Two world-renowned international viola competitions are joining forces for the very first time in one extraordinary week at The Glasshouse. From Sunday 19 to Saturday 25 January 2025, the Cecil Aronowitz and Lionel Tertis International Viola Competitions fill our building with the beautiful sound of the viola and the buzz of brilliant young musicians ready to challenge themselves and win.
You can watch all three rounds of the competition, see celebrity violists including Timothy Ridout and Nobuko Imai in action, take part in masterclasses and workshops, and be there for the thrilling finals when the competitors step onto the stage with Royal Northern Sinfonia.
Tickets go on sale at 12pm on Saturday 28 September.
The Cecil Aronowitz Viola Competition
The Cecil Aronowitz International Viola Competition is for young violists aged 18 and under.
Founded in Birmingham in 2014, the CAIVC is proud to have been an important part of the journeys of talented violists. With Timothy Ridout as the inaugural winner (2014), followed by Emma Wernig (2017), Edgar Francis (2021), and a further list of high-flying young soloists and chamber musicians such as Noga Shaham, Sào Soulez Larivière, Yue Yu and Tomohiro Arita who have won prizes, the future is looking bright.
This competition is dedicated to the memory and legacy of Cecil Aronowitz (1916-1978), a South African born violist, friend of Benjamin Britten chamber musician, soloist, teacher who has left a vast recording and musical legacy.
The Lionel Tertis Viola Competition
The Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition is open to violists aged 19 – 30.
Lionel Tertis was the first great virtuoso of the viola. He first started as a violinist at the Royal Academy of Music then taught himself the viola as there were no teachers of that instrument there at the time. In 1900 Tertis was appointed as the first professor of viola at the Academy and during this time he encouraged many of his colleagues to write works for him, with composers such as Arnold Bax, York Bowen and BJ Dale writing solo viola music that is still played all over the world today.
The competition was first held on the Isle on Man in 1980, and after a break of six years and a move across to Gateshead – closer to Tertis’ childhood home in Hartlepool – now returns for a 14th time.
