The British Viola Society is proud to announce the 40 live competitors chosen for the Cecil Aronowitz International Viola Competition 2020.

The competition will be held this November at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, part of Birmingham City University, supported by the Arts Council of England.

In light of current circumstances, we were delighted to receive 93 applications, all 21 years and under, with the youngest applicants only 14 years of age. To all the applicants, thank you so much for your incredible hard work and beautiful playing. The world really is filled with wonderful violists!

Thanks also to our partners, the Tertis Foundation, EM Records, English Music Festival, Bishop Instruments and Bows, British Violin Making Association, Gwyn Williams Trust, Ayres Violins, and Pirastro.

The 40 competitors of the 2020 competition are:

Vittorio Benaglia                (Italy)
Alvaro Castello                   (Spain)
Yuxin Chen                          (China)
Jone Diamantini                (Italy)
Edgar Francis                      (UK)
Chang Ge                           (China)
Seamus Hickey                   (Ireland)
Brian Isaacs                         (USA)
Yong-ha Jung                     (South Korea)
James Kang                        (USA)
Bill Ko                                    (Hong Kong)
Dagmar Korbar                  (Croatia)
Dana Lee                             (Australia)
Yat Lee                                 (Hong Kong)
Yixiu Lin                                  (China)
Laura Liu                               (USA)
Zitian Lyu                              (China)
Devin Moore                       (USA)
Hanuel Park                         (South Korea)
Anuschka Pedano            (Netherlands)
Connie Pharoah                (UK)
Eva-Maria Radl                   (Austria)
Mikel Rollet                           (USA)
Alinka Rowe                        (UK)
Noga Shaham                    (Israel)
Joseph Skerik                       (USA)
Abigail Smith                       (USA)
Miguel Sobrinho                 (Portugal)
Marvin Stark                         (Germany)
Lynn Sue-A-Quan              (Canada)
Nicholas Swensen              (Denmark)
Anna Sypniewski                (France)
Otoha Tabata                    (Japan)
Yanan Wang                       (China)
Yujie Wang                          (China)
Zhupeng Xi                          (China)
Mingyue Yu                         (China)
Yujie Zeng                            (China)
Jaren Ziegler                       (UK)
Paul Zientara                       (France)