Chairman of the jury
Arie Van Lysebeth
Belgium, °1938
Arie Van Lysebeth was the President of the Jury of the Queen Elisabeth Competition from 1996 to 2018. He took up the violin at the age of four. He completed his higher education at the Brussels Conservatory in music theory, bassoon, chamber music, and orchestral conducting. Following a competition, he was appointed bassoon soloist of the Belgian Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra. Two years later, he came joint first in the Prague International Bassoon Contest. He also studied conducting under Bruno Maderna in Salzburg and under Pierre Boulez in Switzerland. Starting in 1970, he conducted the Flemish Chamber Orchestra, both in Belgium and abroad. As a guest conductor, he has appeared with the major Belgian orchestras as well as with symphony orchestras in the United States of America, Argentina, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, Italy, and Germany. He has performed with many famous soloists, including Igor Oistrakh, José Van Dam, Murray Perahia, and Augustin Dumay. From 1995 to 2004 he was the regular conductor of the Symphony Orchestra of the Brussels Conservatory, where he taught chamber music for many years (1970-1994) and served as director (1994-2003). From 2004 to 2014, he was the artistic director of the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel.
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Pierre Bartholomée
Belgium, °1937
Pierre Bartholomée began studying the piano at the age of six. He is a laureate of the Royal Brussels Conservatory, where his piano teacher was André Dumortier. In Italy he followed a series of Beethoven piano performance classes given by Wilhelm Kempff.

He is, with Henri Pousseur, a founder of the Ensemble Musique Nouvelle and of the Centre de Recherches et de Création Musicales de Wallonie. After embarking on a career as pianist that enabled him to give recitals, perform with orchestra and play chamber music in Belgium, France, Germany, Switzerland and Spain, he took the Ensemble Musique Nouvelle not only to the main cities of Belgium but also to many European festivals (Avignon, Paris, Amsterdam, Warsaw, Madrid, Belgrade, Zagreb), while being a producer for the musical services of Belgian television (RTBF). He subsequently devoted thirty years of his career to orchestral conducting, conducting many Belgian, Dutch, French, Italian, Swiss, Austrian, German, Norwegian, Finnish, Spanish and American orchestras, and for twenty-two seasons he directed the Orchestre Philharmonique de Liège.

Invited all over Europe, America and Japan to perform a very broad repertory, Pierre Bartholomée has collaborated with soloists such as Arthur Grumiaux, Yehudi Menuhin, Leonid Kogan, Frank-Peter Zimmerman, Boris Belkin, Nikita Magaloff, Yvonne Loriod, Elisabeth Leonskaya, Shura Cherkasky, Martha Argerich, Christian Zacharias, Hélène Grimaud, Jessye Norman, Barbara Hendricks, Montserrat Caballé, José Van Dam, Narciso Yepes, Heinrich Schiff, Janos Starker, Paul Tortelier and made many radio and discographic recordings, awarded with among others a Prix Charles Cros, a Victoire de la Musique, a Koussevitzky Prize and two Cecilia Prizes.

His personal catalogue includes two operas, two oratorios, six works for large orchestra, chamber music, vocal music, instrumental pieces and electronic music. Most of these works have been performed, some in the great international centres for music (Paris, Berlin, Amsterdam, Washington, Montreal, Quebec, Geneva, etc.). The oratorio Ludus Sapientiae, composed to a text by François Jongen on the occasion of the 575th anniversary of the foundation of the University of Louvain, was given its first performance in 2001 in the Grande Aula of Louvain-la-Neuve, conducted by Jordi Savall, and was also performed in Brussels on 10 June 2007 conducted by Jean Tubéry.

La Monnaie has commissioned three works from him, inspired by Henry Bauchau: Le Rêve de Diotime, a dramatic scene for soprano and chamber orchestra, first performed in 2000 and revived in 2002, and Œdipe sur la route, an opera in four acts, first staged in 2003 in a performance conducted by Daniele Callegari with stage direction by Philippe Sireuil, and with José Van Dam in the title role. In 2008 his opera La Lumière Antigone with a libretto by Henry Bauchau was world premiered.

Having for several years taught musical analysis at the Royal Brussels Conservatory, Pierre Bartholomée was composer in residence at the Catholic University of Louvain (UCL) where he was guest professor and where he set up and for three years ran an inter-faculty composition workshop. One of his recent works, Fragments des Belles Heures, a song cycle for soprano and small instrumental ensemble, with texts by Liliane Wouters, was premiered in Brussels at the instigation of the UCL.

His 13 Bagatelles for piano and his String Quartet were given first performances in Brussels in 2004. The String Quartet subsequently featured in the programmes of several concerts in Germany. His Sonata for viola and piano was performed several times in 2004, Pentacle for eight instruments, commissioned by the Nouvel Ensemble Contemporain, was premiered in Switzerland in 2005 and All days are nights (two visions of Shakespeare’s Sonnet XLII), for female voice, flute, cello and piano, was incorporated into a music-poetry production and was published in a CD/book by Éditions Esperluète.

In 2006 a Passacaglia for marimba and live electronics, a commission from the Centre de Recherches et de Formation Musicales de Wallonie, was first performed in Liège and later performed in Brussels, at the Ars Musica Festival, further performances of 13 Bagatelles, Fragments des Belles Heures and of the String Quartet, the premiere in Brussels of Histoire d’un caillou, three songs for soprano and piano to a short poem by Henry Bauchau, the composition of 7 x 7 for 7 concertante instrumentalists, a commission from Ars Musica (the first performance taking place in March 2007), and the completion of two large-scale works, a Requiem, first performed in Brussels in 2007 and Oraisons for cello was premiered in Paris in 2007.

Commissioned by the city of Maastricht, La Rupture des Falaises was created in 2008 for the Ensemble 88. In 2009 Ars Musica Festival has featered Face à face. For its 50th anniversary in 2010, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Liège commissioned and performed Symphonie. In 2011 he has composed the string quartet Envol et mort d’un papillon and a score for the National Orchestra of Belgium to accompany a silent film by Joris Ivens. A new production of La Lumière Antigone will take place in Switzerland in 2012.

The record labels Cypres, Igloo and Fuga Libera have issued recordings of most of Pierre Bartholomée’s symphonic works as well as a large part of his chamber music output. Several of his discs have won many awards from the international musical press (Choc from Le Monde de la Musique, Joker from Crescendo, etc.).

Pierre Bartholomée is a member of the fine arts division of the Royal Belgian Academy. He has on several occasions presided the jury of the Antonio Pedrotti International Orchestral Conducting Competition in Trento (Italy) and has been a member of juries for the Queen Elisabeth Competition, the Gaudeamus Competition (Hilversum), the Queen Marie-José Composition Competition (Geneva), the Composition Competition of the International Besançon Festival, the Geneva International Piano Competition and the International Saxophone Competition of Dinant.

His works are published by Universal (Vienna), Salabert and Jobert (Paris), Cebedem (Brussels) and Quindicesima (Valenciennes).

Editor Mardaga and the Conseil de la Musique de la Communauté française have dedicated a book by Robert Wangermée to him : Pierre Bartholomée - parcours d’un musicien.
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Véronique Bogaerts
Belgium, °1955
A laureate of the 1980 Queen Elisabeth Competition, Véronique Bogaerts has been entirely trained by Belgian violin teacher Carlo Van Neste. She has won several international competitions and has given many concerts in Europe, the Far East and South America. She has also participated in the juries of international contests, such as the Queen Elisabeth Competition in 1997 and 2001 and the Competition of Prague in 2004.

An accomplished player of chamber music, she plays the violin in piano duos and trios, string quintets and piano quintets (Ensemble César Franck). Her very extensive repertoire has also allowed her to interpret numerous concertos from all periods with conductors of world renown.

Véronique Bogaerts is a much sought-after violin pedagogue. Having started teaching at age eighteen at the Brussels Royal Conservatory of Music, she subsequently was nominated as a violin professor at the Royal Conservatory of Mons and at the Chapelle Musicale Reine Elisabeth. Currently, she teaches at the Brussels Royal Conservatory and the Centre Eduardo Del Pueyo.

Véronique Bogaerts plays a 1699 violin by Jean-Baptiste Roggerius.
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Augustin Dumay
France, °1949
The international career of Augustin Dumay began in 1980 when Herbert von Karajan invited him to perform as a soloist with the Berliner Philharmoniker. Since then, he has regularly performed with the Berliner Philharmoniker, the BRSO, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam, the London Symphony, the Philharmonia, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, conducted by I. Fischer, D. Harding, R. Ticciati, C. Dutoit, D. Zinman, S. Ozawa, Y. Temirkanov. He has been the music director of the Kansai Philharmonic Orchestra in Osaka (Japan) since 2011 and is master in residence at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel. His discography includes more than forty CDs for Warner, Deutsche Grammophon and Onyx, which have won many international awards. His recording of the Beethoven sonatas with Maria João Pires is regarded by critics as a major achievement. His forthcoming recordings will be of Johann Sebastian Bach’s sonatas and partitas, and of concerti by Berg, Bartok and Stravinsky with the Philharmonia Orchestra in London. Augustin Dumay plays a Guarnerius del Gesù from 1743 (ex-Kogan).
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Franco Gulli
°1926 - 2001
Italian violinist Franco Gulli (1926-2001) studied with his father (a graduate of Prague Conservatory under Sevcik) and with Arrigo Serato at the Chigi Academy in Sienna. He pursued further studies with Joseph Szigeti in Switzerland, followed by an international career as a soloist with major orchestras and celebrated conductors. Franco Gulli has also performed as a chamber music player, with pianist Enrica Cavallo and as a founding member of the Italian String Trio, with Bruno Giuranna and Giacinto Caramia. Recordings include the complete cycle of Beethoven sonatas and string trios, the Mozart violin concertos and Paganini’s Fifth Concerto. Franco Gulli has taught at the Chigi Academy of Sienna, Italy, the Lucerne Conservatory, Switzerland, and the Indiana University School of Music in Bloomington, Indiana, where he carried the title of Distinguished Professor of Music.
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Tuomas Haapanen
Tuomas Haapanen studied the violin at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. After his debut in 1948 he pursued his studies in Paris with Léon Nauwinck and René Benedetti. In addition to a fine career as soloist and chamber musician, he has also been appointed concert master for the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Helsinki Chamber Orchestra. In 1962 he was appointed head violin teacher at the Turku Conservatory, and in 1978 he became violin professor at the Sibelius Academy; where, from 1987 to 1990, he also acted as principal. He has held master classes in Europe, America and Japan, and many of his students have won prizes in international competitions. Tuomas Haapanen acted as the chairman of the International Jean Sibelius Violin Competition from 1981 to 2001, and has regularly been invited to serve as member of the jury in most major violin competitions. In 1999 he received the Finnish State Music Prize.
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Koichiro Harada
Japan, °1945
Koichiro Harada studied the violin, chamber music, and orchestral conducting at the Toho Gakuen School of Music in Tokyo and at the Juilliard School under Hideo Saito, Kazuyoshi Akiyama, Dorothy DeLay, and Ivan Galamian. In 1969, he founded the Tokyo String Quartet, of which he was first violin for twelve years. He later taught at the Cleveland Institute of Music and at the Aspen Music Festival. In 1983, Koichiro Harada returned to Tokyo and founded a number of other chamber music ensembles, including NADA and the Mito Quartet. He has also become a well-known orchestral conductor and works regularly with ensembles such as the New Japan Philharmonic, the Osaka Philharmonic Orchestra, the Hiroshima Symphony Orchestra, the Sapporo Symphony Orchestra, the Kyoto Symphony Orchestra, and the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra. In parallel with his concert activities, Koichiro Harada teaches at the Toho Gakuen School of Music in Tokyo and serves regularly on the juries of a number of international competitions, including the Queen Elisabeth Competition and the Wieniawski and Paganini competitions. In 2005, he chaired the jury of the Long-Thibaud-Crespin Competition in Paris.
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Yuzuko Horigome
Japan, °1957
Yuzuko Horigome started learning the piano at the age of four; she began the violin the following year, with Ryosaku Kubota. In 1975 she continued her violin studies with Toshiya Eto, before graduating from the Toho Gakuen School of Music in 1980. That same year she became the first Japanese musician to win First Prize in the Queen Elisabeth Competition. She has played with the Berlin and New York Philharmonic Orchestras, the London, Chicago, St Petersburg, Montreal, Vienna, and Tokyo Symphony Orchestras, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, La Scala (Milan), the RAI Orchestra, the New Japan Philharmonic, and the Camerata Salzburg. She has performed with prestigious conductors such as C. Abbado, A. Prévin, K. Masur, C. Dutoit, R. Chailly, E. Leinsdorf, S. Ozawa, I. Fischer, S. Rattle, A. Dimitriev, V. Ashkenazy, and S. Vegh. In chamber music she has played with M. Argerich, A. R. El Bacha, P. Rogé, W. Manz, G. Kremer, P. Graffin, T. Zehetmair, N. Imai, K. Kashkashian, M. Maisky, A. Meneses, and many others. Yuzuko Horigome has been and continues to be a guest at many international festivals, including Marlboro, Lockenhaus, Tanglewood, Musicfest La Jolla California, Lugano, and Buenos Aires. A guest teacher at the Brussels Conservatory, she is one of the most prominent soloists in Japan, where she tours for several months every year.
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Nam Yun Kim
- 2023
The celebrated violinist and teacher Kim Nam Yun has served on the juries of numerous prestigious competitions, including the Taipei International Competition, the Tibor Varga International Violin Competition, the Joseph Joachim International Violin Competition Hannover, and the Tchaikovsky Competition. Her career took off when she won First Prize in the Tibor Varga International Violin Competition after studying at the Juilliard School of Music under Ivan Galamian and Felix Galimir. As a promising young soloist, she was invited to perform at major venues such as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, the Kennedy Center, and Sydney Opera House, as well as in other major concert halls in Europe and Asia. She has performed with major orchestras throughout the world, including the St Petersburg Symphony, the Royal Philharmonic, the Zagreb Radio Symphony, and many others. She has been invited to many famous music schools and festivals and is currently professor of violin at the Korea National University of Arts.
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Herman Krebbers
The Netherlands, °1923 - 2018
Herman Krebbers made his first public appearance as a nine-year-old prodigy. Since 1945 he has toured the United States, France, Germany, Switzerland, Poland, Italy, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Belgium, Argentina, Russia, Portugal and England. He received a Golden Record for his interpretations of the Beethoven, Brahms and Mozart violin concertos together with the Concertgebouw orchestra, as well as an Edison for Haydn’s two concertos. He has recorded concertos by Paganini, Dvorák, Viotti No. 22, Bruch, Vieuxtemps No. 4, Bach A moll, Brahms’ double-concerto with Tibor de Machula on cello, Vivaldi and Bach double-concertos with Theo Olof on violin, Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, Saint Saens’ Havanaise and Rondo Capriccioso and Ravel’s Tzigane. Herman Krebbers was a professor at the Robert Schumann Hochschule Düsseldorf and has taught at the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam for over 30 years. He has served as a jury member at competitions around the world. To give master classes, he has been invited to Japan, Canada, France, Spain, South Africa, England, Belgium, Germany, Italy and Holland. On account of his many contributions to musical life in the Netherlands, he was appointed Officer in the Order of Oranje-Nassau.
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Alberto Lysy
Argentina, °1935 - 2009
One of the leading musicians of his age, Alberto Lysy (1935-2009) has played with world-renowned orchestras, from the New York Philharmonic and the US National Symphony Orchestra to the Royal London Philharmonic, the RAI Symphony Orchestra in Rome and the Amsterdam Philharmonic, under the baton of such famous conductors as Sir Adrian Boult, Sir Colin Davis, Pierre Boulez and Mstislav Rostropovitch. He has also given chamber music concerts with the greatest musicians of his time, including Benjamin Britten, Pablo Casals, Nadia Boulanger and Yehudi Menuhin, who was his teacher. Alberto Lysy was the artistic director of the International Menuhin Music Academy in Gstaad and Blonay, where he taught the violin. Often invited as a guest instructor, he gave classes in interpretation at leading music schools. Founder of the Camerata Lysy Gstaad, he has toured with this ensemble in Europe, the United States, Canada, South America, the Far East and South Africa.
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Shlomo Mintz
Russian Federation, °1957
Born in Moscow in 1957, Shlomo Mintz emigrated with his family two years later to Israel, where he studied with the renowned Ilona Feher. At age eleven, he made his concerto debut with the Israel Philharmonic. He made his Carnegie Hall debut at age sixteen in a concert with the Pittsburgh Symphony, and subsequently began his studies with Dorothy DeLay at the Juilliard School of Music.

At age eighteen, he added the role of conductor to his artistic endeavours; since then he has conducted acclaimed orchestras worldwide, and became Music Advisor of the Israel Chamber Orchestra and Artistic Advisor and Principal Guest Conductor of the Maastricht Symphony. He was appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra in 2008.

Shlomo Mintz regularly appears with the most celebrated orchestras and conductors on the international scene and is heard in recitals and chamber music concerts all around the world. He also frequently performs as a violist with leading chamber ensembles as well as in recitals.

He is the recipient of several prestigious music prizes including the Premio Accademia Musicale Chigiana, the Diapason D’Or, the Grand Prix du Disque, the Gramophone Award and the Edison Award. Since 2004 he is recording for AVIE Records, London.

Shlomo Mintz is patron and one of the founders of the Keshet Eilon International Violin Mastercourse in Israel, and gives master classes worldwide. He has been a jury member of several international competitions including the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow and the Queen Elisabeth International Music Competition in Brussels. He was President of the Jury of the International Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition in Poznan and since 2002 is President of the Jury of the Sion Valais International Violin Competition in Switzerland.
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Yfrah Neaman
°1923 - 2003
After a thorough musical education in Paris and London under Jacques Thibaud, Carl Flesch and Max Rostal, Yfrah Neaman (1923-2003) made his sensational debut in London in 1944 and rapidly conquered the great concert houses of the world. He was an eloquent and tireless champion of twentieth-century composers, whose works - many written especially for him - he has introduced to audiences around the world. He was Professor of Violin and Department Head of the Guildhall School of Music in London and had been offered guest professorships at conservatories and colleges of music all over the world.

As an internationally acclaimed teacher, Yfrah Neaman gave regular master classes troughout Europe, the United States and the Far East. He was also a regular member of the jury of all the major international violin competitions and the joint Artistic Director of the London International Quartet Competition.

He was made a Freeman of the City of London in 1980, and in 1983 was honoured with the Order of the British Empire. In 1997, the Worshipful Company of Musicians offered him the prestigious Cobbett Medal. In 1998, he was awarded a Doctorate Honoris Causa from the National Academy of Music in Sofia, Bulgaria, and received the title of Professor Emeritus for service to the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
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Igor Oistrakh
Russian Federation, °1931 - 2021
Igor Oistrakh, the son and pupil of David Oistrakh, was born in Odessa in 1931. He won first prizes in the Budapest International Competition of 1949 and at the Wieniawski International Competition in Poznan´ in 1952. His Western debut took place at the Royal Albert Hall in London and was followed by concert tours throughout the world. Igor Oistrakh has performed with the world’s greatest orchestras under conductors such as O. Klemperer, F. Reiner, H. von Karajan, E. Ormandy, C.M. Giulini, G. Solti, L. Maazel, S. Ozawa, and G. Rozhdestvensky. He also performed with Pablo Casals and Yehudi Menuhin. For 27 years Igor Oistrakh played in a unique duo with his father, with whom he made several recordings. Since 1968 he has conducted chamber and symphony orchestras as well as performing as a viola player. He has recorded for EMI, Deutsche Grammophon, Decca, RCA, Collins, Melodia, and Art and Electronics. The recipient of numerous awards, he is President of the Fondation César Franck and serves on the jury of highly prestigious violin competitions (including the Tchaikovsky, Wieniawski, and Carl Flesch competions). Since 1996 he has been a professor at the Royal Conservatory in Brussels.
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Ruggiero Ricci
United States of America, °1918 - 2012
Ruggiero Ricci made his debut in San Francisco at the age of 10. During World War II he enlisted and became "Entertainment Specialist Ricci", playing ad broadcasting hundreds of concerts under a variety of unusual conditions, often without an accompanist, exploring and presenting the solo violin repertoire, of which he has remained an enthusiastic exponent ever since. He has greatly contributed to the world's renewed appreciation of the great 19th century composers. He has premiered works by contemporary composers including Ginastera, von Einem and Goehr. His discography lists more than 500 recordings. His fourth recording of the Paganini capricci was made for the first time on Paganini's own Guarneri, exceptionally lent to him by the City of Genoa. Ruggiero Ricci has performed over 6000 concerts in 65 countries. His first teacher, from the age of six, was Louis Persinger. He later studied with Michel Piastro, Paul Stassevitch and Georg Kulenkampf. His teaching posts include Indiana and Michigan University, The Juilliard School and the Mozarteum Salzburg. His book, Left hand violin technique, is published by G. Shirmer.
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