Belgian violinist Sylvia Huang is among 71 candidates from 20 countries pre-selected for the first public round of the 2019 Queen Elisabeth Violin Competition. Huang first played the violin with her father as a child and was essentially trained by him, in addition to attending the Brussels Academy of Arts. She joined the National Orchestra of Belgium in 2012 as its youngest musician. The young woman, who was born in 1994, is now a member of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Dutch symphony orchestra, in which she plays first violin.
In 2014, together with three other Holland-based members of the orchestra, she formed the GoYa Quartet Amsterdam, which has since performed in various countries.
Huang’s skill with the violin was impressive from the beginning. In 2004, she won a first prize at the Belfius Classics, then known as the Axion Classics. Then 10, she was one of the youngest participants.
Huang is one of 49 women included in this year’s shortlist for the Queen Elisabeth competition, along with 22 men. Korea and Japan are the countries with the most representatives, 16 and 15 musicians respectively, while France has six.
A total of 172 candidates aged between 18 and 30 applied for the competition, sending in videotaped performances to the jury. Each candidate was required to play a solo violin sonata from Bach, a Paganini Capriccio and a sonata from Mozart, Beethoven or Schubert, and to perform a composition to the accompaniment of a piano.
The 71 pre-selected candidates will take part in the first public round of the competition from 29 April to 4 May in Flagey, Brussels.
The Brussels Times
