Violin 2026: Jury

Jury Biographies

Icelandic violinist Sibbi Bernhardsson joined the Oberlin Conservatory faculty in 2017 after performing for the previous 17 years with the Pacifica Quartet, with which he won a Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance, Musical America Ensemble of the Year honors, and the Avery Fisher Career Grant.

As a member of the Pacifica Quartet, Bernhardsson appeared in more than 90 concerts worldwide each year, including engagements in Wigmore Hall (London), the Vienna Konzerthaus, Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), Suntory Hall (Tokyo), Alice Tully Hall and Carnegie Hall (New York), and other major venues. He has performed at the Edinburgh Festival, Ravinia, Music@Menlo, and the Reykjavík Arts Festival, and has collaborated with Menahem Pressler, Yo-Yo Ma, Jörg Widmann, Lynn Harrell, Leon Fleisher, the Emerson String Quartet, Johannes Moser, and members of the Guarneri and Cleveland quartets. His television appearances include The Tonight Show, Saturday Night Live, and the MTV Europe Music Awards with Icelandic artist Björk. He appears on 16 recordings with the Pacifica Quartet and has recorded the violin music of Þorkell Sigurbjörnsson and the sonatas for violin and piano by Franz Schubert.

Bernhardsson serves as director of the Cooper International Violin Competition at Oberlin and as artistic director of Iceland’s Harpa International Music Academy. He gives regular concerts and master classes in the United States, Europe, and Asia, and has appeared as a soloist with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, the Reykjavík Chamber Orchestra, CityMusic Cleveland, and other ensembles.

Bernhardsson is a 1995 graduate of Oberlin Conservatory. His teachers include Guðný Guðmundsdóttir, Almita and Roland Vamos, Mathias Tacke, and Shmuel Ashkenasi. He previously served on the faculty of the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University.

A charismatic and deeply communicative artist, violinist Jinjoo Cho has appeared as a soloist with leading orchestras, including the Cleveland Orchestra, Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, Deutsche Radio Philharmonie, Orquesta Clásica Santa Cecilia de Madrid, Ensemble Appassionato (France), Seoul Philharmonic, as well as the North Carolina, Phoenix, and Charlotte symphonies.  She has collaborated with renowned conductors such as Karina Canellakis, JoAnn Falletta, Michael Francis, James Gaffigan, Moritz Gnann, Mathieu Herzog, Pietari Inkinen, Tito Muñoz, Kent Nagano, Peter Oundjian, Clemens Schuldt, Michael Stern, and Shi-Yeon Sung.

Equally devoted to chamber music, Jinjoo shares the stage with distinguished international artists including Ray Chen, Vadim Gluzman, Itamar Golan, Clive Greensmith, Gary Hoffman, Jaime Laredo, Andreas Ottensamer, Sharon Robinson and Roger Tapping.  In 2021, she co-founded the Trio Seoul with pianist Kyu Yeon Kim and cellist Brannon Cho.

Winner of 1st prizes at prestigious international competitions — Indianapolis, Montreal, Buenos Aires, Schoenfeld, and Stulberg—Jinjoo has captivated audiences worldwide since the age of 11.  Her international career spans major concert halls and festivals: Carnegie Hall (Stern Auditorium), Aspen Music Festival, Gilmore Festival, and La Jolla SummerFest (USA); the Banff Centre and Festival de Lanaudière (Canada); La Seine Musicale and Festival d’Aigues-Vives (France); Kronberg Academy, Schwetzingen Festival, and the Herkulessaal (Germany); Teatro Colón (Argentina); and the Seoul Arts Center (Korea).

A passionate educator and arts leader, Jinjoo is the Founding Artistic Director of the ENCORE Chamber Music Institute and she currently serves as Associate Professor of Violin at the Bienen School of Music at Northwestern University. She has previously taught at the Cleveland Institute of Music, Oberlin Conservatory, and the Schulich School of Music at McGill University (Canada). As a mentor and advocate for young artists, she has served on the jury of international competitions such as the Indianapolis Violin Competition (2022), Schoenfeld (China, 2024), and selection committees for the Montreal Competition (2019, 2023) and the Premio Paganini (Italy, 2023).

Jinjoo’s discography includes four acclaimed albums: Saint-Saëns (Naïve Classique), La Capricieuse (Sony Classical), The Indianapolis Commissions (Azica), and Jinjoo Cho (Analekta).  Praised for her “silken thread of violin sound” (Rondo Magazine) and “delightful curtain raiser” (Strad Magazine), her recordings have received both critical acclaim and commercial success.  Her artistic curiosity extends to interdisciplinary collaborations — such as with choreographer Jinyeob Cha — and to commissioning new works by composers like Juri Seo and Andrew Rindfleisch.

In 2021, she published her first book, Shine Someday, which became a bestseller on Korea’s major literary platforms.  Jinjoo’s artistry is deeply shaped by her mentors Paul Kantor and Jaime Laredo at the Cleveland Institute of Music, where she graduated.

Born in Tokyo in 1988, Japanese violinist  Ami Oike has been giving numerous concerts worldwide, including Japan, Korea, China, Switzerland, Serbia, and the United Kingdom. She is an Associate Professor at Tokyo University of the Arts (GEIDAI). She is a member of the Kioi Hall Chamber Orchestra, the Amity String Quartet and the Ensemble FOVE.

Ami concluded her studies at the Royal Northern College of Music, where she obtained an International Artistic Diploma studying under Yair Kless. Prior to this, she enrolled at the Haute École de Musique and attended the Master’s Course for solo performance under the tutelage of Pierre Amoyal. At the Tokyo University of the Arts she studied with Kazuki Sawa, Gerard Poulet and Oleh Krysa. Her competition successes include 2nd Prize at the Carl Flesch International Violin Competition in 2013, 1st prize and Commission Prize at the RNCM Manchester International Violin Competition in 2011, 1st prize and Listener Prize at the 78th Japan Annual Music Competition is 2009 and 1st Prize at the Eto Toshiya Violin Competition in 2008.

“Listeners were transported into Ami Oike’s world from the very first note. Aided by impeccable technique, she presented the work with both solid pacing and grandness of scale. Her tone displayed sublime variety, characterized by a jade-like luster and generously romantic sentiment; meticulously crafted passages and sweetly sung melodies completed an interpretation of utter conviction. Above all,  Ami Oike’s comprehensive understanding of the work was manifested in her dynamic playing, resulting in a superlative performance with unmatched rapport between orchestra and soloist.” – review in Ongaku no tomo Magazine (2009) on the performance of Bartók’s Violin Concerto No. 2 at the 78th Japan Annual Music Competition 2009.

Chinese-born American violinist Qian Zhou is internationally recognized as a distinguished soloist, recording artist, and pedagogue. Following her landmark victory at the Marguerite Long–Jacques Thibaud International Competition, where she won the First Grand Prize and all five major prizes, she has performed extensively as recitalist and soloist throughout Europe, the United States, Asia, and Africa.

She has appeared with many of the world’s leading orchestras, including the Baltimore Symphony, BBC Symphony, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Hong Kong Philharmonic, New Japan Philharmonic, Russian Philharmonic, Singapore Symphony, Shanghai Symphony, and the Vienna Chamber Orchestra, among others. Her recital appearances have taken her to major international venues such as the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, London’s Royal Festival Hall, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, and the Vienna Konzerthaus.

Qian Zhou’s discography of ten recordings for Naxos, Hugo, and Hungaroton spans repertoire from Bach to Bartók and has received critical acclaim. Her recording of the Beethoven Concerto was praised in The Strad for its technical polish, tonal beauty, and interpretive depth, with Henry Roth describing her playing as possessing “a rare nobility of spirit.”

Since 2003, she has served as Founding Head of Strings at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music in Singapore, where her students have achieved international distinction. She is Chair of the Artistic Committee and Jury of the Singapore International Violin Competition and Artistic Director of the Singapore Violin Festival.

Qian Zhou performs on a 1757 J.B. Guadagnini violin, generously loaned by the late Mr. and Mrs. Rin Kei Mei.

She is a Thomastik-Infeld artist.