Two Korean American violinists on June 2 finished in the top five at the prestigious Queen Elisabeth Competition of Belgium. Ellie Choi (left) placed third and Julian Rhee fifth. (Yonhap News)

By Lee Dasom

Two Korean American violinists have finished in the top five of the Queen Elisabeth Competition of Belgium, one of the world's leading classic music competitions that featured the violin this year.

Ellie Choi placed third and Julian Rhee fifth in being announced on June 2 as two of the top six finishers in this year's competition.

Born in San Diego, Choi made headlines as a violin prodigy at age 3. In 2007 at age 6, she was a special guest at a music festival hosted by the Philadelphia Orchestra and received a special award in the third movement category of Bach’s Double Concerto, a piece that all contestants played; she placed first in the category for those under age 11.

Rhee studied at the Music Institute of Chicago and is pursuing a master’s degree under professor Miriam Fried at the New England Conservatory. He made his classical music debut at age 7 by playing with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra.

Launched in 1937, the contest rotates in a four-year cycle to feature the violin, piano, cello and voice. The event is one of the world's top three competitions in classical music along with the International Chopin Piano Competition of Poland and International Tchaikovsky Competition of Russia.

This year's Queen Elisabeth Competition was won by Dmytro Udovychenko from Ukraine.

dlektha0319@korea.kr