Founded in 1937 as the Ysaÿe Competition in honor of the legendary violinist—by then deceased—who suggested the idea of a globe-spanning competition for young virtuosos to Queen Elisabeth of Belgium, the Queen Elisabeth Competition now bears its original patron monarch's name. With an interruption during the Second World War, and some amendments since, the competition currently rotates in a four-year cycle between the disciplines of violin, piano, cello, and voice. Since 1991 the composition competition has been confined to choosing the compulsory concerto for the violin and piano competitions.
Queen Elisabeth Competition
NEC's Queen Elisabeth Competition laureates
2019
Stella Chen ’16 MM Harvard/NEC, first prize, violin
Luke Hsu ’14 MM, ’16 GD, laureate, violin
Ji Won Song ’17 MM, laureate, violin
2017
Brannon Cho '19 A.D., 6th prize, cello
2016
Lukas Vondracek '12 A.D., 1st prize, piano
Henry Kramer '05 Prep, 2nd prize, piano
Alexander Beyer '17 Harvard A.B., '18 NEC M.M., 3rd prize, piano
Larry Weng '05 Prep, laureate, piano
2013
Sangyoung Kim '06, '08 M.M., '10 G.D., laureate, piano
2012
Ermir Abeshi '08 M.M., '09 G.D., laureate, violin
Dami Kim '10, '12 M.M., laureate, violin
Nancy Zhou '15 Harvard A.B., '16 NEC M.M., laureate, violin
2003
Minsoo Sohn '99 DP, '01 G.D., '04 A.D., laureate, piano
1999
Ning An '99, '01 G.D., '03 A.D., '04 M.M., 3rd prize, piano
Esther Budiardjo '94, '96 M.M., '02 D.M.A., laureate, piano
1997
Jennifer Frautschi '94 CE, '96 A.D., laureate, violin
Irina Muresanu '98 A.D., '09 D.M.A., laureate, violin
1995
Jong Hwa Park '96, '04 M.M., 5th prize, piano
1991
HaeSun Paik '87, '89 M.M., '92 A.D., 4th prize, piano
1987
Hung-Kuan Chen '88 A.D., 11th prize, piano
1980
Peter Zazofsky, 2nd prize, violin
1971
Miriam Fried, 1st prize, violin
1963
Masuko Ushioda, laureate, violin
1952
Theodore Lettvin, 7th prize, piano