The 12 violinists who will move forward to Queen Elisabeth Competition final announced
Following the semi-final for the Queen Elisabeth Competition on Saturday evening, the 12 violinists who will advance to the final were announced around midnight. The only Belgian semi-finalist, Pauline van der Rest (19), was not selected to move forward.
In the presence of Queen Mathilde, jury chairman Gilles Ledure named the 12 violinists who will continue their journey towards the coveted competition prize. These are Hana Chang (US), Dayoon You (South Korea), Ruslan Talas (Kazakhstan), SongHa Choi (South Korea), Kevin Zhu (US), Dmytro Udovychenko (Ukraine), Joshua Brown (US), Karen Su (US), Anna Im (South Korea), Julian Rhee (US), Elli Choi (US) and Minami Yoshida (Japan).
While van der Rest had impressed in the first round and in the semi-finals with her technicality and virtuosity, the judges did not move her forward to the finals. On Thursday, in the Mozart concerto, she made some minor mistakes and appeared stressed, according to commentators and fellow musicians. She commented after that she did not feel her playing represented her best work.
The 12 finalists will now go into isolation for a week in the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel in Waterloo. They will not have access to phones or the internet. Instead, they will use the time to study the new, obligatory piece required for the final performance, Variations litaniques, by the French composer Thierry Escaich.
The 12 will return to the Bozar stage from May 27 until 1 June and present their programmes with music by Brahms, Shostakovich, Elgar and Sibelius, accompanied by the Belgian National Orchestra.
The Queen Elisabeth Competition finalists ©BELGA PHOTO NICOLAS MAETERLINCK
Related news
