Nineteen-year-old Emad Zolfaghari has won the 17th Primrose International Viola Competition, taking both the first, and the audience, prizes.
He entered the Phil and Eli Taylor Performance Academy for Young Artists as a full scholar at 12 years old, then was accepted into the Curtis Institute at 16. He has performed with, among others, the Orchestre Métropolitain, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the National Philharmonic, the Oakville Chamber Orchestra, and the National Metropolitan Philharmonic.
Zolfaghari has also won several other prizes, including first at the 2023 Irving M. Klein International String Competition, the International Morningside Music Bridge Competition, the Oakville Chamber Orchestra Competition and the Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra Competition.
For the Primrose Competition, Zolfaghari performed Bela Bartok's Viola Concerto with the Colburn Orchestra under Elias Peter Brown. With his award he has also received a $15,000 prize, and an invitation to perform at the American Viola Society Festival 2026, and to participate in the semi-finals of the Concert Artists Guild Competition.
The finals were held on June 21 and 22 at the Colburn School's Zipper Hall, and saw the participation of 21 violists, representing 12 counties.
The other winners are second placer Kinga Wojdalska, who also won the Transcription Prize for her transcription of Grażyna Bacewicz's Polish Capriccio, and third placer Andy Park. Mao Konishi also bagged the Illumination Prize for best performance of a work by an underrepresented composer demographic, with her performance of Akira Nishimura's Sonata for Viola Solo No. 2, entitled Mantra on the C string.
Established in 1979, the Primrose International Viola Competition is presented by the Colburn School and the American Viola Society. It is named after viola virtuoso, William Primrose, and has been described as the World Cup for the viola.
