Geneva International Music Competition

The Geneva International Music Competition (Concours international d'exécution musicale de Genève) is one of the world's leading international music competitions, founded in 1939. In 1957, it was one of the founding members of the World Federation of International Music Competition (WFIMC), whose headquarters are in Geneva.

Today, the Geneva Competition alternates between several main disciplines: piano, flute, oboe, clarinet, cello, viola, string quartet, voice and percussion. Every second year, it offers a Composition Prize. Upcoming competitions are cello & oboe (2021), piano & composition (2022), flute & string quartet (2023) and voice & composition (2024).

Its prizewinners include world-famous artists such as Martha Argerich, Arturo Benedetti-Michelangeli, Victoria de los Ángeles, Alan Gilbert, Nelson Goerner, Friedrich Gulda, Heinz Holliger, Nobuko Imai, Melos Quartet, Emmanuel Pahud, Maurizio Pollini, Georg Solti, José van Dam, Christian Zacharias and Tabea Zimmermann.

In addition to its official prizes, the Geneva International Music Competition offers a career development programme, which provides precious support and advice to help boost laureates' careers. This programme includes two years of concert management, as well as CD recordings, international tours, a festival and professional workshops.

1st prize winners

 * 1939 Clarinet Robert Gugolz 🇨🇭 Switzerland
 * 1939 Piano Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli 🇮🇹 Italy
 * 1939 Voice Maria Stader, 🇭🇺 Hungary
 * 1942 Piano Georg Solti 🇭🇺 Hungary
 * 1947 Clarinet Henri Druart 🇫🇷 France
 * 1948 Piano Charles Reiner 🇭🇺 Hungary
 * 1950 Clarinet Paul-Jacques Lambert 🇫🇷 France
 * 1953 Piano Jacques Klein 🇧🇷 Brazil
 * 1954 Voice Pamela Bowden 🇬🇧 United Kingdom
 * 1957 Clarinet Petko Radev 🇧🇬 Bulgaria
 * 1957 Piano Dominique Merlet 🇫🇷 France (ex aequo)
 * 1957 Piano Martha Argerich 🇦🇷 Argentina (ex aequo)
 * 1957 Voice James Milligan 🇨🇦 Canada
 * 1959 Oboe Heinz Holliger 🇨🇭 Switzerland
 * 1960 Clarinet Peter Rieckhoff West Germany
 * 1961 Piano Désiré N'Kaoua 🇫🇷 France
 * 1961 Flute Michel Debost 🇫🇷 France
 * 1962 Organ Joachim Grubich 🇵🇱 Poland
 * 1971 Cello Myung-wha Chung 🇰🇷 South Korea
 * 1972 Clarinet Thomas Friedli 🇨🇭 Switzerland
 * 1972 Viola Atar Arad 🇮🇱 Israel
 * 1972 Voice Konstantin Ploujnikov Soviet Union
 * 1973 Double Bass Ivan Kotov Soviet Union
 * 1973 Flute Kohno Toshiko 🇯🇵 Japan
 * 1973 Quartet Quatuor Kreuzberger West Germany
 * 1973 Trombone Anatole Skobelev Soviet Union
 * 1974 Harp Olga Ortenberg Soviet Union
 * 1974 Voice Gary Kendall 🇺🇸 United States
 * 1975 Guitar Dusan Bogdanovic Yugoslavia
 * 1976 Piano Tatiana Chebanova Soviet Union
 * 1976 Voice Katherine Ciesinski 🇺🇸 United States
 * 1977 Oboe Jean-Christophe Gayot 🇫🇷 France
 * 1977 Viola AnaBela Chaves 🇵🇹 Portugal
 * 1977 Voice Kristine Ciesinski 🇺🇸 United States
 * 1978 Voice Margareta Haverinen 🇫🇮 Finland
 * 1979 Voice Jean Christian 🇫🇷 France
 * 1980 Bassoon Gilbert Audin 🇫🇷 France
 * 1980 Vocal Quartet New York Vocal Ensemble 🇺🇸 United States
 * 1982 Percussion Peter Sadlo West Germany
 * 1982 Piano Evgeny Krouchevsky Soviet Union
 * 1982 Viola Tabea Zimmermann West Germany
 * 1983 Bass Nico Abondolo 🇺🇸 United States
 * 1983 Voice Juliana Gondek 🇺🇸 United States
 * 1984 Conducting Grzegorz Nowak 🇵🇱 Poland
 * 1985 Organ Jonathan Biggers 🇺🇸 United States
 * 1985 Voice Chihiro Bamba 🇯🇵 Japan
 * 1986 Cello Leonid Gorokhov Soviet Union
 * 1987 Trumpet Ole Edvard Antonsen 🇳🇴 Norway
 * 1987 Viola Hong-Mei Xiao 🇨🇳 China
 * 1987 Voice Maria Diaconu 🇷🇴 Romania
 * 1988 Guitar Viktor Vidović Yugoslavia
 * 1988 Oboe Alex Klein 🇧🇷 Brazil
 * 1988 Trombone Jonas Bylund 🇸🇪 Sweden
 * 1990 Clarinet Fabio Di-Casola 🇨🇭 Switzerland
 * 1990 Piano Nelson Goerner 🇦🇷 Argentina
 * 1990 Violin Zheng-Rong Wang 🇨🇳 China
 * 1991 Cello Wenn-Sinn Yang 🇨🇭 Switzerland
 * 1991 Tuba Jens Bjørn-Larsen 🇩🇰 Denmark
 * 1992 Flute Emmanuel Pahud 🇨🇭 Switzerland
 * 1993 Organ: Alessio Corti 🇮🇹 Italy
 * 1993 Violin Manara Francesco 🇮🇹 Italy
 * 1993 Voice: Jane Irwin 🇬🇧 United Kingdom
 * 1994 Conducting: Alan Gilbert 🇺🇸 United States
 * 1995 Bassoon: Laurent Lefèvre 🇫🇷 France
 * 1995 Cello: Claudio Bohorquez 🇩🇪 Germany
 * 1995 Guitar: Georgi Vassiliev 🇧🇬 Bulgaria
 * 1996 Trumpet: André Henry 🇫🇷 France
 * 1997 Clarinet: Martin Fröst 🇸🇪 Sweden
 * 1998 Double Bass: Janusz Widzyk 🇵🇱 Poland
 * 1998 Oboe: Alexei Ogrintchouk 🇷🇺 Russia
 * 2000 Cello: Rafael Rosenfeld 🇨🇭 Switzerland
 * 2000 Voice: Annette Dasch 🇩🇪 Germany (ex aequo)
 * 2000 Voice: Werner Erik Nelson 🇺🇸 United States (ex aequo)
 * 2001 Flute: Silvia Careddu 🇮🇹 Italy
 * 2001 Piano: Roland Krüger 🇩🇪 Germany
 * 2001 Quartet: Quatuor Terpsycordes 🇨🇭 Switzerland
 * 2002 Percussion: Aiyun Huang 🇨🇦 Canada
 * 2002 Piano: Sergey Koudriakov 🇷🇺 Russia
 * 2005 Viola: Ryszard Groblewski 🇵🇱 Poland
 * 2008 Cello: István Várdai 🇭🇺 Hungary
 * 2009 Voice: Polina Pasztircsák 🇭🇺 Hungary
 * 2010 Piano: Mami Hagiwara 🇯🇵 Japan
 * 2011 Composition: Artur Akshelyan 🇦🇲 Armenia
 * 2011 Quartet: Artemis Quartet 🇩🇪 Germany (ex aequo)
 * 2011 Quartet: Hermès Quartet 🇫🇷 France (ex aequo)
 * 2012 Piano: Lorenzo Soulès 🇫🇷 France
 * 2013 Composition: Kwang Ho Cho 🇰🇷 South Korea
 * 2014 Piano: Ji-Yeong Mun 🇰🇷 South Korea
 * 2015 Composition: Shoichi Yabuta 🇯🇵 Japan
 * 2016 Quartet: Vision String Quartet 🇩🇪 Germany
 * 2017 Composition: Jaehyuck Choi 🇰🇷 South Korea
 * 2018 Clarinet: Kevin Spagnolo 🇮🇹 Italy
 * 2018 Piano: Théo Fouchenneret 🇫🇷 France (ex aequo)
 * 2018 Piano: Dmitry Shishkin 🇷🇺 Russia (ex aequo)
 * 2019 Composition: Daniel Arango-Prada 🇨🇴 Colombia (ex aequo)
 * 2019 Composition: Hinako Takagi 🇯🇵 Japan (ex aequo)
 * 2019 Percussion: Hyeji Bak, 🇰🇷 South Korea

Search all prizewinners from 1939

Previous Disciplines
1995 and before, the competition also included a prize for Bassoon.