Jayden King, 11, Wins 2026 George Enescu International Competition

by Laurie Niles · September 15, 2026

On Sunday Jayden King, 11, of the U.S. was awarded First Prize in the Violin Section of the 2026 George Enescu International Competition in Bucharest, becoming the youngest winner in the history of the competition.

Laureates in the Violin Section of the 2026 George Enescu International Competition: Francesco Papa, Jayden King and Eun Che Kim. Photo by Andrada Pavel, Alex Damian, courtesy of the Enescu Competition.

Here are all the laureates in the Violin Section of the competition:

• First Prize (15,000 euros): Jayden King of the United States
• Second Prize (10,000 euros): Francesco Papa of Italy
• Third Prize (5,000 euros): Eun Che Kim of South Korea
• Best Performance of a George Enescu Sonata (3,000 euros): Francesco Papa
• Best Performance of the Commissioned Work “Still Life with Fallen Stone” by Lembit Beecher (2,000 euros): Jayden King
• Audience Prize: Jayden King
• Playing for Tomorrow Prize: Mariam Abouzahra of Germany
• Sherban Lupu Prize, awarded to the highest-ranked Romanian competitor in the Violin Section and offered by the Șerban Lupu Cultural Foundation: Iohan Coman of Romania

King was one of 32 violinists who performed in Bucharest, selected from 185 violinists who originally applied for the competition. For the final round, he performed the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto with George Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor Harry Ogg at Romanian Athenaeum. Here is an excerpt from his performance:

Below: Jayden King performs the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto with the George Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor Harry Ogg in the final round of the 2026 Enescu Competition (excerpt).

King began studying violin at age three and was accepted at age seven into the Juilliard Pre-College Division, where he studies with Professor Masao Kawasaki. He has appeared as a soloist at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and Merkin Hall, and has earned top honors in major international competitions. His recent achievements include Second Prize at the 2026 Henri Marteau International Violin Competition, where he was the youngest participant, and semifinalist at the 2026 Stulberg International Competition. He was also a winner of the Goldene Note 2026.

Violinist Jayden King, 11. Photo by Andrada Pavel, Alex Damian, courtesy of the Enescu Competition.

In 2025, he won the Juilliard Pre-College All-Ages Concerto Competition, earned First Prize at the Verão Clássico Festival & Academy, and was selected for the Juilliard Starling-DeLay Symposium. He also received Third Prize at the Andrea Postacchini Competition. Jayden made his orchestral debut at six and has performed internationally.

The George Enescu International Competition, still ongoing, is comprised of three sections: Cello, Violin and Piano. The Cello Section took place Aug. 29 through Sept. 7, when 28-year-old Swiss cellist Samuel Niederhauser was announced as the first-prize winner. The Violin Section took place Sept. 4-13, and the Piano Section started Sept. 10 and will continue through Sept. 19.

The jury for the 2026 Violin Section included President Mihaela Martin, Ida Kavafian, Alissa Margulis, Vladimir Nemtanu, Nora Pötter, Bujor Prelipcean, Liviu Prunaru, Namanja Radulovic and Kathleen Winkler.

The Enescu competition, held every two years, was started in 1958 as part of Romania's George Enescu International Festival, named for the country's most famous composer.

Reader comments on Violinist.com

Selected comments from the original article.

Paul Deck · September 15, 2026
Wow, there's a talented kid. I wonder if he is even playing a full-sized violin.

Laurie Niles · September 15, 2026
My sense is that his is not playing a full-size, as it is not out-of-proportion to him. But, now I'm curious about the instrument! Most fractional fiddles lack that tone quality, but there have been some movements to make and provide higher-quality fractional instruments to children who are at this level.

Nate Robinson · September 17, 2026
It is a full size violin by Peter Greiner. [The original comment linked to a Facebook post.]

Laurie Niles · September 19, 2026
Really interesting, so that would be a relatively new fiddle. Greiner made the fiddles used by Christian Tetzlaff, too. Are you sure it was a full-size? It does not say in that post.

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