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Russian pianist enters Queen Elisabeth Competition final in Brussels

The Queen Elisabeth Competition is a competition for career-starting musicians held in Brussels

BRUSSELS, May 23 /TASS/. Russian pianist Dmitry Shishkin had entered the Queen Elisabeth Competition final, which is being held in Brussels this year on May 2-28, the contest’s organizing committee said.

The organizers said that the jury members had selected 12 finalists, including Dmitry Shishkin, a 24-year-old student of the Moscow Conservatoire named after Pytor Tchaikovsky. The other finalists come from the United States, Italy, South Korea, Japan, Croatia and the Czech Republic.

As of Monday, the finalists will be giving performances at the concert hall of the Brussels Center of Fine Arts. The winners will be announced on the competitions’ last day - on May 28.

The Queen Elisabeth Competition is a competition for career-starting musicians held in Brussels. The competition is named after Queen Elisabeth of Belgium who herself was renowned for her talent of playing the violin. The WWII interrupted the tradition for more than ten years. The competition resumed in 1951. The Queen Elisabeth Competition has been a competition for classical violinists (since 1937), pianists (since 1938), singers (since 1988); cellists (since 2017) and for composers from 1953 to 2012.

Since its foundation it is considered to be one of the most challenging and prestigious competitions for instrumentalists. In 1957, the Queen Elisabeth Competition was one of the founding members of the World Federation of International Music Competitions.

Russian musicians have won the Queen Elisabeth Competition many times. Famous violinist David Oistrakh won the first contest’s main prize back in 1937. Another Russian violinist Leonid Kogan won the competition in 1951.