The 60th anniversary edition of the Dvořák International Radio Competition for Young Musicians, Concertino Praga, has announced its winners. Armenian flautist Elen Virabyan won the wind instruments category, while Japanese violinist Lin Tokura took first prize in the keyboard and string instruments category. Both winners also received the Audience Prize.
Eight young musicians from five countries advanced to the finals of the anniversary edition, with the Czech Republic having the largest representation among the finalists. The final of the wind instruments category took place on Thursday, 17 September, at the Concert Hall of the Prague Conservatory. The finalists performed with the Prague Philharmonia under conductor Marko Ivanović.
On Friday, 18 September, the finalists in the keyboard and string instruments category appeared in the Dvořák Hall of the Rudolfinum with the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Marek Šedivý. Both final concerts were broadcast live on Czech Radio Vltava.
Elen Virabyan Wins the Wind Instruments Category
Armenian flautist Elen Virabyan won the wind instruments category and also received the Audience Prize. In the final, she performed Aram Khachaturian’s Violin Concerto in D Minor in Jean-Pierre Rampal’s arrangement for flute. Czech trumpeter Vojtěch Stejskal took second place, while Ukrainian oboist Alina Lamziuk finished third. Czech trombonist Sebastian Cretan received a First-Degree Honourable Mention.
Lin Tokura Wins the Keyboard and String Instruments Category
Japanese violinist Lin Tokura won the keyboard and string instruments category and, like Elen Virabyan, also received the Audience Prize. New Zealand pianist Xuyao Bai took second place, while Czech cellist Tobiáš Balkovský finished third. Czech pianist Valentýna Ibriqi received a First-Degree Honourable Mention.
Winners Selected by an International Jury
The finalists’ performances were assessed by an international jury of leading performers and teachers. Before reaching the live finals, the competitors had also undergone anonymous evaluation of their competition recordings, a principle that has been integral to Concertino Praga since its beginnings.
All finalists will receive study scholarships to support their further musical development, ranging from EUR 700 to EUR 5,000. The prizes are provided by the Karel Komárek Family Foundation and other competition partners.
Kategorie dechových nástrojů
1. místo: Elen Virabyan (2010), příčná flétna, Arménie
2. místo: Vojtěch Stejskal (2009), trubka, Česká republika
3. místo: Alina Lamziuk (2009), hoboj, Ukrajina
Čestné uznání 1. stupně: Sebastian Cretan (2010), trombon, Česká republika
Čestné uznání 2. stupně: Jooan Kim, trubka, Jižní Korea
Cena publika: Elen Virabyan
Kategorie klávesových a strunných nástrojů
1. místo: Lin Tokura (2011), housle, Japonsko
2. místo: Xuyao Bai (2010), klavír, Nový Zéland
3. místo: Tobiáš Balkovský (2010), violoncello, Česká republika
Čestné uznání 1. stupně: Valentýna Ibriqi (2012), klavír, Česká republika
Čestné uznání 2. stupně: Michaela Odvárková (2010), harfa, Česká republika; Jaroslav Skalka (2010), klavír, Česká republika; Daniel Wang (2012), violoncello, USA
Cena publika: Lin Tokura
Ostatní ceny
Cena Karel Komárek Family Foundation: Valentýna Ibriqi
Cena Nadace Bohuslava Martinů: Tobiáš Balkovský
Cena Nadace Viktora Kalabise a Zuzany Růžičkové: Lin Tokura
Cena Nadačního fondu Magdaleny Kožené: Sebastian Cretan a Tobiáš Balkovský
Competitors who have advanced to the finals rounds, in alphabetical order:
Wind instruments:
Sebastian Cretan, Czech Republic, trombone
Alina Lamziuk, Ukraine, oboe
Vojtěch Stejskal, Czech Republic, trumpet
Elen Virabyan, Armenia, flute
Keyboard and string instruments:
Xuyao Bai, New Zealand, piano
Tobiáš Balkovský, Czech Republic, cello
Valentýna Ibriqi, Czech Republic, piano
Lin Tokura, Japan, violin
Performances by the 2026 finalists were evaluated by the jury in the following line-up:
First round jury:
Second round jury:
More information about the jurors can be found on the Concertino Praga website.
Although the original plan for this year was to focus solely on the keyboard and string instruments category, the co-organisers, Czech Radio and the Academy of Classical Music, decided to open the competition to wind instrument players once again. “We view the competition as an opportunity to highlight the most brilliant talents from the youngest musical generation in the global context. The long-term goal of the co-organisers, Czech Radio and the Academy of Classical Music, is to steadily increase the international prestige of the competition. Including the competition in the programme of the Dvořák Prague Festival, where the competitors perform alongside the world’s best soloists and ensembles, is helping us achieve that aim,” said Robert Kolář, Director of the Academy of Classical Music.
Concertino Praga was founded by Czech Radio in 1966. Since 2020 it has been co-organised by the Academy of Classical Music and carries the subtitle “the Antonín Dvořák International Radio Competition for Young Musicians”. It is a multi-disciplinary competition whose mission is to discover outstanding talents up to the age of 16 (or 18, depending on category). An international expert jury judges entrants in two categories: string & keyboard instruments, and wind instruments.
In the first round, the jury assesses competitors anonymously on the basis of submitted recordings. The second, final round is public and takes the form of a concert within the Dvořák Prague Festival.
Finalists receive scholarships of up to €5,000 from the Academy of Classical Music via the Karel Komárek Family Foundation and other partners. Laureates also have the opportunity to make a professional recording at Czech Radio. Finalists subsequently perform at the South Bohemian Festival Concertino Praga and are offered further concert opportunities from both co-organisers on prestigious stages at home and abroad.
Since 1988 Concertino Praga has been a member of the European Union of Music Competitions for Youth (EMCY). It is held under the auspices of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), of which Czech Radio has been an active member since 1993.
Concertino Praga – the Antonín Dvořák International Radio Competition for Young Musicians – was founded in 1966 at the initiative of the Czechoslovak Radio editorial staff for broadcasting for children and young people. Among the leading figures in the initial development of the idea of a radio competition were the harpsichordist Zuzana Růžičková, the composer Viktor Kalabis, and the radio editor Helena Karásková. Thanks to the existence of the Organisation Internationale de la Radiodiffusion et Télévision, a former east-European institution that facilitated cooperation between radio and television stations, the competition was able to attain an international character and thus to differentiate itself from a large number of established national competitions for performing musicians.
In view of the complications associated with organising international activities under the former political regime, the decision was made to hold a competition without the direct participation of the competitors by only using submitted audio recordings. It was not until the concert that the winners were invited to appear together on one stage for the first time in history in the Dvořák Hall at the House of Artists in Prague on 18 November 1966, where the violinists Václav Hudeček (2nd prize) and Dmitry Sitkovetsky (1st prize) were among the now familiar artists presenting themselves.
The following year, Václav Hudeček won first prize, and among the pianists to win prizes were Dina Joffe and Zoltán Kocsis. Despite the competition’s necessarily strong orientation towards eastern Europe, among the laureates at the turn of the 1960s and ’70s were the Israeli violinist Yuval Yaron, a string quartet from West Germany (with Ulrike Fleming, Assunta Kwoka, Brigitte Schmeid, and Doris Laidler), a Japanese piano duo with Shizuka Ishikawa and Mariko Horie, and the Canadian pianists Louis Lortie and Jon Kimura Parker. Still today, there is an apparent tradition of candidates from eastern Europe – each year, Russian competitors usually represent the most numerous foreign nationality at Concertino.
While the competition was initially open to just three categories (piano, violin, and chamber music), the number of instruments gradually grew. For this reason, among the laureates were not only the violinists Sergei Stadler, Julian Rachlin, Isabelle Faust, and Jan Mráček and the pianists Vladimír Felcman, Igor Ardašev, and Ivo Kahánek, but also the cellists Leonid Gorochov, Alexander Rudin, and Tomáš Jamník, the organist Jaroslav Tůma, the flautist Michael Martin Kofler, the oboists Jana Brožková and Vilém Veverka, the clarinettists Sabine Meyer and Ludmila Peterková, the French horn player Radek Baborák, and the trumpet player Giuliano Sommerhalder.
The multi-instrumental and international character of Concertino Praga was further strengthened by the collaboration established in 2019 between Czech Radio and the Academy of Classical Music. This joined the capabilities of a major media organisation—which founded the competition and has successfully run it for over fifty years—with those of the institution that has organised the internationally recognised Dvořák Prague Festival since 2008. Support for exceptionally talented young artists could thus take a new form, and from its 54th edition the competition has borne the subtitle “the Antonín Dvořák International Radio Competition for Young Musicians”.
Dvořák’s legacy is reflected in the fact that the composer himself gave financial support to promising young artists. Successful competitors therefore receive study scholarships or contributions towards the purchase of a musical instrument, thanks to the vital support of the Karel Komárek Family Foundation and other partners.
Click HERE to download the Application for the Scholarship Drawdown.
