An all-ladies’ finale at the Concertino Praga
For the first time in history, four young ladies will perform in the final of the Concertino Praga international music competition.
The jury announced the finalists of the 58th Concertino Praga on Monday 13 May. This year's finalists are all young ladies: pianists Anke Chen (China), Celina Höferlin (Germany) and Nora Lubbadová (Czech Republic) will be joined by violinist Zoja Syguda (Poland).
All of the finalists will perform at the public competition concert held under the auspices of the Dvořák Prague Festival on 14 September 2024. Their performances will be assessed by an expert jury that will announce the results immediately after the concert. The winner will receive a financial scholarship at the amount of 5000 euros. The runners-up will receive scholarships for 2800, 1700 and 700 euros.
“Given the very wide group of diametrically different instruments, the assessment for this year of the Concertino Praga competition was by no means easy,” stated the violinist František Novotný, a member of the jury for the first round of the competition. “As a jury member, I kept in mind the competition’s long tradition and the respect that Concertino Praga also enjoys in an international context when making my assessments. I hope that the recordings that have launched the competitors to this year's finale will truly be ranked among the best in the archive and that their excellence will also be apparent whenever they are listened to in the future.”
The expert jury comprised Jana Brožková (oboe, CR), Lukáš Hurník (composer, CR), Jiří Houdek (trumpet, CR), Lukáš Klánský (piano, CR), Pavel Kuzmichev (violin, Ukraine), František Novotný (violin, CR) and Matthias Schorn (clarinet, Austria) assessed the recordings of 35 young musicians from 15 countries.
The jury also announced the names of the competitors who are not only potential replacements for the finalists based on the final rankings, but will also perform on the Talent Stage of the 2024 Dvořák Prague international music festival. They are the bassoonist Levente Bubreg (Austria), the clarinettist Matthew Stephen Hockaday (Czech Republic), the violoncellist Darin Lambrev (Bulgaria), the accordionist Viktor Stocker (Czech Republic) and the violinist Lana Zorjan (Serbia).
The winner’s of the competition’s special prizes were also announced at the same time.
The Karel Komárek Family Foundation Prize for the most successful Czech participant in the competition went to Nora Lubbadová.
Matthew Stephen Hockaday received the Bohuslav Martinů Foundation Prize.
Darin Lambrev and Zoja Syguda received the Viktor Kalabis and Zuzana Růžičková Foundation Prize.
