Ukrainian Musician Wins Prestigious Violin Competition in Paris

Bohdan Lutz, a Ukrainian violinist from Lviv, won the Long-Thibaud International Competition 2023, an international competition for academic pianists and violinists that has been held in Paris for 80 years. The Vere Music Fund, a foundation supporting Ukrainian musicians, wrote about this on Facebook.

"In the final of the competition, Bohdan performed a violin concerto by Sibelius. It was performed in the presence of two thousand spectators in the great hall of the University of Paris II, accompanied by the Orchestra of the Republican Guard under the direction of Maestro François Boulanger," the statement reads.

In addition, the violinist received several special prizes: the Press Prize, the Audience Award, and an award from the musicians of the orchestra that accompanied the finalists. On Monday, 27 November, Lutz, as the winner of the competition, will give a concert at the famous Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris.

Bohdan Lutz was born in 2004 in Lviv. He studied at the Mykola Lysenko Kyiv State Music Lyceum (class of Olga Korinets) and the Solomiya Krushelnytska Lviv State Music Lyceum (class of Maria Futorska).

Lutz is a winner of numerous international competitions. Among his achievements: first prize at the Carl Nielsen International Competition (Denmark, 2022); first prizes and four special awards at the III/V International Contests of young violinists "I'll be a virtuoso" (Poland, 2015, 2017); grand prix and first prize at the International Competition "Lviv Virtuoso" (Ukraine, 2017); grand prix and first prize at two competitions of the International Competition of Bohdan Warchal "Talents for Europe" (Slovakia, 2014, 2016) and many others.

He has given concerts in Switzerland, Slovakia and Ukraine. He has performed with the Copenhagen Symphony Orchestra, Odense Symphony Orchestra, Košice Symphony Orchestra (Slovakia), Lviv National Philharmonic, Lviv Virtuosi and Trembita chamber orchestras, INSO-Lviv Symphony Orchestra, and the National Ensemble of Soloists Kyiv Camerata.

For reference: The Long-Thibaud International Competition is an international classical music competition that has been held in France since 1943. It was created by the pianist Marguerite Long and the violinist Jacques Thibaud, whose names are used to name the competition. In 1980, it was split into two separate competitions, where pianists compete only with other pianists and violinists only with other violinists.

Over the years, Ukrainians have won the competition only twice. In 2018, the winner of the Long-Thibaud International Violin Competition was Ukrainian violinist Diana Tishchenko.