Ukrainian violinist Dmytro Udovychenko received the 1st prize at the 2024 Queen Elisabeth International Violin Competition in Belgium.
Udovychenko is also a former major prize winner at the Montreal, Sibelius, Singapore, and Joachim International Violin Competitions.
The musician performed outstandingly in all competition rounds, with Dmitri Shostakovich's Violin Concerto No. 1 in the final on his 25th birthday.
Ukrainians have previously achieved notable placements in this competition. Cellist Oleksii Shadrin took home the Fourth Prize in 2022, while violinist Oleksii Semenenko won the Second Prize in 2015.
However, Udovychenko's triumph marks the first time a Ukrainian violinist has won the Queen Elisabeth Competition.
The 24-year-old American VC Young Artist Joshua Brown and the 22-year-old American VC Young Artist Elli Choi were given 3rd and 4th prizes.
Furthermore, 4th, 5th, and 6th prizes were awarded to 23-year-old VC Young Artist Kevin Zhu from the US, 23-year-old VC Young Artist Julian Rhee from the US, and 25-year-old VC Young Artist Minami Yoshida from Japan.
International violinists between 18 and 30 who are prepared to pursue an international career are eligible to apply. Recipients will receive $27,000, a CD recording, multiple significant international performance opportunities, and a four-year loan of the 1708 Hugins Stradivarius violin provided by the Nippon Music Foundation.
Augustin Dumay, Miriam Fried, Lorenzo Gatto, Philippe Graffin, Koichiro Harada, Dong-Suk Kang, Kyung Sun Lee, Midori, Vadim Repin, Vineta Sareika, Dmitry Sitkovetsky, Baiba Skride, and Isabelle van Keulen were the members of the jury for the 2024 final round.
Previous first-prize winners include David Oistrakh, Leonid Kogan, Jaime Laredo, Phillippe Hirschhorn, Miriam Fried, Vadim Repin, Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider, Baiba Skride, and VC Artists Ray Chen, Stella Chen, and Ji-Young Lim.
