Young Talents: Winners of Concertino Praga 2016 Announced

For this year the competition was open to violinists, cellists, pianists and guitar players. Its overall winner and Helena Karásková Prize laureate is Maria Zaitseva from Russia, whose performance fascinated the jury to such a degree that she was also awarded the EMCY prize.

The winners will be proving their skills during the laureates’ concert with the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra at Rudolfinum on 10 July. The concert will be followed by the traditional South Bohemian Concertino Praga Festival. The 50th annual competition will also offer a photographic exhibition.

The 50th annual international competition for young musicians was entered by participants from Germany, Russia, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Romania, Georgia, Ukraine, Austria, Latvia, Canada and Korea. The Czech Republic was represented by nine recordings.

The overall winner, who is this year cellist Maria Zaitseva, will have a profile CD released by Czech Radio. The young talented Russian musician’s performance fascinated the jury to such a degree that she was also given the EMCY prize. She was also awarded for the best performance of a composition by Bohuslav Martinů.

“Cellist Maria Zaitseva made a great impression on the jury especially because at the age of fourteen she is already an accomplished artist. Of course, she is going to develop further but her technical skills are already so great that she can speak through music. Her musical talent is really striking and she also impressed the jury by the way she managed to play a composition by Bohuslav Martinů.“ says jury chairman Ivo Kahánek.

First place in the CELLO category was taken by Maria Zaitseva (Russia), in the VIOLIN category by Isabella Perron (Canada) and in the PIANO category by Elizaveta Kliuchereva (Russia). No prize was awarded in the GUITAR category.

The laureates’ concert takes place at Rudolfinum on 10 June. The concert will be followed by the South Bohemian Concertino Praga Festival. The laureate’s will be performing at the concert halls or chateaus of four towns between 13 and 17 June. Therefore, the Concertino Praga competition achieves its goal, which is to promote classical music and introducing the best Czech and foreign generation of young musicians to the public.

This year, the young musicians’ performances were assessed by the following jury members: Ivo Kahánek (piano), Leoš Čepický (guitar), Leonid Gorokhov (cello), Roman Patočka (violin) and Carsten Dufner (director of the MDR orchestra in Leipzig). The independent jury members nominated by the European Broadcasting Union were Gail Henry from Ireland and Szilvia Becze from Hungary.

On the occasion of the competition’s fifty years of existence a photographic exhibition called Talent Is not Black and White has been prepared. It will be opened on 4 February at Galerie Vinohradská 12. The black and white photos exhibited show selected moments of last year’s tour of South Bohemia. It will be open to the public on Wednesdays between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. at Vinohradská 12, Praha 2, until the end of February.

As usual, the website concertinopraga.cz offers to all Concertino fans interesting backstage information, photographs of the individual concerts as well as the opportunity to win concert tickets.

Complete results can be seen in the attached List of Results of the International Competition for Young Musicians Concertino Praga 2016.

This year’s concerts take place on the following days:

10 June 2016 – Praha – Rudolfinum, Dvořákova síň
13 June 2016 – Český Krumlov
14 June 2016 – Bechyně
15 June 2016 – Třeboň
16 June 2016 – ZUŠ Jindřichův Hradec
17 June 2016 – Jindřichův Hradec