Russian young violinist Andrey Baranov has beat out 77 international participants to win the Queen Elizabeth International Competition in Brussels, one of the most prestigious musical contests in the world.

      Andrey Baranov has won the first prize and 25,000 euro for the performance of Sergei Prokofiev’s Sonata for Violin and Piano No.2. The musician is also presented with the Stradivari violin of 1708 for three years usage.

      In the first semifinal Baranov performed Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 3, while for the second semifinal round he tried his hand at Tchaikovsky, which helped him to go to the final as the contest's favorite.

      Japanese Tatsuki Narita took second place in the contest, winning a money prize of 20,000 euro, while South Korea’s Hyun Su Shin snatched third along with 17,000 euro.

      This year about 78 participants took part in the contest, seven of them were from Russia. Only a dozen made it to the final. All the finalists performed in the Brussels Art Centre on 21-26 May to the accompaniment of the Belgium National Orchestra.

      Andrey Baranov is a winner of numerous international contests, such as Britten's (2008), Marteau's (2008), Paganini's (2010), Oistrach's (2010) international musical contests.

      The prestigious competition is named after the Queen Elisabeth of Bavaria (1876-1965). It has been held annually since 1951 and awards musicians in one of four categories – piano, violin, singing and composing. Russian musicians has won the competition for 13 times.

      The full list of the Queen Elisabeth Competition laureates you can see here

Sources: openspace.ru RT Image: dni.ru