Announcement of the composers of the unpublished imposed works for the 2025 Piano Competition
Semi-final
Ana Sokolović – Two Studies for Piano
A key figure in contemporary music, composer Ana Sokolović was born in Belgrade, Serbia, and has been based in Montreal since 1992. With a background in the rhythmic universe of Balkan folklore, her music is coloured with playful images and inspired by diverse artistic disciplines. Her vast repertoire is regularly performed both in Canada and internationally. According to Operabase, Sokolović is the fourth most performed female opera composer in the world in the last decade according to Operabase. Her opera, Svadba, which ‘seems to invent a universal phonetics of the human heart’ (Le Monde), has been performed more than fifty times. Her career as a composer has been marked by many awards and recognitions, including two consecutive JUNOs in the ‘Classical Composition of the Year’ category. Ana Sokolović’s works have been recorded on more than twenty discs. In 2020 she joined the prestigious publishing house Boosey & Hawkes. The following year she was appointed composer in residence at the Montreal Symphony Orchestra for three seasons. In 2022 she was awarded the first Canada Research Chair in Opera Creation at Université de Montréal, where she is also a professor of composition.
The candidates have received the score of the imposed work upon the acceptance of their application. Two Studies for Piano will be world premiered on Monday 12 May at 3pm at Studio 4 in Flagey and will be performed by the 24 semi-finalists during their recital.
Ana Sokolović will be present during the semi-final and will be available for interviews.
Final
Kris Defoort – Music for the Heart
Kris Defoort has developed a highly original musical language at the intersection of classical music and jazz, between composition and improvisation. After several years in New York as a jazz pianist, he continued his musical journey in Belgium as a composer, improvising pianist and leader of various ensembles.
Between 1994 and 2020, he was composer in residence at LOD muziektheater, where he collaborated with actors Dirk Roofthooft on The Brodsky Concerts (2010) and Josse De Pauw on An Old Monk (2012) and a concert called landscape (2019). For his CD Diving Poet Society (2017) with the Kris Defoort Trio, he drew inspiration from poems by Peter Verhelst. In 2022 he composed the song cycle Pieces of Peace.
He made a name for himself on the classical circuit with the operas The Woman Who Walked into Doors (2001) and House of the Sleeping Beauties (2009), both of which had their world premieres at La Monnaie, directed by Guy Cassiers, and were widely acclaimed across Europe and as far away as Japan. In 2014 he created the ‘circus opera’ Daral Shaga and in 2021 the opera The Time of Our Singing premiered at La Monnaie. The following year it won the International Opera Award for Best World Creation and was revived at La Monnaie in 2024.
Kris Defoort also wrote the orchestral works Human Voices Only (2014) and Conversations with the Past (2002). In 2003 he premiered both his String Quartet No. 1 and ConVerSations / ConSerVations, a project based on Renaissance music with soprano Claron McFadden, his jazz ensemble Dreamtime and Quatuor Danel.
In 2006–07 he was artist in residence at Bozar, where pianist Jan Michiels premiered his piano cycle Dedicatio I and from which Dedicatio VI was the set piece for the semi-finals of the 2007 Queen Elisabeth Competition. In 2023 his second piano cycle Dedicatio II was performed by Cédric Tiberghien during the Flagey Piano Days.
The twelve finalists will each perform a concerto of their choice and the unpublished work composed by Kris Defoort. The candidates selected for the final will receive this work the day they enter in isolation at the Music Chapel. They have one week, neither more nor less, to learn to play the work, without outside help. The imposed work will be performed twelve times with the Brussels Philharmonic, under the baton of Kazushi Ono, and will be world premiered on Monday 26 May at 8.15pm at the Brussels Centre for Fine Arts.
Journalists can attend an audition of a recording of the piece at the Centre for Fine Arts on 26 May at 6 pm, in the presence of the composer. Please let us know if you would like to attend this press audition.
Calendar
At Flagey:
Friday 2 May | Drawing of lots (6pm) which determines the order of appearance of the candidates
From Monday 5 to Saturday 10 May | First round (3pm and 8pm)
From Monday 12 to Saturday 17 May | Semi-final (3pm and 8pm)
24 semi-finalists with a recital and the Orchestre Royal de Chambre de Wallonie, dir. Vahan Mardirossian
Wednesday 4 & Thursday 5 June | Laureates’ recitals (8.15pm)
with the unranked laureates
At Bozar:
From Monday 26 to Saturday 31 May | Final (8.15pm)
12 finalists, with Brussels Philharmonic, directed by Kazushi Ono / 2 finalists each evening with a concerto of their choice and the compulsory work
Monday 9 June | Laureates’ concert (8.15pm)
4th, 5th and 6th laureates, with the Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège, dir. Martijn Dendievel
Wednesday 11 June | Closing concert (8.15pm)
1st, 2nd and 3rd laureates, with the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, dir. Christoph Altstaedt
About the Queen Elisabeth Competition
One of the most demanding and also one of the most widely publicised international competitions, the Queen Elisabeth Competition, ever since its creation in 1937, has established itself as a springboard for young violinists, pianists, singers, and cellists on the threshold of an international career. The Competition aims, above all, to serve as an intermediary between those young virtuosos and the world’s great musical venues.Steadfastly committed to the project initiated by Eugène Ysaÿe and Queen Elisabeth, the Queen Elisabeth Competition seeks to discover complete artists; it owes its reputation to a prestigious jury, strict rules, and unparalleled media coverage, as well as to the friendly and enthusiastic hospitality offered by an entire country and its Royal Family. For the finalists, one of the highlights of the Competition is their stay at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel, which offers them an opportunity to spend a whole week studying, without any external assistance, a new work to be performed with an orchestra.
