVE ROUND

The jury will announce the names of the eight violists qualified for the 2nd Live Round on October 10th at 1:30 pm in the Large Concert Hall of the University.

More information will follow on the evening of Friday, October 10th .

FREE ADMISSION

Admission to all events of the competition is free.
Only the masterclasses have a limited number of places available. We therefore ask you to register at info@hindemithcompetition.org at least 24 hours before the respective masterclass. Approximately 20 places will be available for non-university members.