The 2018 edition of the Paganini Prize was led by artistic director Giuseppe Acquaviva, with the jury chaired by Sergey Krilov and composed of Dmitri Berlinsky (winner of the Paganini Prize in 1985), Bin Huang (winner of the Paganini Prize in 1994), Heiner Madl, Svetlana Makarova, Daniel Smith, and Anna Tifu who performed at the Teatro Carlo Felice playing the Cannon at the Paganini Festival.

The winner of the 55th Paganini Prize International Competition is the American Kevin Zhu