Yu-Chien Tseng of Curtis Institute top winner at Tchaikovsky Competition

A 20-year-old Curtis Institute of Music student is the top winner of the venerable International Tchaikovsky Competition in the violin category.

Yu-Chien "Benny" Tseng won the silver medal, second prize, in the Moscow competition, whose results were announced Wednesday. No gold award was given this year, which is not unusual.

The Taipei-born violinist came to Curtis in 2008, and the following summer, at age 14, played Vivaldi's The Four Seasons with the Philadelphia Orchestra at the Mann Center. Currently a student of Aaron Rosand, he previously studied with Ida Kavafian.

Tseng is an inveterate competition winner, having won prizes in the Queen Elisabeth Competition in 2012, the Premio Paganini International Violin Competition in 2010, and the Pablo Sarasate International Violin Competition in 2009.

His Tchaikovsky Competition performances of solo works, sonatas with piano, and a Mozart concerto - which show a violinist of great polish with a warm, malleable tone - can be seen and heard at www.tch15.medici.tv/en/artist/yu-chien-tseng.

The violin jury in this iteration of the competition (held every four years) included Salvatore Accardo, Leonidas Kavakos, Maxim Vengerov, Vadim Repin, Ilya Kaler, Nikolaj Znaider, and James Ehnes.

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