The Leventritt Competition was a highly prestigious international competition for classical pianists and violinists. It was founded in 1939 by the Edgar M. Leventritt Foundation Inc. of
Cold Spring, New York
Cold Spring is a village in the town of Philipstown in Putnam County, New York, United States. The population was 1,986 at the 2020 census. It borders the smaller village of Nelsonville and the hamlets of Garrison and North Highlands. The cen ...
, in memory of jurist Edgar M. Leventritt. The Leventritt Competition has now been discontinued.
More recently, the Cliburn contest in
Fort Worth, Texas
Fort Worth is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Texas and the 13th-largest city in the United States. It is the county seat of Tarrant County, covering nearly into four other counties: Denton, Johnson, Parker, and Wise. Accord ...
, has attracted more publicity. The Leventritt award was sparingly given, and there was no award presented if the judges felt the required standard was not achieved.
Award winners
* 1941:
Sidney Foster
Sidney Foster (May 23, 1917 — February 7, 1977), born Sidney Earl Finkelstein, was an American virtuoso pianist and teacher. He studied with Isabelle Vengerova and David Saperton at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, and in 1940 beca ...
, piano
* 1942: Erno Valasek, violin The New York Times, October 11, 1941
* 1943:
Eugene Istomin
Eugene George Istomin (November 26, 1925October 10, 2003) was an American pianist. He was a winner of the Leventritt Award and recorded extensively as a soloist and in a piano trio in which he collaborated with Isaac Stern and Leonard Rose.
Car ...
David Nadien
David Nadien (March 12, 1926 – May 28, 2014) was an American virtuoso violinist and violin teacher. He was the concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic from 1966 to 1970. His playing style, characterized by fast vibrato, audible shifting noise ...
, violin
* 1947:
Alexis Weissenberg
Alexis Sigismund Weissenberg ( bg, Алексис Сигизмунд Вайсенберг; 26 July 1929 – 8 January 2012) was a Bulgarian-born French pianist.
Early life and career
Born into a Jewish family in Sofia, Weissenberg began taking ...
, piano
* 1948: Jean Graham, piano
* 1949:
Gary Graffman
Gary Graffman (born October 14, 1928) is an American classical pianist, teacher and administrator.
Early life
Graffman was born in New York City to Russian-Jewish parents. Having started piano at age 3, Graffman entered the Curtis Institute of M ...
, piano
* 1954:
Van Cliburn
Harvey Lavan "Van" Cliburn Jr. (; July 12, 1934February 27, 2013) was an American pianist who, at the age of 23, achieved worldwide recognition when he won the inaugural International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 1958 during the Cold W ...
, piano
* 1955:
Betty-Jean Hagen
Betty-Jean Hagen (October 17, 1930 – December 29, 2016) was a Canadian-born violinist and musical educator living in the United States.
Early life
Hagen was born in Edmonton and studied violin there with Alexander Nicol. Hagen won awards at the ...
, violin
* 1957:
Anton Kuerti
Anton Emil Kuerti, OC (born July 21, 1938) is an Austrian-born Canadian pianist, music teacher, composer, and conductor. He has developed international recognition as a solo pianist.Arnold Steinhardt, violin
* 1959:
Malcolm Frager
Malcolm Frager (January 15, 1935June 20, 1991) was an American piano virtuoso and recording artist.
Life and career
Frager was born in St. Louis, Missouri and studied with Carl Friedberg in New York City from 1949 until Friedberg's death in 1955. ...
, piano
* 1962:
Michel Block
Michel Block (January 12, 1937 – March 4, 2003) was a Belgian-French pianist.
Biography
Born of French parents in Antwerp, Belgium, he moved with his parents to Mexico as child, where his grandfather had settled in 1870. Block studied piano i ...
Kyung-wha Chung
Kyung Wha Chung (born 26 March 1948) is a South Korean violinist.
Early years and education
Kyung Wha Chung was born in Seoul as the middle of the seven children in her family. Her father was an exporter, and her mother ran a restaurant.
She b ...
, violin and
Pinchas Zukerman
Pinchas Zukerman ( he, פנחס צוקרמן, born 16 July 1948) is an Israeli-American violinist, violist and conductor.
Life and career
Zukerman was born in Tel Aviv, to Jewish parents and Holocaust survivors Yehuda and Miriam Lieberman Zuk ...
, violin (joint recipients)
* 1969: Joseph Kalichstein, piano
* 1976: No first prize awarded
* 1978: Mitchell Stern, violin
* 1981:
Cecile Licad Cecile Buencamino Licad (born 11 May 1961) is a Filipina classical pianist. She was born in Manila.
Awards
* In 1981 Licad received the Leventritt Competition Gold Medal.
* Her recording of Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 2 and Saint-Saëns' Piano C ...