| For the second edition in a row, the youngest candidate wins the Tibor Varga International Violin Competition. At the end of a thrilling final on Saturday 30 August in Sion, Aozhe Zhang (17 years old) triumphed against his two competitors, Maria Lundina (25 years old) and Reika Sato (26 years old), who obtained the Second and Third Prizes respectively. In front of a packed house at NODA BCVS, the three finalists each performed one of the greatest violin concertos, accompanied by the South Czech Philharmonic and winds from renowned Italian orchestras, conducted by Valentin Uryupin. A total of 23 young violinists under the age of 30 took part in the public rounds of the Competition, which recorded a further increase in participation of 7.5% (160 entries) compared with the previous edition in 2023. Prizes worth over CHF 40,000 were awarded. In 2023 already, the youngest candidate Seohyun Kim, aged 14 at the time, won over the Jury of the Tibor Varga Competition. Aozhe Zhang also won the Youth Jury Prize, while Maria Lundina was awarded the Public Prize. Eva Ter-Sarkisova (21 years old) was singled out for her best performance of Shin Kim's Capriccio for solo violin, commissioned by the Competition and played in the 1st round. In addition to Chairman Pavel Vernikov, the international Jury included Monika Baer, Ariadne Daskalakis, Sunny Lee, Fumiaki Miura, Lucie Robert and Anton Sorokow. Cellist Thomas Grossenbacher and pianist Adrian Oetiker joined them in the 3rd round. They interacted with the six candidates in this demanding chamber music concert, which also featured soprano Ekaterina Shelehova. The Youth Jury was made up of students from the Conservatory of Valais, coached by violin teacher Nadia Rigolet. All the events were livestreamed on YouTube and Twitch. The final with orchestra was also livestreamed on The Violin Channel. 160 candidates (2023: 149) registered to take part in this 2025 edition of the Tibor Varga International Violin Competition, which took place from 22 to 30 August in Sion, first at the Pôle Musique, then in the main hall of NODA BCVS. The Jury selected 28 young violinists on video, 23 of whom finally took part in the Competition: 12 men and 11 women with an average age of just over 23. The candidates came from 3 continents and 16 different countries. | 
