The finals of 76th edition of the Councours de Genève international music competition for piano and composition open next month (22 October–3 November).
The grand final will be held on 3 November in Geneva’s Victoria Hall, with support from the Orchestra de la Suisse Romande conducted by Maržena Diakun. The event is being filmed and will be broadcast on www.concoursgeneve.ch, www.medici.tv and www.amadeus.tv as well as via social media.
The three composition finalists are: Armin Cservenák (from Hungary, aged 26); Shin Kim (South Korea, 26); and Yuki Nakahashi (Japan, 26).
The nine piano semi-finalists are: Jae Sung Bae (South Korea, 22); Sergey Belyavsky (Russia, 28); Kevin Chen (Canada, 17); Kaoruko Igarashi (Japan, 27); Miyu Shindo (Japan, 19); Zijian wei (China, 23); Yonggi Woo (Korea, 27); Adria Ye (USA, 24); and Vsecolod Zavidov (Russia, 16). Belyavsky is resident in the US, but Zavidov is currently in Russia, and it’s unclear at the moment as to whether he will be able to travel to Switzerland.
The composers will be performing their pieces: Madrilgali (Cservenák – for six voices plus texts), The Song of Oneiroi (Kim – for six voices and microphones) and Settings (Nakahashi – for vocal ensemble). The pianists will be required to perform solo and chamber pieces (by Beethoven, Berg, Debussy, Poulenc, Liszt and others) in the semi-finals, and a Romantic or modern concerto – chosen from Beethoven, Chopin, Liszt, Schumann, Tchaikovsky, Brahms, Saint-Saëns, Ravel, Bartók and Prokofiev – with the orchestra in the grand final.
Founded in 1939, the Concours is one of the world’s top music competitions, with previous Laureates including Georg Solti, Martha Argerich, Maurizio Pollini and Arturo Benedetti Michaelangeli. This year the top prize is CHF20,000, with a dozen other cash prizes, plus career development programmes for the winners and finalists.
The next Concours de Genève will be in 2023, for Flute and String Quartet, while 2024 will focus on Voice and Composition.
We’ll have more on Concours de Genève in the next issue of International Arts Manager.