Established in 1937 by Eugène Ysaÿe and Queen Elisabeth, the competition is held in Brussels, Belgium, and alternates each year between candidates in violin, piano, cello, and voice.
The competition’s first cello division was introduced in 2017, and the 2022 edition has seen many emerging cellists aged between 18 and 31 years old compete since May 9.
The 12 finalists of the 2022 Cello Competition are:
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Yibai Chen
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Bryan Cheng
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Hayoung Choi
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Jeremias Fliedl
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Stéphanie Huang
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Woochan Jeong
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Marcel Johannes Kits
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Taeguk Mun
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Samuel Niederhauser
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Petar Pejčić
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Oleksiy Shadrin
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Sul Yoon
The final will take place at the Brussels Center for Fine Arts with each cellist to perform with the Brussels Philharmonic and conductor Stéphane Denève.
Selected from 24 semi-finalists who competed last week, each finalist will perform a concerto of their own choice and an unpublished work by Jörg Widmann — written specially for this competition.
Chaired by Gilles Ledure, the jury comprises Gautier Capuçon, Myung-Wha Chung, Natalie Clein, Roel Dieltiens, Anne Gastinel, Marie Hallynck, Frans Helmerson, Anssi Karttunen, Mischa Maisky, Antonio Meneses, Sharon Robinson, Jian Wang, and Sonia Wieder-Atherton.
Former prize winners include VC Artists Aurélien Pascal, Ivan Karizna, Brannon Cho, and Santiago Cañón-Valencia.
The final can be watched here. More information on each of the finalists can be found here.
Amidst the ongoing war in Ukraine, the Queen Elisabeth Competition as well as the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, are allowing Russian artists to compete.
