Korea's 3-Year Winning Streak Ends
Ukrainian Violinist Udovychenko Wins
Ukrainian violinist Dmytro Udovychenko won the Belgian 'Queen Elisabeth Competition,' considered one of the world's top three classical music competitions. Three Korean violinists who had raised expectations failed to place.
On the morning of the 2nd (local time), the Queen Elisabeth Competition jury announced that Udovychenko was selected as the winner in the violin category. Udovychenko also took first place at last year's Montreal Competition in Canada.
Second place went to Joshua Brown (25, USA), and third place was awarded to Korean-American Elly Choi (23, USA). The three Korean violinists who reached the finals?Choi Songha, Yoo Dayoon, and Ana Im?did not make it into the top six, which corresponds to the prize-winning ranks.
In Korea, following cellist Choi Hayoung's victory in 2022 and vocalist Kim Taehan's win last year, there had been hopes for a third consecutive year of victory this year, but unfortunately, it did not materialize.
Meanwhile, after Udovychenko's victory was confirmed, he drew attention by refusing to shake hands with the Russian juror during the greeting process with the 13 judges. He said, "I did not want to shake hands," adding, "Today's victory is undoubtedly the most important moment in my life, and naturally, as a Ukrainian, I want to dedicate this honor to my country."
Founded in 1937, the Queen Elisabeth International Competition is regarded as one of the world's top three competitions alongside Poland's Chopin Piano Competition and Russia's Tchaikovsky Competition. Known as a gateway for young musicians, the event alternates annually among vocal, violin, piano, and cello categories. The winner receives a royal Belgian prize of 25,000 euros (approximately 35 million KRW). Next year's competition will be held in the piano category.
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