by Daniel Hathaway
Following Friday’s full concerto performances in Oberlin’s Finney Chapel with Norman Huynh and the Columbus-based ProMusica Chamber Orchestra, the panel of judges announced the three top winners in the 2025 Thomas and Evon Cooper International Violin Competition.
Taking first place with her performance of the Tchaikovsky concerto, 13-year-old Edna Unseld from Zurich, Switzerland (pictured, below) banked a cash prize of $20,000, plus a variety of professional opportunities.
Julia Xiaozhuo Wang (17, Nanjing, China) won second prize of $10,000 with the Brahms concerto, and Third Prize prize winner Tiantian Lu (15, Ningbo, China), who also played the Tchaikovsky concerto, took home $5,000.
Earlier, following Wednesday’s Recital Round, three additional winners were announced: fourth place went to Jinan Laurentia Woo (17, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.), fifth place to Emrik Revermann (16, Toronto, Canada), and sixth place to Lauren Yoon (16, Tenafly, N.J.). Revermann also earned the audience prize of $500.
The Cooper Violin Competition alternates years with the Cooper Piano Competition. Both usually take place in the summer, but the schedule was altered in 2025 due to construction on the Oberlin campus.
Published on ClevelandClassical.com January 13, 2025
