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Semifinalists of Queen Elisabeth Competition are known

May 6, 2012 at 10:17 AM

They are:
Petteri IIVONEN
KIM Bomsori
Josef SPACEK
CHO Jinjoo
LEE Marisol
CHOOI Nikki
Erzhan KULIBAEV
CHO GaHyun
Valentina SVYATLOVSKAYA
Richard LIN
Ermir ABESHI
Lev SOLODOVNIKOV
Andrey BARANOV
KIM Dami
Stefan TARARA
SHIN Hyun Su
Artiom SHISHKOV
Nancy ZHOU
NARITA Tatsuki
Marc BOUCHKOV
Esther YOO
TSENG Yu-Chien
Maria MILSTEIN
Kristi GJEZI.

A schedule of performances in the semifinal can be found here.

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his name is artiom shIshkov, and I remember him as amazing. Tough competition. Some I know from Sibelius 2010 finale, like Petteri and Nancy Zhou. I heard some of the first rounds, mostly amazing! Still i cannot really enjoy some "competition like" polished risk free playing...
I agree, but competition playing is what it is. I thought Ray Chen's performance of the Franck at the QE was also quite "safe". But it has to be! If you do something "interesting" and two judges don't like it, you're finished! There's no room for this in a competition. The whole point of these things is to pay your dues to the establishment.

My impression of Chen's playing at the QE was that he just blows you away by how perfect he is technically -- perfect in ways that the other performers, while excellent, could not reach -- a higher level. The other thing is the apparent ease with which he accomplishes this, hardly breaking a sweat in the Rondo-Capriccioso, for example, whereas one of his competitors (a Latvian woman, as I recall) looked as though she'd run a marathon after playing that. Of course now that Chen is a performing and recording artist he can show us all of his artistry. I haven't heard his recording of the Franck yet but that is certainly on my list.

What's amazing (and a little depressing) to me is that if you look at that list of violinists who are semifinalists in this competition, they are all fantastic violinists. And yet, ten years from now, will anyone know who they are? Will they have performing or even orchestral careers? Or will they be teaching "Twinkle" or "Boil 'Em Cabbage Down" to droves of tiny children playing tiny violins so that in the next generation the likelihood of professional success will be even more scarce?

I am sure, that they will all have a great future, with or without the violin. I know from Nacy zhou that she stated that she doesnt want to make violin playing to her job and study something else. Thats a safe way, if she wins.. good for her. btw she is amazing.
For the others, certainly all great violinists. They are around competitions for long time mostly and while being the greatest of all the elisabeth competition is just a part of their schedule. Many of them had achieved some places on podiums before. Obviously they are fighting for the win. But often not the winner takes it all, but the best looking girl, who gets a record contract and some good marketing agent. The winner will of course always be remembered in certain circles, but to match the level of an queen elisabeth performance in all your concerts, you will have to work very hard.

btw. Does anyone know if there is a podcast from the 5th may? I only can find two or three of the competitors from that day. I want to listen to the most interesting ones for me and at that point the podcast stops... typical! Why don't they have a competent technical team/partner? Live stream would be also good. maybe the queen gets old...

edit: I found the podcasts... they were not listed but existent

Simon, I corrected the error. Thank you for pointing it out.
listen to her, Nancy Zhous, Paganini... amazing!!!! http://www.rtbf.be/radio/podcast/player?id=1726433
wouldn't be surprised to see her in the first 3!
and here is Artiom Shishkovs first round. Very smooth! http://www.rtbf.be/radio/podcast/player?id=1726426
I am looking forward to more of those!
One of the first rounds I attended was that of Simon Michal who simply blew away the audience. I am very surprised that the jury didn't let him in the semifinals. Also very impressive is Marc Bouchkov (who is in the semifinals), and restless to boot!
in fact all those where also in sibelius 2010 competition, when I remember right:

Petteri IIVONEN (2nd place)

KIM Bomsori (finale, as far as i remember... heard her live first round in helsinki, not my style... but certainly good)

Andrey BARANOV (until second round)

Nancy ZHOU (finale)

Esther YOO (3rd place i think.. she was very young and got a bonus therefore. solid playing of course from the finale I liked Nancy Zhou better, who got nothing...)

CHO Jinjoo: From Simon Streuff
Posted on May 6, 2012 at 9:17 PM