Candidates Announced for Queen Elisabeth Competition - Including 7 VC 'Young Artists'

The 69 candidates have today been announced for the 2015 Queen Elisabeth International Violin Competition, to be held in Brussels from the 4th to the 30th of May – including 7 VC 'Young Artists'.

The 69 opening round candidates are:

VC 'Young Artist' In Mo Yang from South Korea
VC 'Young Artist' Stephen Waarts from United States/Holland
VC 'Young Artist' Richard Lin from Taiwan/United States
VC 'Young Artist' William Hagen from the United States
VC 'Young Artist' Suyeon Kang from Australia
VC 'Young Artist' Hrachya Avanesyan from Belgium
VC 'Young Artist' Tobias Feldmann from Germany
Markiyan Melnychenko from Australia
Fien Van den Fonteyne from Belgium
Michelle Ross from Canada/United States
He Fangyue from China
Huang Xika from China
Jiang Yiliang from China
Ren Jian from China
Wang Xiao from China
Zhu Lifan from China
Li Chi from Taiwan
Wei William Ching-Yi from Taiwan
Guillaume Chilemme from France
Kristi Gjezi from France
Romuald Grimbert-Barré from France
Solenne Païdassi from France
Albrecht Menzel from Germany
Thomas Reif from Germany
Ishigami Mayuko from Japan
Kido Karen from Japan
Kiyonaga Aya from Japan
Kurokawa Yu from Japan
Matsuyama Michiru from Japan
Mohri Fumika from Japan
Suho Ryosuke from Japan
Suzuki Mai from Japan
Tategami Mai from Japan
Terauchi Shiori from Japan
Wong Momo from Japan/United States
Galiya Zharova from Kazakhstan
Bae Wonhee from South Korea
Bomsori Kim from South Korea
Fabiola Kim from South Korea/United States
Kim Woo Hyung from South Korea
Lee Jae Hyeong from South Korea
Lee Ji Yoon from South Korea
Lee Ju-Ni from South Korea/Switzerland
Marisol Lee from South Korea
Lee Myung-Eun from South Korea
Lim Ji Young from South Korea
Park Jae Jun from South Korea
Park Sungmi from South Korea
Ji Won Song from South Korea
Danbi Um from South Korea
Yang Yoon from South Korea
Yoo Hwa-pyung from South Korea
Elina Buksha from Latvia
Rosanne Philippens from Holland
Benjamin Baker from New Zealand/United Kingdom
George Tudorache from Romania
Anna Savkina from Russia
Lev Solodovnikov from Russia
Francisco Garcia-Fullana from Spain
Luke Hsu from the United States
Sirena Huang from the United States
Mimi Jung from the United States
Eunice Kim from the United States
Kenneth Renshaw from the United States
Robin Scott from the United States
Brendan Shea from the United States
Elly Suh from the United States
Vladyslava Luchenko from the Ukraine
Oleksii Semenenko from the Ukraine

Widely respected as one of the most prestigious and coveted classical music prizes, previous 1st prize winners include: David Oistrakh, Leonid Kogan, Jaime Laredo, Philippe Hirschhorn, Miriam Fried, Vadim Repin, Nikolaj Znaider and VC Artists Sergey Khachatryan, Ray Chen and Andrey Baranov.

RAY CHEN | TCHAIKOVSKY VIOLIN CONCERTO | 3RD MVT | 2009 QUEEN ELISABETH COMPETITION | 1ST PRIZE

The 2015 pre-selection jury comprised Arie Van Lysebth, Pierre Amoyal, Patrice Fontanarosa, Mihaela Martin, Natalia Prischepenko, Marco Rizzi and Gilbert Varga.

The names of the jury members for the public rounds will be announced on May 1st.

The 1st prize winner will receive 25,000 Euro (USD$31,000), a CD recording, a number of international concert engagements and the 3 year use of the ‘Huggins’ Stradivarius – on generous loan from the Nippon Music Foundation.

The Violin Channel will be providing live coverage from this year's event.

PICTURED: VC 'Young Artists' Stephen Waarts, In Mo Yang and Richard Lin