Belgian pianist Valère Burnon among 24 semi-finalists of 2025 Queen Elisabeth Competition

The 24 candidates advancing to the semi-finals of the 2025 Queen Elisabeth Competition have been named following the completion of the first round of the marathon international contest on Saturday evening.

They include Belgian pianist Valère Burnon, a student at Queen Elisabeth Music ChapeL All the candidates return to Flagey’s Studio 4 to perform in the semi-finals from 12 to 17 May. Tickets for these public performances are on sale here.

The talented musicians are scheduled to play twice in this second round, each performing a Mozart concerto chosen from Concertos Nos. 9 in E-flat major, 15 in B-flat major, 17 in G major, 18 in B-flat major, and 27 in B-flat major. The young pianists will be accompanied by the Orchestre Royal de Chambre de Wallonie, conducted by Vahan Mardirossian.

The second work they will perform is one of two recitals that the students they have been rehearsing. They include the previously unpublished compulsory work Two Studies for Piano, written by Ana Sokolović. It is one of the Queen Elisabeth Competition’s unique features to include a piece that has never before been performed in public.

According to the competition programme, Belgian semi-finalist Valère Burnon returns on 13 May at 20.00 to play Mozart's Concerto No. 9 in E-flat major, KV 271. He will then be back on 16 May at 15.00 to perform the recital chosen by the competition as well as Ana Sokolović's compulsory work.

Here is the full list of the competition’s 24 semi-finalists:

Davide Ranaldi (Italy, 2000)

Robert Bily (Czech Republic, 1997)

Yuki Yoshimi (Japan, 2000)

Shion Ota (Japan, 2000)

Nathalia Milstein (France, 1995)

Rachel Breen (United States, 1996)

Uladzislau Khandohi (Belarus, 2001)

Valère Burnon (Belgium, 1998)

Nikola Meeuwsen (Netherlands, 2002)

Sergey Tanin (Russia, 1995)

Miguel Iglesias Lista (Spain, 2002)

Arthur Hinnewinkel (France, 2000)

Jacopo Giovannini (Italy, 1997)

Song Hyeon Kim (Korea, 2002)

Jiaxin Min (China, 1996)

Shiori Kuwahara (Japan, 1995)

Yumeka Nakagawa (Japan, 2001)

Mirabelle Kajenjeri (France, 1998)

Denis Linnik (Belarus, 1995)

Masaya Kamei (Japan 2001)

Yali Zaken (Israel, 2004)

Wataru Hisasue (Japan, 1994)

Jinhyung Park (Korea, 1996)

Changyong Shin (Korea, 1994)

Belgium’s public TV and radio stations VRT and RTBF provide live video streaming of all the performances during the competition.

Photo: ©Queen Elisabeth Competition