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A Utahn has placed among the best young violinists in the world.
William Hagen, a 22-year-old violinist from Salt Lake City, came in third place in the Queen Elisabeth Competition, an international contest held last month in Brussels, Belgium.
The competition began with 62 candidates, who each had to perform a 20-minute recital in the first round. The 24 violinists chosen in the first round competed in the semi-final, and the top 12 went on to the final.
Hagen's third-place showing earned him the Count de Launoit Prize, which comes with a cash award of 17,000 Euros.
The winner, Korean violinist Ji Young Lim, received the Queen Mathilde Prize, consisting of a 25,000-Euro cash award and four years use of the "Huggins" violin (a Stradivarius) provided by the Nippon Music Foundation.
Second place, and 20,000 Euros, went to Oleksii Semenenko, from Ukraine.
Hagen's next American performance is set for July 7 at the Aspen Music Festival in Colorado.