Ysaye Int'l Music Competition to stage final round in Korea

Elena Lavrenova, director and founder of Ysaye International Music Competition, speaks during a press conference in Seoul, Monday, to announce that the competition finals will be held in Korea this year. Yonhap

The Ysaye International Music Competition, a global platform for young violinists founded in Belgium, will hold its final round in Korea this year for the first time, reflecting Asia's growing importance in the classical music world.

The 2026 finals will take place July 10 and 11 at Incheon Arts Center in Gyeonggi Province, co-hosted by the Korea International Arts School and the Belgian organization.

The competition, launched in 2018 in Liege, birthplace of Belgian violinist-composer Eugene Ysaye, has until now held all its stages in Belgium.

This year, 121 applicants from 23 countries entered the competition, with preliminary and semifinal rounds already held in Belgium. Twenty violinists are expected to compete at the finals.

Competition director and founder Elena Lavrenova said the decision to move the finals abroad for the first time was driven by both artistic philosophy and geography.

“We chose Korea because we had the best partners in Korea,” she said during a press conference, adding that the majority of applicants now come from Asia. She stressed that the competition, built around the artistic legacy of Ysaye, prioritizes musical depth and interpretation over sheer virtuosity, and that she found “the same ideas on education and music” already being practiced in Korea.

Kara Nam, the competition's artistic director who joined the jury in Liege last year, said she was struck by the competition’s emphasis on “musical depth and interpretation rather than just fast, accurate finger techniques” and by its transparent, non-political jury culture. That affinity in “musical philosophy and education” convinced her that hosting the finals in Korea “has more than regional significance.”

Jury chair and veteran violinist Joel Smirnoff said bringing the finals to Korea will signal to the world how important the country has become in classical music, describing Korean musicians as “balanced, passionate, diligent” and arguing that it is “natural to go where the appreciation of Western musical heritage is the strongest.”

From left, Cho Jung-hyun, conductor and president of the Korea International School of Arts; violinist and competition jury Stefan Jackiw; competition's co-founder Ashot Khachaturian; Elena Lavrenov, director general and founder of the Ysaye International Music Competition; Kara Nam, artistic director; and Joel Smirnoff, head of the jury for the final, pose during a press conference on the Korean finals of the Ysaye International Music Competition in Seoul, Monday. Yonhap

Organizers framed the move as part of a broader East-West exchange, one they hope will influence both global and Korean music education.

The competition has confirmed that the finals will be held in Korea again next year before shifting to a biennial co-hosting model from 2028, alternating between Korea and Belgium.

Nam said this would give European and Asian musicians easier access, while exposing Korean audiences to “a culture that supports young musicians with sincerity, beyond competition and medals.”

“By hosting this competition here for the first time, we want to share the idea that classical music is a culture where people connect and support each other’s growth,” she said.