Joshua Brown wins Global Music Education League Competition 2023

Florence Lockheart
Wednesday, November 15, 2023

Brown receives the competition’s Gold Medal and a cash prize of $100,000 while Elli Choi was awarded the Silver Medal and the Jade Medal went to Chaowen Luo

First prize winner Joshua Brown receives medal from Liguang Wang, founder of GMEL and the Competition (Image courtesy of China Conservatory of Music)
First prize winner Joshua Brown receives medal from Liguang Wang, founder of GMEL and the Competition (Image courtesy of China Conservatory of Music)

American violinist Joshua Brown has been revealed as the winner of this year’s Global Music Education League (GMEL) Competition. Brown receives the competition’s Gold Medal and a cash prize of $100,000 (£80178) plus international management and tours.

American contestant Elli Choi was awarded the Silver Medal and a cash prize of $65,000, while the Jade Medal and $30,000 cash prize went to Chinese competitor Chaowen Luo. At the final, held at Beijing’s National Centre for Performing Arts (picutred below), finalists performed with the Philadelphia Orchestra and China Conservatory Symphony Orchestra for a jury of nine violinists: Giovanni Angeleri, Fridemann Eichhorn, Lorenz Nasturica-Herschcowici, Mariusz Patyra, Lucie Robert, Joel Smirnoff, Weidong Tong and Pavel Vernikov.

The jury was chaired by Bin Huang, director of the Orchestral Instrument Department of competition co-host China Conservatory of Music, who said: ‘This year’s Competition hosted some of the most talented young violinists from all over the world and a jury of internationally renowned musicians and educators. It was a great cultural and educational musical feast with three exceptional finalists giving thrilling performances.’

GMEL was founded in Beijing in 2017 as a non-governmental and non-profit academic organisation by Chinese composer Professor Liguang Wang. Wang launched the GMEL Competition in 2019 under the name China International Music Competition with the goal of ‘promoting the exchange of different music cultures and cultivating the world peace ambassadors of music’. Presented annually in the alternating disciplines of piano and violin, the competition is open to musicians between 16 and 30 years of age.

Brown adds this latest prize to a list of awards including First Prize and Audience Award at the 2019 International Violin Competition of Leopold Mozart, Second Prize and Audience Award at the Cooper International Violin Competition and Gold Medals at both Fischoff and M-Prize Chamber Music Competitions.