Queen Elisabeth Competition Announces Finalists for 2025 Piano Edition

Twelve finalists will compete for €25,000 and a number of performance opportunities between 26 and 31 May, 2025

The twelve pianists progressing through to the Final Round of the 2025 Queen Elisabeth Competition have recently been announced, in Brussels, Belgium.

They are as follows (in alphabetical order):

• Rachel Breen
• Valère Burnon
• Arthur Hinnewinkel
• Wataru Hisasue
• Mirabelle Kajenjeri
• Masaya Kamei
• Shiori Kuwahara
• Nikola Meeuwsen
• Nathalia Milstein
• Jiaxin Min
• Sergey Tanin
• Yuki Yoshimi

In 2025, the competition received 289 applications, all from pianists aged between 18 and 31.

The final round will take place at the Brussels Center for Fine Arts, from Monday, May 26 to Saturday, May 31. All finalists will play the set work, Kris Defoort's Music for the Heart, as well as a concerto of their own choice, to be performed with the Brussels Philharmonic and conductor Kazushi Ono.

The first prize winner will receive the Queen Elisabeth International Grand Prize (Queen Mathilde Prize) with €25,000. The First Laureate will also receive several solo recitals and go on a tour of Asia and Brazil alongside the Second Laureate.

Second prize is €20,000; third prize is €17,000; and fourth prize is €12,500. The fifth and sixth prizes will be awarded €10,000 and €8,000, respectively.

Additionally, €1,000 will be given to each of the 12 candidates in the semi-finals who have not progressed to the final round. More concert opportunities will see the six unranked laureates give a recital and the six ranked laureates perform with an orchestra. The laureates will also tour Belgium.

The competition's previous first-prize winners include musicians such as David Oistrakh, Leonid Kogan, Jaime Laredo, Phillippe Hischhorn, Miriam Fried, Vadim Repin, Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider, Baiba Skride — and VC Artists Ray Chen, Stella Chen, and Ji-Young Lim.

You can read more about each finalist, here.