Queen Elisabeth Music Competition

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The Queen Elisabeth Music Competition, a founding member of the World Federation of International Music Competitions (1957) has been, since its foundation, considered the world over to be one of the most prestigious, but also one of the most difficult in existence. It is devoted to violin (since 1951), piano (since 1952), to composition (since 1953) and to singing (since 1988). It is named after Queen Elisabeth of Belgium.

Contents 1 History 2 Patronage 3 Current Edition (15th Piano edition, 2007) 4 Past Winners 4.1 Piano 4.2 Violin 4.3 Singing 4.4 Composition 5 Prizes 6 See also 7 References

[edit] History

Eugène Ysaÿe, Belgian concert-violinist, had 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.

The Soviet school was the resounding winner in 1937: the great David Oistrakh won first prize without the slightest discussion. In 1938, the competition was dedicated to piano; Emil Gilels won, and again, the Soviet school was victorious.

The competition did not resume until 1951; World War II and several royal scandals prevented the competition from taking place. In 1951, the competition was renamed for its patroness, Queen Elisabeth, and has taken place under that name since then.

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.

[edit] Patronage

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.

[edit] Current Edition (15th Piano edition, 2007)

The current edition in 2007 is the piano competition, the finale round being held from May 28 until June 2 2007. The first round counted 73 candidates not older than 27 years old, who were selected for the first time in the history of the competition by means of a DVD recording during February 2007 in the Flagey studios, Brussels. In this round, candidates play a Prelude & Fugue from Das Wohltemperierte Klavier by J.S. Bach, an Etude and a work of free choice.

The 24 semi-finalists prepare for the semi-final in the Royal Conservatory of Brussels a classical sonata, a Belgian composition, a 20th/21st century work, three works from the grand solo piano repertoire, a piano concerto by Mozart, and the compulsory work Dedicatio VI by Kris Defoort.

The 12 finalists play in the Henry Le Boeuf Hall of the Paleis voor Schone Kunsten (Centre for Fine Arts) in Brussels. The programme consists of a classical sonata, the compulsory work La Luna y la Muerte by Miguel Gálvez-Taroncher (winner of the 2006 composition competition), and a piano concerto. They are supported by Gilbert Varga directing the National Orchestra of Belgium.

The laureates are:

• 1st Prize: Anna Vinnitskaya (Russia)

Programme: Beethoven: Piano Sonata No.13; Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No.2

• 2nd Prize: Plamena Mangova (Bulgaria)
• 3rd Prize: Francesco Piemontesi (Switzerland)
• 4th Prize: Ilya Rashkovskiy (Russia)
• 5th Prize: Hyo-Sun Lim (Korea)
• 6th Prize: Liebrecht Vanbeckevoort (Belgium)

Other finalists, in order of playing:

• Mariangela Vacatello (Italy)
• Hisako Kawamura (Japan)
• Hong-Chun Youn (Korea)
• Miyeon Lee (Korea)
• François Dumont (France)
• Stanislav Khegay (Kazakhstan)

[edit] Past Winners

[edit] Piano

Table showing: top 5 prize winners since 1938

Year	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th
1938	Emil Gilels	Mary Johnstone	Jakob Flier	Lance Dossor	Nivea Marino-Bellini
1952	Leon Fleisher	Karl Engel	Maria Tipo	Frans Brouw	Lawrence Davis
1956	Vladimir Ashkenazy	John Browning	Andrzej Czajkowski	Cécile Ousset	Lazar Berman
1960	Malcolm Frager	Ronald Turini	Lee Luvisi	Alice Mitchenko	Gabor Gabos
1964	Eugen Moguilevsky	Nikolai Petrov	Jean-Claude Vanden Eynden	Anton Kuerti	Richard Syracuse
1967	Eketarina Novitzkaya	Valère Kamychov	Jeffrey Siegel	Semion Kroutchine	André De Groote
1972	Valery Afanassiev	Jeffrey Swann	Joseph Alfidi	David Lively	Svetlana Navassardian
1975	Mikhaïl Faerman	Stanislav Igolinski	Yuri Egorov	Larry Michael Graham	Sergueï Iuchkevitch
1978	Abdel-Rahman El-Bacha	Gregory Allen	Brigitte Engerer	Alan Weiss	Douglas Finch
1983	Pierre-Alain Volondat	Wolfgang Manz	Boyan Vodenitcharov	Daniel Blumenthal	Eliane Rodrigues
1987	Andrei Nikolsky	Akira Wakabayashi	Rolf Plagge	Johann Schmidt	Ikuyo Nakamichi
1991	Frank Braley	Stephen Prutsman	Brian Ganz	Hae-sun Paik	Alexander Melnikov
1995	Markus Groh	Laura Mikkola	Giovanni Bellucci	Yuliya Gorenman	Jong Hwa Park
1999	Vitaly Samoshko	Alexander Ghindin	Ning An	Shai Wosner	Roberto Cominati
2003	Severin von Eckardstein	Wen-Yu Shen	Dong-Hyek Lim, (he refused the 3rd prize and no 3rd prize was awarded)	Roberto Giordano	Kazumasa Matsumoto
2007	Anna Vinnitskaya	Plamena Mangova	Francesco Piemontesi	Ilya Rashkovskiy	Lim Hyo-Sun

[edit] Violin

Table showing: top 5 prize winners

Year	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th
1937	David Oistrakh	Ricardo Odnoposoff	Elisabeth Gilels	Boris Goldstein	Marina Kozolupova
1951	Leonid Kogan	Mikhail Vayman	Elise Cserfalvi	Theo Olof	Alexei Gorokov
1955	Berl Senofsky	Julian Sitkovetsky	Pierre Doukan	Francine Dorfeuille-Boussinot	Victor Picaizen
1959	Jaime Laredo	Albert Markov	Joseph Silverstein	Vladimir Malinine	Boris Kouniev
1963	Alexei Michlin	Semion Snitkovsky	Arnold Steinhardt	Zarious Schikhmursaieva	Charles Castleman
1967	Philippe Hirschhorn	Stoïka Milanova	Gidon Kremer	Roman Nodel	Hidetaro Suzuki
1971	Miriam Fried	Andreï Korsakov	Hamao Fujiwara	Ana Chumachenco de Lysy	Edith Volckaert
1976	Mikhaïl Bezverkhny	Irina Medvedeva	Dong-Suk Kang	Grigory Jisline	Shizuka Ishikawa
1980	Yuzuko Horigome	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	Evgueni Bouchkov	Erez Ofer	Ulrike-Anima Mathé
1993	Yayoi Toda	Liviu Prunaru	Keng-Yuen Tseng	Martin Beaver	Natalia Prischepenko
1997	Nikolaj Znaider	Albrecht Breuninger	Kristóf Baráti	Andrew Haveron	Natsumi Tamai
2001	Baiba Skride	Ning Kam	Barnabás Kelemen	Alina Pogostkin	Feng Ning
2005	Sergey Khachatryan	Yossif Ivanov	Sophia Jaffé	Saeka Matsuyama	Mikhail Ovrutsky

[edit] Singing

Table showing: top 5 prize winners

Year	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th
1988	Aga Winska	Jeanette Thompson	Huub Claessens	Jacob Will	Yvonne Schiffelers
1992	Thierry Félix	Reginaldo Pinheiro	Wendy Hoffman	Regina Nathan	Cristina Gallardo-Domâs
1996	Stephen Salters	Ana Camelia Stefanescu	Eleni Matos	Mariana Zvetkova	Ray Wade
2000	Marie-Nicole Lemieux	Marius Brenciu	Olga Pasichnyk	Pierre-Yves Pruvot	Lubana Al Quntar
2004	Iwona Sobotka	Hélène Guilmette	Shadi Torbey	Teodora Gheorghiu	Diana Axentii

[edit] Composition

Table showing: Winner

Year	1st
1953	Michał Spisak
1982	John Weeks
1991	Tristan-Patrice Challelau
1993	Piet Swerts
1995	John Weeks
1997	Hendrik Hofmeyr
1999	Uljas Voitto Pulkkis
2001	/ Søren Nils Eichberg
2003	Ian Munro
2006	Miguel Gálvez-Taroncher

[edit] Prizes

First Prize: INTERNATIONAL QUEEN ELISABETH GRAND PRIZE HM Queen Fabiola Prize 20,000 euro - numerous concerts - recording on CD

Second Prize: BELGIAN FEDERAL GOVERNMENT PRIZE 17,500 euro - concerts - recording on CD

Third Prize: COUNT DE LAUNOIT PRIZE 15,000 euro - concerts

Fourth Prize: PRIZE AWARDED ALTERNATELY BY EACH OF THE COMMUNITIES OF BELGIUM 10,000 euro - concerts

Fifth Prize: BRUSSELS CAPITAL REGION PRIZE 8,000 euro - concerts

Sixth Prize: CITY OF BRUSSELS PRIZE 7,000 euro - concerts

[edit] See also

• List of classical music competitions
• Queen Elisabeth Medical Foundation

[edit] References

• Queen Elisabeth music competition - official page
• World Federation of International Music Competitions
• from 1937 in violin, piano, singing and composition
• Directory of International Piano Competitions