Today, we are announcing the results of the First Round of the 8th Oskar Nedbal International Viola Competition.
First of all, we would like to thank every violist who applied.
With 132 applications from around the world, this has become the largest edition in the history of our competition. Even more importantly, the artistic level was truly exceptional. Our international jury was deeply impressed by the quality of the performances, making this the most challenging First Round selection we have ever faced.
Congratulations to all the semifinalists!
To everyone who took part, thank you for placing your trust in our competition and for sharing your artistry with us. It has been a privilege to listen to your performances, and we sincerely hope that many of you will continue your musical journey with us and apply again in the years to come.
We look forward to welcoming the semifinalists to Prague this autumn!
The 2026 semi-finalists (in alphabetical order) are:
- Diego Alvarado Sanchez (Venezuela/Chile, 2005)
- Vincenzo Calcagno (USA, 2002)
- Junyan Du (China, 2008)
- Linda Emilia Emilsson (Germany, 2005)
- Andreas Grimstad (Norway, 2001)
- Jaeyun Han (South Korea, 2010)
- Jianxiu Jiang (China, 2004)
- Tabea Ockert (Germany, 2002)
- Momoka Okada (Japan, 2001)
- Laura Primavesi (Germany, 2003)
- Hannah Teufel (Germany, 2001)
- Antoine Thévoz (Switzerland, 2005)
- Guilherme Tomás (Portugal, 2003)
- Jeonghwan Yoon (South Korea, 1997)
- Pengxi Zhu (China, 2005)
- Jinglin Zhou (China, 2002)