One 1st and two 2nd prizes at the Schumann Chamber Music Prize Frankfurt

Af­ter two ex­ci­ting days of com­pe­ti­ti­on on March 29 and 30 in the Gre­at Hall of the Frank­furt Uni­ver­si­ty of Mu­sic and Per­forming Arts (HfMDK), the fi­nal took place yes­ter­day evening in the Mo­zart Hall of the Alte Oper Frank­furt. The three tri­os selec­ted by the jury for the fi­nal round gave their best once again - and all three en­sem­bles cap­ti­va­ted the au­di­ence with their very in­di­vi­du­al style on this evening. In short: It was a spe­cial kind of plea­su­re - not only for the young mu­si­ci­ans.

"Es­pe­ci­al­ly in times that ques­ti­on the trust in hu­ma­ni­ty, the ide­als of free­dom, equa­li­ty and fra­ter­ni­ty. Cham­ber mu­sic fol­lows the de­mo­cra­tic princip­le. Ever­yo­ne has equal rights. It is in every mo­ment dia­lo­gue, am­bi­guous. Here, cham­ber mu­sic was not a wel­co­me dis­trac­tion. No, it al­lo­wed the au­di­ence to ex­pe­ri­ence di­rec­t­ly what con­sti­tu­tes being hu­man in the best sen­se: re­spect, trust, spi­rit, me­a­ning," said HfMDK Pre­si­dent Prof. El­mar Ful­da.

The 1st pri­ze and thus pri­ze mo­ney of 8,000 eu­ros goes to the Ame­lio Trio. "Jo­han­na Schu­bert (vio­lin), Mer­le Geiß­ler (vio­lon­cel­lo) and Phil­ipp Kirch­ner (pia­no) were not only con­vin­cing on the fi­nal evening, but throughout the en­t­i­re cour­se of the com­pe­ti­ti­on," said Eri­ka Geld­set­zer, chair­wo­man of the jury as well as vio­li­nist of the Fau­ré Quar­tet and lec­tu­rer for vio­lin at the Ber­lin Uni­ver­si­ty of the Arts, ex­p­lai­ning the de­cisi­on.

The Ore­lon Trio with Ju­dith Stapf (vio­lin), Arnau Ro­vi­ra Bas­comp­te (cel­lo) and Mar­co San­na (pia­no) as well as the Trio De­ly­ria with Da­vid Stron­gin (vio­lin), Uriah Tut­ter (cel­lo) and Eli­sha Kra­vitz (pia­no) both re­cei­ve the 2nd pri­ze and thus 6,000 eu­ros each.

The spe­cial pri­ze for the most im­pres­si­ve in­ter­pre­ta­ti­on of a work by Ro­bert Schu­mann or his com­pa­n­ions, and thus 2,000 eu­ros, was awar­ded by the Ro­bert Schu­mann So­cie­ty Frank­furt am Main to the Ore­lon Trio. And the three young mu­si­ci­ans of the Trio De­ly­ria were de­light­ed to re­cei­ve the Au­di­ence Award.

The new­ly laun­ched In­ter­na­tio­nal Schu­mann Cham­ber Mu­sic Pri­ze Frank­furt for Pia­no Trio & Pia­no Quar­tet was an­noun­ced. Fif­te­en young en­sem­bles from all over the world ori­gi­nal­ly wan­ted to tra­vel to Frank­furt this week. They had sub­mit­ted vi­de­os in ad­van­ce, which were re­view­ed by the jury. They were selec­ted and in­vi­ted to Frank­furt. In the end, ele­ven pia­no tri­os had en­t­e­red the mu­si­cal com­pe­ti­ti­on - still a cham­ber mu­sic ma­ra­thon for the jury. "Howe­ver, due to the over­all enor­mously high ar­tis­tic and tech­ni­cal le­vel, the past three days were anything but a com­pul­so­ry pro­gram. Ra­ther, from the first en­sem­ble per­for­mance to the fi­na­le in the Mo­zart Hall, we ab­so­lute­ly en­joy­ed the con­cert cha­rac­ter and the con­cert pro­gram of each en­sem­ble," Eri­ka Geld­set­zer sums up.

The jury of the In­ter­na­tio­nal Schu­mann Cham­ber Mu­sic Pri­ze Frank­furt in­clu­ded:

• Krzy­sztof Chor­zel­ski, pro­fes­sor of vio­la and cham­ber mu­sic at the Ba­ren­bo­im-Said Aca­de­my in Ber­lin and vio­list of the Bel­cea Quar­tet
• Eri­ka Geld­set­zer (chair), lec­tu­rer for vio­lin at the Ber­lin Uni­ver­si­ty of the Arts and vio­li­nist of the Fau­ré Quar­tett
• An­ge­li­ka Merk­le, pro­fes­sor of pia­no cham­ber mu­sic at the HfMDK, ar­tis­tic di­rec­tor of the In­ter­na­tio­nal Schu­mann Cham­ber Mu­sic Pri­ze Frank­furt and the Fes­te­burg Con­certs Frank­furt
• Na­ta­lia Pris­he­pen­ko, pro­fes­sor for vio­lin at the Hoch­schu­le für Mu­sik Carl Ma­ria von We­ber Dres­den
• Mi­cha­el San­der­ling, Pro­fes­sor of Vio­lon­cel­lo at the HfMDK and Princi­pal Con­duc­tor of the Lu­cer­ne Sym­pho­ny Or­ches­tra
• Mi­cha­el Uhde, Pro­fes­sor of Pia­no and Cham­ber Mu­sic at the Karls­ru­he Uni­ver­si­ty of Mu­sic

The Schu­mann Cham­ber Mu­sic Pri­ze Frank­furt was or­ga­ni­zed by the Frank­furt Uni­ver­si­ty of Mu­sic and Per­forming Arts and si­gni­fi­cant­ly sup­por­ted by the Dr. Mar­sch­ner Foun­da­ti­on. Part­ners are the Frank­fur­ter Mu­se­ums-Ge­sell­schaft, the Alte Oper Frank­furt, the Ro­bert Schu­mann-Ge­sell­schaft Frank­furt and the Fes­te­burg­kon­zer­te. Me­dia part­ner is hr2-kul­tur.