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THE MUSIC COMPETITION WITH THE MOST EDITIONS IN THE WORLD

The “Gian Battista Viotti” International Music Competition is one of the oldest musical competitions dedicated to young artists. Established in 1950, it is the competition that boasts the highest number of editions in the world.

The Viotti Competition originated from a celebratory anniversary: in 1950, it was created to honor the 70th anniversary of the Società del Quartetto di Vercelli, a society founded in 1880 to emulate the cultural excellence of Arrigo Boito’s Milanese institution. The soul of this musical rebirth was Joseph Robbone, a composer and intellectual from Vercelli who, after serving on the jury of the Geneva competition in 1949, recognized the need to create a center of gravity for young international talent in his own city. Robbone led the institution with foresight until his passing in 1985; his artistic legacy was then taken up and continued by Giuseppe Pugliese (1986-2002) and, from 2003 to the present day, by Pietro Borgonovo.

From the very first rounds held at the Museo Borgogna, the competition established itself through a vast multi-instrumental vision that, for over half a century, saw multiple disciplines coexist within the same edition. Until 2005, the Viotti maintained this multifaceted nature, embracing as many as nineteen different sections throughout its history. In 1957, the international authority of the event was confirmed when the Viotti participated as a founding member in the creation of the World Federation of International Music Competitions (WFIMC) in Geneva. Starting in 2006, the competition embarked on a new path, choosing to focus its attention on a single discipline each year by alternating between Opera Singing and Piano; an organization that has been further enriched since 2024 with the reinstatement of the Violin competition, thereby restoring centrality to the instrument of the composer whose name it bears.

The competition’s prize-winners list represents a true chronicle of 20th-century concert history. Among the laureates are pianists of the caliber of Claudio Abbado, Daniel Barenboim, and Joaquin Achucarro; violinists such as Salvatore Accardo and Domenico Nordio; and legendary voices including Luciano Pavarotti, Mirella Freni, Piero Cappuccilli, Raina Kabaivanska, Leo Nucci, and Renato Bruson. This excellence has been guaranteed over time by juries composed of legendary figures in music: from Carlo Maria Giulini to Yehudi Menuhin, from Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli to Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Joan Sutherland, and Birgit Nilsson, as well as critics and scholars like Massimo Mila and H.C. Robbins Landon.

Today, the Competition continues to be a bridge toward new generations of artists for the city of Vercelli, keeping intact that artistic rigor that has made it one of the most respected musical institutions in the world.