French cellist Victor Julien-Laferrière (*1990) has won the 2017 Queen Elisabeth Cello competition! The other prizewinners are: Yuya Okamoto (Second Prize), Santiago Cañón-Valencia (Third Prize), Aurélien Pascal (Fourth Prize), Ivan Karizna (Fifth Prize), Brannon Cho (Sixth Prize). Ivan Karizna has won both prizes of the public (Prix Musiq’3 and Canvas-Klaraprijs).
Victor Julien-Laferrière first started to study at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse in Paris, and continued his cello studies with Heinrich Schiff at the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst in Vienna and later at the Mozarteum Salzburg with Clemens Hagen. In 2012, he won First Prize and two special prizes at the Prague Spring Competition. With Adam Laloum and Mi-Sa Yang, he founded the Trio Les Esprits, now in residence at the Fondation Singer-Polignac, which released its first CD on Mirare in 2014.