Xunyue Zhang and Maxim Tzekov win at the International Mozart Competition in Salzburg
Chinese Eisler student Xunyue Zhang won first prize worth €10,000 in the violin category at the Mozarteum University's International Mozart Competition. Third prize went to Austrian Maxim Tzekov, who also studies at the Eisler.
The main prize winner, Xunyue Zhang, played Mozart's Concerto for Violin and Orchestra No. 4 in D major, K. 218, in the final round, accompanied by the Mozarteum Orchestra conducted by Ion Marin. Xunyue Zhang was a junior student at the Shanghai Conservatory, completed her bachelor's degree at the Eisler and is currently studying for her master's degree with Prof. Stephan Picard. She performs as a soloist with orchestras in Germany, Italy and China and is a prize winner of the Henri Marteau Competition 2023 and the Lipizer Competition 2022. She was a semi-finalist in the Joseph Joachim Competition 2024 and the Tibor Varga Competition 2025.
Maxim Tzekov from Prof. Ulf Wallin's violin class won third prize with prize money of €5,000. As a soloist and chamber musician, the multi-award-winning violinist has performed at international concert halls such as the Musikverein in Vienna, the Philharmonie Luxembourg and the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg. From 2023 to 2025, he was an academician at the Seiji Ozawa Academy Switzerland.
Xunyue Zhang and Maxi Tzekov are scholarship holders of the German Music Foundation, which provides them with valuable violins on loan. Xunyue Zhang is currently receiving a Germany Scholarship funded by the Hans Thomann Foundation.