title: Leventritt Competition
text: # Leventritt Competition
  
  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, in memory of jurist Edgar M. Leventritt. The Leventritt Competition has now been discontinued.
  
  More recently, the Cliburn contest in Fort Worth, Texas, 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, piano
  * 1942: Erno Valasek, violin The New York Times, October 11, 1941
  * 1943: Eugene Istomin, piano
  * 1945: Louise Meiszner, piano
  * 1946: David Nadien, violin
  * 1947: Alexis Weissenberg, piano
  * 1948: Jean Graham, piano
  * 1949: Gary Graffman, piano
  * 1954: Van Cliburn, piano
  * 1955: Betty-Jean Hagen, violin
  * 1957: Anton Kuerti, piano
  * 1958: Arnold Steinhardt, violin
  * 1959: Malcolm Frager, piano
  * 1962: Michel Block, piano
  * 1964: Itzhak Perlman, violin
  * 1965: Tong-Il Han, piano
  * 1967: Kyung-wha Chung, violin and Pinchas Zukerman, violin (joint recipients)
  * 1969: Joseph Kalichstein, piano
  * 1976: No first prize awarded
  * 1978: Mitchell Stern, violin
  * 1981: Cecile Licad, piano
  