Queen Elisabeth Competition

Belgian musical competition

Not to be confused with Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering.

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Official logo, English version.

The Queen Elisabeth Competition (Dutch: Koningin Elisabethwedstrijd, French: Concours musical international Reine Élisabeth) is an international competition for career-starting musicians held in Brussels. The competition is named after Queen Elisabeth of Belgium (1876–1965). It is a competition for classical violinists (since 1937), pianists (since 1938), singers (since 1988) and cellists (since 2017).[1] It also used to hold international competitions for composers from 1953 to 2012.[2] The Patron is Queen Mathilde of Belgium.

Since its foundation it has been considered one of the most challenging and prestigious competitions for instrumentalists. In 1957 the Queen Elisabeth Competition was one of the founding members of the World Federation of International Music Competitions.[3]

## History

[edit]

Eugène Ysaÿe, Belgian concert violinist, wanted to set up an international music competition for young virtuosi showcasing their all-round skill, but died before he could do so. Queen Elisabeth, patroness of the arts and good friend of Ysaÿe, set up the competition in his memory in 1937. The prestige of Ysaÿe and Belgium's Royal Court (King Albert and Queen Elisabeth were admired heroes of the First World War) assured that the first competition would draw great entrants.[4]

### 1937–1950

[edit]

The first two editions of the competition, in 1937 for violin and in 1938 for piano, were named after Ysaÿe. World War II and other impediments prevented the competition from taking place from 1940 to 1950.[4]

| 1937  | 1938

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Violin  | X |
Piano  |  | X

### 1951–1986

[edit]

In 1951, the competition was renamed for its patroness, Queen Elisabeth, and has taken place under that name since then. It is one of three musical institutions (the others being the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel and Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, residence orchestra of the Queen Elisabeth Hall) dedicated to the former Queen.

Entrants are expected to learn a compulsory work written especially for the competition. (The work is picked during the composition competition.) Usually there is also a section where contestants are expected to perform a work by a Belgian composer. From 1963 to 1980, Marcel Poot of the Brussels Conservatory chaired the jury of the competition and wrote several commissioned works to mark the occasion, that were used as competition-required pieces.[5]

The competition restarted with four-year cycles, starting with two consecutive years for violin and piano respectively, followed by a year for international composition competitions. The fourth year of each cycle had no competition. The years 1973 to 1974 were a transition to cycles with instrument competitions in even years, and the internationional composition competition in the year between the violin and the piano competitions, until the early 1980s when the cycles were re-arranged again.[2]

Year  | Violin  | Piano  | Composition

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1951  | X |  | For Belgian composers
1952  |  | X | For Belgian composers
1953  |  |  | International
1955  | X |  | For Belgian composers
1956  |  | X | For Belgian composers
1957 |  |  | International
1959  | X |  | For Belgian composers
1960  |  | X | For Belgian composers
1961  |  |  | International
1963  | X |  | For Belgian composers
1964  |  | X | For Belgian composers
1965  |  |  | International
1967  | X |  | For Belgian composers
1968  |  | X | For Belgian composers
1969  |  |  | International
1971  | X |  | For Belgian composers
1972  |  | X | For Belgian composers
1975  |  | X | For Belgian composers
1976  | X |  | For Belgian composers
1977  |  |  | International
1978  |  | X | For Belgian composers
1980  | X |  | For Belgian composers
1982  |  |  | International
1983  |  | X | For Belgian composers
1985  | X |  | For Belgian composers

### 1987–2006

[edit]

With the competition for voice (singing) introduced in 1988 the four-year cycles were piano → voice → violin → year without performer competition. Before 2002 there were no composition competitions in even years.[2]

| 1987  | 1988  | 1989  | 1990  | 1991  | 1992  | 1993  | 1994  | 1995  | 1996

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Piano  | X |  |  |  | X |  |  |  | X |
Voice/singing  |  | X |  |  |  | X |  |  |  | X
Violin  |  |  | X |  |  |  | X |  |  |
Composition  |  |  |  |  | X |  | X |  | X |
Composition for Belgian composers  | X |  | X |  | X |  | X |  | X |
| 1997  | 1998  | 1999  | 2000  | 2001  | 2002  | 2003  | 2004  | 2005  | 2006

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Piano  |  |  | X |  |  |  | X |  |  |
Voice/singing  |  |  |  | X |  |  |  | X |  |
Violin  | X |  |  |  | X |  |  |  | X |
Composition  | X |  | X |  | X | X |  | X |  | X
Composition for Belgian composers  | X |  | X |  | X |  | X |  | X |

### 2007–2014

[edit]

From 2007 there were no longer years without competition for performers: with three disciplines (piano, voice, violin), each of these returned in a three-year cycle.[2]

There were competitions for composition in 2008, 2009, 2011 and 2012, each of these for the performance piece of the instrumentalist finale of the next year.[2]

| 2007  | 2008  | 2009  | 2010  | 2011  | 2012  | 2013  | 2014

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Piano  | X |  |  | X |  |  | X |
Voice  |  | X |  |  | X |  |  | X
Violin  |  |  | X |  |  | X |  |
Composition  |  | X | X |  | X | X |  |

### 2015 and beyond

[edit]

From 2015 there are again four-year cycles, with, for the first time in 2017, a cello competition added after the year with the piano competition.[6] The public composition competitions stopped.[2] The 2020 competition was postponed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[7]

| 2015  | 2016  | 2017  | 2018  | 2019  | 2020  | 2021  | 2022  | 2023  | 2024  | 2025

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Violin  | X |  |  |  | X  |  |  |  |  | X |
Piano  |  | X |  |  |  |  | X |  |  |  | X
Cello  |  |  | X |  |  |  |  | X |  |  |
Voice  |  |  |  | X |  |  |  |  | X |  |

## Patronage and prizes

[edit]

The Queen Elisabeth Competition generates income from its own activities, from private patronage and from sponsoring. Resources are varied: part of the funding for the prizes laureates receive is provided by public authorities and patrons, corporate sponsors, donors contributions, ticket and programme sales, advertising in the programmes and the sale of recordings. The Competition also benefits from the volunteer assistance of families who open their homes to candidates for the duration of the competition.

Prizes for the laureates of the competition (amounts as awarded in the 2015 violin competition):[8]

* First prize, International Queen Elisabeth Grand Prize – Prize of the patron Queen (as of 2015: Queen Mathilde Prize): 25,000 euro, numerous concerts, recording on CD; for the violin competition also: loan of the 'Huggins' Stradivarius violin from the Nippon Music Foundation until the next violin competition.
* Second Prize, Belgian Federal Government Prize: 20,000 euro, concerts, recording on CD
* Third Prize, Count de Launoit Prize: 17,000 euro, concerts
* Fourth Prize, Prize awarded alternately by each of the communities of Belgium (2015: awarded by the Government of the Federation Wallonia-Brussels): 12,500 euro, concerts
* Fifth Prize, Brussels Capital Region Prize: 10,000 euro, concerts
* Sixth Prize, City of Brussels Prize: 8,000 euro, concerts
* For the other six laureates, sums donated by the Belgian National Lottery: 4,000 euro each

## Laureates

[edit]

Competitions for performing musicians have 12 finalists performing as a soloist before a full symphonic orchestra. Originally and until 1993, all finalists became ranked laureates, later only the first six laureates were ranked. The first editions of the competition were dominated by candidates from the USSR: the 1937 violin competition was won by David Oistrakh and the next year Emil Gilels won the piano competition. The piano competition of 1952 and the violin competition of 1955 were the first to see winners from the United States. By the time of the 50th competition in 2012, an increasing number of Asian contestants reached the finals.[2]

Source.[9]

### Violin

[edit]

Year  | 1st  | 2nd  | 3rd  | 4th  | 5th  | 6th

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1937  | David Oistrakh | Ricardo Odnoposoff | Elizabeth Gilels | Boris Goldstein | Marina Kozolupova  | Mikhail Fichtengolz
1951  | Leonid Kogan | Mikhail Vayman  | Elise Cserfalvi  | Theo Olof  | Alexei Gorokhov[10] | Hedi Gigler
1955 | Berl Senofsky | Julian Sitkovetsky | Pierre Doukan | Francine Dorfeuille-Boussinot  | Victor Pikayzen | Alberto Lysy
1959  | Jaime Laredo | Albert Markov | Joseph Silverstein | Vladimir Malinin  | Boris Kouniev  | Georgui Mintchev Badev
1963  | Aleksey Mikhlin [ru] | Semyon Snitkovsky | Arnold Steinhardt | Zarius Shikhmurzayeva  | Charles Castleman | Masuko Ushioda
1967  | Philippe Hirschhorn | Stoïka Milanova | Gidon Kremer | Roman Nodel  | Hidetaro Suzuki  | Jean-Jacques Kantorow
1971  | Miriam Fried | Andrey Korsakov  | Hamao Fujiwara  | Ana Chumachenco | Edith Volckaert | Joshua Epstein
1976  | Mikhaïl Bezverkhny | Irina Medvedeva | Dong-Suk Kang | Grigori Zhislin | Shizuka Ishikawa  |
1980  | Yuzuko Horigome [ja] | Peter Zazofsky  | Takashi Shimizu  | Ruriko Tsukahara  | Mihaela Martin  |
1985  | Hu Nai-yuan | Ik-hwan Bae | Henry Raudales | Hu Kun | Mi Kyung Lee  |
1989  | Vadim Repin | Akiko Suwanai | Evgeny Bushkov  | Erez Ofer  | Ulrike-Anima Mathé  |
1993  | Yayoi Toda  | Liviu Prunaru | Keng-Yuen Tseng [zh] | Martin Beaver | Natalia Prischepenko  |
1997  | Nikolaj Znaider | Albrecht Breuninger  | Kristóf Baráti | Andrew Haveron  | Natsumi Tamai  |
2001  | Baiba Skride | Kam Ning | Barnabás Kelemen | Alina Pogostkin | Ning Feng |
2005  | Sergey Khachatryan | Yossif Ivanov [fr] | Sophia Jaffé  | Saeka Matsuyama  | Mikhail Ovrutsky  |
2009  | Ray Chen | Lorenzo Gatto | Ilian Gârnet | Suyoen Kim  | Nikita Borisoglebsky |
2012 | Andrey Baranov | Tatsuki Narita  | Hyun Su Shin | Esther Yoo | Tseng Yu-Chien |
2015[8] | Lim Ji-young | Oleksii Semenenko | William Hagen | Tobias Feldmann | Stephen Waarts |
2019  | Stella Chen | Timothy Chooi | Stephen Kim  | Shannon Lee | Júlia Pusker  |
2024  | Dmytro Udovychenko | Joshua Brown [wikidata] | Elli Choi  | Kevin Zhu | Julian Rhee  | Minami Yoshida

### Piano

[edit]

Year  | 1st  | 2nd  | 3rd  | 4th  | 5th  | 6th

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1938 | Emil Gilels | Mary Johnstone (Moura Lympany)  | Jakov Flier | Lance Dossor | Nibya Mariño Bellini [es] | Robert Riefling
1952 | Leon Fleisher | Karl Engel | Maria Tipo | Frans Brouw | Laurence Davis | Lamar Crowson
1956  | Vladimir Ashkenazy | John Browning | Andrzej Czajkowski | Cécile Ousset | Lazar Berman | Tamas Vasary
1960  | Malcolm Frager | Ronald Turini | Lee Luvisi  | Alice Mitchenko  | Gábor Gabos | Shirley Seguin
1964  | Evgeny Mogilevsky | Nikolai Petrov | Jean-Claude Vanden Eynden [fr] | Anton Kuerti | Richard Syracuse  | Michael Ponti
1968  | Ekaterina Novitskaya | Valère Kamychov  | Jeffrey Siegel  | Semion Kroutchine  | André De Groote [nl] | François-Joël Thiollier
1972  | Valery Afanassiev | Jeffrey Swann | Joseph Alfidi | David Lively  | Svetlana Navasardyan | Ikuyo Kamiya
1975  | Mikhaïl Faerman | Stanislav Igolinsky | Youri Egorov | Larry Michael Graham  | Sergueï Iuchkevitch  | Olivier Gardon
1978  | Abdel Rahman El Bacha | Gregory Allen  | Brigitte Engerer | Alan Weiss | Douglas Finch  | Robert Groslot
1983  | Pierre-Alain Volondat [fr] | Wolfgang Manz | Boyan Vodenitcharov | Daniel Blumenthal | Eliane Rodrigues | Sergei Edelmann
1987  | Andrei Nikolsky | Akira Wakabayashi  | Rolf Plagge  | Johan Schmidt | Ikuyo Nakamichi  | Mi-Joo Lee
1991  | Frank Braley | Stephen Prutsman  | Brian Ganz  | Hae-sun Paik  | Alexander Melnikov | Igor Ardasev
1995  | Markus Groh [fr] | Laura Mikkola | Giovanni Bellucci | Yuliya Gorenman  | Jong Hwa Park | Victor Lyadov
1999  | Vitaly Samoshko | Alexander Ghindin | Ning An | Shai Wosner | Roberto Cominati [it] | Vladimir Sverdlov
2003  | Severin von Eckardstein | Wen-Yu Shen | Unawarded after Dong-Hyek Lim refused it[11] | Roberto Giordano  | Kazumasa Matsumoto  | Valentina Igoshina
2007  | Anna Vinnitskaya | Plamena Mangova | Francesco Piemontesi  | Ilya Rashkovsky | Lim Hyo-Sun  | Liebrecht Vanbeckevoort [nl]
2010  | Denis Kozhukhin | Evgeni Bozhanov | Hannes Minnaar | Yury Favorin | Kim Tae-Hyung  | Da Sol Kim
2013  | Boris Giltburg | Rémi Geniet | Mateusz Borowiak  | Stanislav Khristenko | Zhang Zuo | Andrew Tyson
2016  | Lukáš Vondráček | Henry Kramer | Alexander Beyer  | Chi-Ho Han | Aljoša Jurinić | Alberto Ferro
2021  | Jonathan Fournel [fr] | Sergei Redkin | Keigo Mukawa  | Tomoki Sakata | Vitaly Starikov  | Dmitry Sin
2025  | Nikola Meeuwsen | Wataru Hisasue | Valère Burnon | Arthur Hinnewinkel | Masaya Kamei | Sergey Tanin

### Voice / Singing

[edit]

Year  | 1st  | 2nd  | 3rd  | 4th  | 5th

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1988  | Aga Wińska [Wikidata] | Jeanette Thompson  | Huub Claessens [Wikidata] | Jacob Will  | Yvonne Schiffelers [Wikidata]
1992  | Thierry Félix [Wikidata] | Reginaldo Pinheiro  | Wendy Hoffman  | Regina Nathan | Cristina Gallardo-Domâs
1996  | Stephen Salters [Wikidata] | Ana Camelia Ștefănescu [Wikidata] | Eleni Matos  | Mariana Zvetkova [Wikidata] | Ray Wade
2000  | Marie-Nicole Lemieux | Marius Brenciu | Olga Pasichnyk | Pierre-Yves Pruvot  | Lubana Al Quntar [Wikidata]
2004  | Iwona Sobotka | Hélène Guilmette [fr] | Shadi Torbey [fr] | Teodora Gheorghiu | Diana Axentii [fr]
2008  | Szabolcs Brickner [Wikidata] | Isabelle Druet | Bernadetta Grabias [Wikidata] | Anna Kasyan | Yury Haradzetski
2011  | Haeran Hong [Wikidata] | Thomas Blondelle [nl] | Elena Galitskaya [Wikidata] | Anaïk Morel [Wikidata] | Konstantin Shushakov [Wikidata]
2014  | Sumi Hwang | Jodie Devos | Sarah Laulan [Wikidata] | Yu Shao  | Hera Hyesang Park
2018  | Samuel Hasselhorn [fr] | Eva Zaïcik [fr] | Ao Li | Rocío Pérez  | Héloïse Mas [fr]
2023  | Taehan Kim | Jasmin White | Julia Muzychenko-Greenhalgh | Floriane Hasler | Inho Jeong

### Cello

[edit]

Year  | 1st  | 2nd  | 3rd  | 4th  | 5th

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2017[12] | Victor Julien-Laferrière | Yuya Okamoto  | Santiago Cañón [es] | Aurélien Pascal  | Ivan Karizna
2022[13] | Choi Ha-young[14][15] | Chen Yibai | Marcel Johannes Kits  | Oleksiy Shadrin  | Petar Pejcic

### Composition

[edit]

The first international Queen Elisabeth Competition for composition was held in 1953. Composition competitions had less laureates or finalists, with usually only the winners who see their winning piece performed in the final of the competitions for instrumentalists receiving broad media attention.[16]

Year  | Category  | 1st  | Work

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1953 | Composition for symphony orchestra  | Michał Spisak | Serenade
1957  | Composition for symphony orchestra  | Orazio Fiume [it] | Concerto per orchestra
Composition for chamber orchestra  | Michał Spisak  | Concerto giocoso
1961  | Composition for symphony orchestra  | Albert Delvaux [da; fr; ru] | Sinfonia burlesca
Composition for chamber orchestra  | Giorgio Cambissa [fr] | Concerto per ochestra da camera n. 3
1965  | Composition for symphony orchestra  | Rudolf Brucci | Synfonia lesta
Composition for violin and orchestra  | Wilhelm Georg Berger | Concert
1969  | Composition for symphony orchestra  | Nicolae Beloiu [fr] | Symphonie en deux mouvements
Composition for piano and orchestra  | Ray E. Luke [nl] | Concerto for piano
1977  | Composition for symphony orchestra  | Hiro Fujikake | Rope Crest
Composition for string quartet  | Akira Nishimura | Heterophony
1982  | Composition for symphony orchestra  | John Weeks [fr] | Five Litanies for Orchestra
1991  | Composition  | Tristan-Patrice Challulau | Ne la città dolente
1993  | Composition  | Piet Swerts [nl] | Zodiac
1995  | Composition  | John Weeks  | Requiescat
1997  | Composition  | Hendrik Hofmeyr | Raptus
1999  | Composition  | Uljas Pulkkis [fr] | Tears of Ludovico
2001  | Composition  | Søren Nils Eichberg | Qilaatersorneq
2002  | Composition  | Ian Munro | Piano Concerto Dreams
2004  | Composition  | Javier Torres Maldonado | Obscuro Etiamtum Lumine
2006  | Composition  | Miguel Gálvez-Taroncher | La luna y la muerte
2008  | Composition  | Cho Eun-hwa [de; nl; ru] | Agens
2009  | Composition  | Jeon Minje [fr] | Target
2011  | Composition  | Kenji Sakai [fr] | Concerto pour violon et orchestre
2012  | Composition  | Michel Petrossian | In the wake of Ea pour piano et orchestre

## Media coverage and prizes awarded by audiences

[edit]

The competition was covered on the Belgian radio from its first edition, the press writing about contestants and their performances. Broadcasting via television expanded in the 1960s. French-language and Dutch-language Belgian broadcasting organizations started to award prizes based on the preferences of their audiences from 1975 and 1991 respectively. Abdel Rahman El Bacha, Pierre-Alain Volondat, Severin von Eckardstein and Denis Kozhukhin were among the few contestants that were as convincing to the competition jury as to the general audience. Recorded performances were commercialised from 1967. In the 21st century recordings of the competitors' performances were streamed live on the internet and/or made available as video or audio downloads, followed by social media discussions.[17]

## See also

[edit]

* List of classical music competitions
* Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel
* Queen Fabiola Competition

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "In 2017 eerste Koningin Elisabethwedstrijd voor cello" in De Standaard, 19 January 2015
2. ^ a b c d e f g All competitions Archived 6 April 2019 at the Wayback Machine at Queen Elisabeth Competition website
3. ^ Queen Elisabeth Competition – Brussels Archived 14 August 2018 at the Wayback Machine at the World Federation of International Music Competitions website
4. ^ a b "1937 and 1938" Archived 7 December 2019 at the Wayback Machine at Queen Elisabeth Competition website
5. ^ "1951: a new departure" Archived 7 December 2019 at the Wayback Machine at Queen Elisabeth Competition website
6. ^ CELLO 2017 – Presentation Archived 8 September 2018 at the Wayback Machine at Queen Elisabeth Competition website
7. ^ The 2020 Piano Competition is postponed to May 2021 at Queen Elisabeth Competition website
8. ^ a b VIOLIN 2015 – Prizes Archived 3 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine at Queen Elisabeth Competition website
9. ^ "List of Laureates of the Queen Elisabeth Competition". concoursreineelisabeth.be. Retrieved 21 February 2020.
10. ^ Alexei Gorokhov Archived 7 September 2018 at the Wayback Machine at Queen Elisabeth Competition website
11. ^ "Koreaanse pianist weigert prijs" in De Standaard, 11 June 2003
12. ^ Victor Julien-Laferrière wins the first cello competition ! Archived 4 September 2017 at the Wayback Machine at Queen Elisabeth Competition website (4 June 2017)
13. ^ 2022 Queen Elisabeth Competition
14. ^ Ga-young, Park (6 June 2022). "Cellist Choi Ha-young wins prestigious Queen Elisabeth competition". The Korea Herald. Retrieved 6 June 2022.
15. ^ "Hayoung Choi wins 2022 Queen Elisabeth Cello Competition". The Strad. 6 June 2022. Retrieved 6 June 2022.
16. ^ "Compulsory works and composition competitions" Archived 7 December 2019 at the Wayback Machine at Queen Elisabeth Competition website
17. ^ "Media" Archived 7 December 2019 at the Wayback Machine at Queen Elisabeth Competition website

## External links

[edit]

* www.concoursreineelisabeth.be – website of the Queen Elisabeth Competition
* Data regarding competition finals collected by M-P & J-M Lambert
* Biography at Andrey Baranov website

Authority control databases

International|

* VIAF

National|

* Germany
* United States
* France
* BnF data

Other|

* IdRef
* MusicBrainz series