Following four exceptional days of quarter-finals at the Queenstown Memorial Centre, in which 16 extraordinary violinists from across the world each performed two programmes of work, the judges have selected the following six Competitors to move through to Round III – the Chamber round – in Auckland this week (in their performance order):

Wednesday 3 June
Hyein Koo (Seoul)
Tianyou Ma (New York)
Beatrice Colombis (Sydney/Berlin)

Thursday 4 June
Jakow Pavlenko (Berlin)
Xunyue Zhang (Berlin)
Julia Wang (Vienna)

Beatrice Colombis also received a NZD$1000 prize for best performance of a New Zealand-commissioned work – Salina Fisher’s Chasm.

The semi-finalists each perform a piano quintet with eminent NZ musicians. In 2026, they are NZTrio violinist Amalia Hall, cellist Matthias Balzat and pianist Jian Liu, and Auckland Philharmonia violist Robert Ashworth.

The 2026 Michael Hill International Violin Competition will come to its thrilling climax at Auckland Town Hall on Saturday 6 June. Audiences experience drama, passion and breathtaking performances before the judges decide who will be crowned the 2026 Winner.

First prize in the ‘Michael Hill’ is NZ$40,000, a recording contract with the Atoll label, and a multi-centre Winner’s Tour with Chamber Music New Zealand and Auckland Philharmonia. There are a number of other prizes, too, including the Sheila Smith Prize – a three-year loan of a Domenico Montagnana violin, facilitated by Rare Violins of New York.

We’d like to acknowledge our international judging panel: James Ehnes, Ed Dusinberre, Josef Špaček, Geneva Lewis, Prof Vera Tsu Weiling, Andrew Beer and Natsuko Yoshimoto.

Tickets are onsale here