In an effort to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, and in line with recommendations from both international and U.S. public health officials, the Menuhin Competition Trust and the Richmond Symphony have decided to postpone the Menuhin Competition Richmond 2020 until May 13-23, 2021.
Participants, jurors and guest artists
All 44 competitors who were selected for the Menuhin Competition Richmond 2020 have been invited to participate in the rescheduled Competition. The competitors will play the same repertoire and will participate in the same division for which they qualified in 2020, even if they have aged out of this division in the intervening year. Updated information about participating competitors, jurors and guest artists will be released later this spring. Early indications suggest that many of our participants will happily be able to join us in May 2021, including the Sphinx Virtuosi, Mark and Maggie O’Connor, Regina Carter, and Intermission; as well as conductors Jahja Ling and Andrew Litton.
“I look forward to welcoming all the competitors, jurors, artists-in-residence and the audience to the Menuhin Competition next May,” said Gordon Back, Artistic Director of the Menuhin Competition. “Despite the world-wide coronavirus crisis causing us to postpone this year’s event, we are working hard with our partners, who really have made Herculean efforts to reschedule and ensure the Menuhin Competition Richmond 2021 is the most successful Competition ever!”
“I am positive that it will be a brilliant success,” Back added, “and as Menuhin himself said, ‘Our young gifted violinists will be the ambassadors of goodwill.’”
Executive Director of the Richmond Symphony, David Fisk, said on behalf of the host consortium of partners, “All of us involved in the Menuhin Competition Richmond 2020 regret the need to postpone the event, but recognize the imperative to avoid any large gatherings until the COVID-19 danger has lifted. In the meantime, we hope everyone stays safe and healthy; music can be a source of uplift for all of us during this difficult and uncertain time. We look forward with great anticipation to hosting the Menuhin Competition in 2021, eagerly welcoming ‘the Olympics of the Violin’ to Richmond next May instead. The city is ready, our partners are ready, and during the coming year, we’ll work to make next year’s Competition even bigger and better than before.”
Ticketing information
If you purchased tickets to any of the Menuhin Competition Richmond 2020 events, those tickets will be honored in 2021. You will be contacted by box office staff to confirm your tickets or you can be issued a refund should you be unable to attend the Richmond 2021 Competition.
If you have questions, please contact the VCU Music Box Office at musictix@vcu.edu, or Menuhin Competition Marketing & Sales Coordinator Ashley Davis at 804-788-4717 ext. 124 or adavis@richmondsymphony.com.