Semi-Finalists Announced at Queen Elisabeth Competition

24 violinists will this week advance to the 2024 Semi-Final round in Brussels

The 24 candidates progressing through to the Semi-Final Round of the 2024 Queen Elisabeth International Violin Competition have today been announced, in Brussels, Belgium.

This year's semi-finalists are:

• Anna Agafia
• Joshua Brown
• Angela Chan
• Hana Chang
• Elli Choi
• SongHa Choi
• Emmanuel Coppey
• Anna Im
• Lorenz Karls
• Ruifeng Lin
• Bohdan Luts
• Nathan Mierdl
• Georgii Moroz
• Julian Rhee
• Dmitry Smirnov
• Karen Su
• Ruslan Talas
• Dmytro Udovychenko
• Pauline van der Rest
• Minami Yoshida
• Mio Yoshie
• Dayoon You
• Leonid Zheleznyi
• Kevin Zhu

The semi-finals, to be held from May 13 to 18, will see the 24 contestants perform a recital with piano accompaniment — including the compulsory work The Sun and Her Flowers by Charlotte Bray and a Mozart concerto with the Orchestre Royal de Chambre de Wallonie, under the baton of Vahan Mardirossian.

Twelve finalists will be selected to perform in the final rounds from May 27 to June 1. They will play a concerto of their own choice, with the Belgian National Orchestra under the baton of Antony Hermus, as well as a newly-composed work by Thierry Escaich.

The prizes include a First Prize of € 25,000, Second Prize, awarded by the Belgian Science Policy (Belspo) of € 20,000, Third Prize of € 17,000, Fourth Prize, this year awarded by the Government of the German-speaking Community of Belgium, of € 12,500, and Fifth Prize of € 10,000, and Sixth Prize of € 8,000.

Previous first prize winners include the likes of 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.

Full performances of all opening round candidates available now at: queenelisabethcompetition.be