(Clearwisdom.net) On July 27, the final session of the NTDTV First Global Chinese Violin Competition was held at the Town Hall Foundation, in Manhattan, New York. Tony Avella, New York City Council member, hosted the awards ceremony.

The awards ceremony. From left to right: Tony Avella, New York City Council member; Li Zong, president of NTDTV; Lin Jiayi, chair of the judging committee; Li Yunxi, winner of the "Rising Star" award; Li Zhenxi, second-place winner; Tong Yan, first-place winner; Chen Jiahui, third-place winner; Liu Fangyou, winner of the best performer and "Kloss Fellowship;" Cai Chenghan and Duo He, winners of Outanding Performance awards; Louis Lev, contest judge and Chen Rutang, music director of the Divine Performing Arts Company

Li Zong, president of NTDTV, said that all the competitors, organizers and the audience contributed to restoring classical traditional culture

Tony Avella, New York City Council member and host of the awards ceremony, thanked NTDTV for organizing the competition

At the final event, all the competitors were required to play one of six Caprices by Niccolo Paganini and one of two pieces by Henryk Wieniawski.

Six violinists entered the final round. Tong Yan from America won the first place Gold Award. Li Zizhen from Canada and Chen Jiahui from Singapore won the second (Silver Award) and the third place (Bronze Award) respectively. Li Yuanxi from Canada won the title of "Rising Star." Liu Fangyou from Taiwan, Cai Chenghan and Duo He from America won "Outstanding Performance" awards. Liu Fangyou also won the "Kloss Fellowship" presented by Sherry Kloss, one of the judges for the competition. She will take a week-long course at Kloss Music Institute next year.

Li Zong, president of NTDTV, said that the violin competition is the first competition of this year's NTDTV's Global Competition Series. In addition to the violin competition there will be vocal, dance, martial arts, culinary skills, Han couture, piano, oil painting and photography competitions. The purpose of these nine competitions is to establish a bridge for the communication between East and West and promote both Chinese and Western cultures.

Professional violinists and music fans had high praise for the finalists in the competition. Wang Xiyao, a well-known Chinese violinist, said that the winners are world-class, each with their own styles. Wang said the winners have a very good understanding of the music and wonderful skills to express the music. Several people from the audience expressed their surprise at the high skill levels displayed in the competition. Susan Rogh, a linguist, said it was amazing that young artists played such difficult pieces so well. Rosalind Zuger of New York said, "Chinese society should be proud of these geniuses. They are wonderful."

The NTDTV Vocal Competition will be held at the Town Hall Foundation on August 8-10. For details, please visit http://competitions.ntdtv.com. After the awards ceremony for the vocal competition on August 10, there will be a Divine Performing Arts Gala at the State Theater in New Jersey. For tickets, please call: 1-877-683-7469.