Sarah Strohm winner of the Concours de Genève
Switzerland's Sarah Strohm wins the Concours de Genève 2025 ex aequo with the American Brian Isaacs in the viola category. She also won almost all the special prizes.
There were 36 candidates at the start. The jury selected eight of them for the semi-finals. The finalists were Brian Isaacs, Sarah Strohm and Ayaka Taniguchi from Japan. Sarah Strohm won seven special prizes in addition to the main prize of CHF 20,000. The jury consisted of Tabea Zimmermann (chair), Tomoko Akasaka, Ettore Causa, Cynthia Phelps, Pauline Sachse, Jean Sulem and German Tcakulov.
Sarah Strohm began viola lessons with Noémie Bialobroda at the Conservatoire de Musique de Genève at the age of seven. Soon afterwards, she took part in the Conservatoire's intensive program, where she gained her first experience with chamber music projects under the guidance of renowned artists such as Leonardo Garcia Alarcón. She perfected her skills in masterclasses with Frédéric Kirch and Garth Knox as well as with Jean Sulem at the Cervo Summer Academy. Sarah was the winner of the Concours suisse de musique pour la jeunesse in 2018 and gained international attention when she won the Aims Foundation Competition in 2019 and performed as a soloist with orchestra in Solsona.
