NEC Alumnus Inmo Yang ’18, ’19 AD Wins 2022 International Jean Sibelius Violin Competition

Congratulations to violinist and NEC alumnus Inmo Yang ’18, ’19 AD, for winning first prize in the 2022 International Jean Sibelius Violin Competition. It is one of the oldest and most prestigious violin competitions in the world, and concluded this past week in Helsinki, Finland.

The prize includes €30,000, the loan of a fine violin by Giovanni Battista Guadagnini from Turin dated 1772, a mentoring prize from Pekka Kuusisto and Sakari Oramo, a product prize sponsored by Finnish loudspeaker systems company Genelec, and even the first NFT trophy prize awarded through the competition, developed by by Yle Innovations.

Yang also won €2,000 from the Sibelius family for the best performance of Magnus Lindberg’s commissioned work “Caprice.”

A former student of NEC violin faculty member Miriam Fried, Yang had previously won the 54th International Violin Competition “Premio Paganini” in Genoa, Italy in 2015, and has recorded two albums for German classical music label Deutsche Grammophon. Yang plays on the c. 1718 “Bostonian” Stradivarius, on loan from a private donor.