by Daniel Hathaway
Monday evening’s Cooper International Competition for Violin concerto finals in Oberlin’s Warner Concert Hall marked the culmination of a week’s worth of public playing that took the measure of an impressive group of young musicians in solo recitals.
Now, joined onstage by conductor David Danzmayr and the Columbus ProMusica Chamber Orchestra, the three performers who had risen to the top would demonstrate their ability to put full concertos across. Grace under pressure, a spirit of collaboration, and a deep feeling for the music were among the requirements.
Elizabeth Poppy Song (center), age 16, from the United States, led off with a beautiful opening statement of the lyrical theme in Sergei Prokofiev’s Concerto No. 2 in G minor, and gradually and with great control shifted the music into a more spirited mood. She maintained good coordination with Danzmyr and the orchestra as the first movement alternated between technical and lyric passages and culminated in an exciting pizzicato ending.
We all know the names of the superstar violinists who regularly grace the stages of the world’s famous concert halls. But what they have in common is that they were all once young musicians honing their skills in hopes of having a career that would lead them to those renowned venues.
With light snow and a winter wind blowing outside Oberlin’s Finney Chapel, the Final Round of the 2025 Cooper Competition — the January edition of the usual August event — looked a bit different this year. And yet, there was also a healthy sense of déjà vu.
After impressive performances by six young violinists during the second round of the Cooper International Violin Competition, the jury selected three to advance to the final round. On August 19 at Oberlin Conservatory’s Warner Concert Hall, the talented violinists presented concertos by Tchaikovsky and Brahms with the Canton Symphony under the direction of Gerhardt Zimmermann.
After the final notes of the 2022 Cooper International Violin Competition had been played, the jury announced that the First Prize winner was Seohyun Kim of South Korea. 
After a grueling three rounds at Oberlin’s Thomas and Evon Cooper International Competition, on Friday evening, July 26 at Severance Hall, 18-year-old violinist Eric Charles Chen from Princeton, New Jersey was awarded the grand prize of $20,000. Earning second place and $10,000 was 14-year-old Shihan Wang of Beijing, China, while Sixteen-year-old Isabella Brown of Gurnee, Illinois, earned third place and $5,000.