Takehiro Konoe (Amsterdam, 1997), has won the Fifth  National Viola Competition. In the final he played Schwanendreher by Hindemith and Concert piece bij Enesco.  William Murray (Melbourne, 1985) won second prize and Martin Moriarty (Dublin, 1994) third prize.

The three prizewinners are all Conservatorium van Amsterdam students. Takehiro Konoe started his violin studies with Coosje Wijzenbeek and played in the Fancy Fiddlers string orchestra. Currently he studies with Nobuko Imai and Francien Schatborn in the first year of the bachelor’s degree programme. William Murray studies in the second year of the master’s degree programme and Martin Moriarty in the third year of the bachelor’s degree programme, both with Nobuko Imai.

Achttien young, talented violists participated in this edition of the National Viola Competition. The jury included Roland Kieft (chairperson), Jürgen Kussmaul, Eric van der Wel and Hannah Strijbos. Previous prizewinners are: Armen Nazarian (2015),  Marc Sabbah (2013), Anna-Magdalena Den Herder (2011) and Saeko Oguma (2009).