The Vendôme Prize

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Vendôme Prize is an international competition for young pianists who are technically perfect, original and ambitious in order to offer them support in entering the professional classical music world immediately after their studies. In addition to a sum of money, the winner receives professional management when starting their career. The competition was launched in Paris in 2000 by the American patron Alexis Gregory in collaboration with seven European music academies.

Goal of the competition

The most difficult time in the professional life of performing music artists is the transition from studies to the professional concert world. Studying music can never alone generate the charisma, originality and musicality necessary for concert life in a budding artist. In this postgraduate phase, musicians need non-material and financial support, advice and the opportunity to prove themselves on the concert stage. Participation in master classes and appropriate public relations work are further necessary elements in order to successfully establish a music artist in the public sphere of the music world. The Vendôme Prize supports all of these elements for an entry into the professional music world .

history

The first Vendôme Prize took place in November 2000 at UNESCO in Paris under the patronage of the French Minister of Culture Catherine Tasca . The Italian Alberto Nosé won the first prize , the second the Russian Evgenij Sudbin, who lives in London . In 2003, 2006 and 2009 the competition took place under the direction of the Gulbenkian Foundation with the Gulbenkian Symphony Orchestra and its conductor Lawrence Foster in Lisbon. Since 2014, this competition has been held every three years in connection with the Verbier International Music Festival .

The Vendôme Prize established itself very quickly because of some innovations in the dense field of international piano competitions:

  • The conservatories and conservatoires nominate talented candidates.
  • So-called “career makers” from the music business will be integrated into the jury.
  • The competition works together with cultural institutions, which guarantee the winners further services and publicity.

In the past, For example, Byron Janis , Christa Ludwig , Constantine Orbellian , Cyprien Katsaris , Elizabeth Leonskaya , Jeffrey Tate , Joan Sutherland , Philippe Entremont , Richard Bonynge , Stephen Kovacevich and Thomas Quasthoff were involved in the jury of this competition , to name just a few of the personalities involved to call.

Requirements and procedure

The price is open to young pianists between the ages of 18 and 28 and, in justified exceptional cases, also to younger pianists. In contrast to many other competitions, the only mandatory requirement is a Beethoven sonata in the concert program. The participants must have a certain number of concerts in their repertoire, from which the chairman of the jury determines the concerts that will be performed. In the Chalet Orny in Verbier the concerts are performed in 2 to 3 hour sessions. On the basis of these lectures, three pianists will be selected for the final concert in the Verbier church. The first winner will receive $ 25,000 in prize money, the second will receive $ 15,000, and the third winner will receive $ 10,000. The majority of the prize money is paid into a special "career account" of the artist. Amounts of this can be earmarked for the purchase of concert clothing, for the creation of sound carriers, the organization of important debut concerts or to pay for travel expenses to concerts. Immediately after the competition, a specially founded career committee meets with the first prize winner. In this committee the needs and requirements for the artist's career are discussed and advised.

In contrast to most other piano competitions, teachers are explicitly excluded from candidates as jury members. The jury itself also includes members of other musical disciplines such as singing or violin. It also includes professional music managers, agents and presenters in the decision.

Award winners

year 1st Prize 2nd prize 3rd prize
2000 Alberto Nose Evgeny Sudbin
2003 Giuseppe Albanese , Boris Giltburg
2006 Stephen Beus Andreï Korobeinikov Roman Rabinovich
2009 Denis Kozhukhin Dmitri Levkovich Sean Kennard
2014 Yekwon Sunwoo George Li Jayson Gillham
2017 no price Sahun Hong , Do-Hyun Kim Aristo Sham
2019 Daumants Liepiņš Dmytro Choni Sae Yoon Chon

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Gabriele Bastians (nmz), 2003