Both categories at Concertina Praga 2023 were won by Czech musicians: the pianist Adam Znamirovský and the duo of Daniel Matejča (violin) – Jan Schulmeister (piano). They gained both the highest recognition from the jury and the Audience Prize.
The 57th year of Concertino Praga – the Antonín Dvořák International Radio Competition for Young Musicians culminated at the end of last week. After the international jury had selected the best of the anonymous recordings, the performers gathered in Prague to continue the struggle for victory in front of an audience. “The musicality of all the competitors made a great impression on me. All the performances were very interesting and I liked them all. I am pleased that I had the opportunity to see artists who are just starting out on highly successful careers,” said the Spanish violoncellist Pablo Ferrández, who was a jury member. He confirmed the high level of the competition that has gone on to garner increasing international prestige after Czech Radio and the Academy of Classical Music joined organisational forces. The inclusion of the final concerts in the program of the Dvořák Prague International Music Festival and the interesting options that are opened up to the laureates thanks to the associated grant program have also contributed to this. The best soloist will perform with the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra in its upcoming season and will receive the option of making a studio-quality recording. All of the finalists will receive valuable study grants thanks to the support provided by the Karel Komárek Family Foundation, the companies Bulb and Bärenreiter Praha, the Life of the Artist Foundation (Nadace Život umělce) and other partners.
The international jury led by the violinist Dmitry Sitkovetsky decided on the victory of the Czech duo of Daniel Matejča – Jan Schulmeister after the final concert in the chamber ensemble category held at the Convent of Saint Agnes of Bohemia on 15.9. Their dominance was further confirmed when they won the Audience Prize, the Bohuslav Martinů Foundation Prize and the Viktor Kalabis and Zuzana Růžičková Foundation Prize. Second place went to the German Trio Florestan and third place was taken by the Czech duo of Veronika Jaklová – Kristian Mráček.
One day later, the same jury members (Roman Rabinovich, Sarah Willis, Luc Mangholz, Albena Danailova, Pablo Ferrández, Ivo Kahánek, Irvin Venyš, Justas Dvarionas and Dmitry Sitkovetsky) decided on the victory of the Czech pianist Adam Znamirovský at the final concert for the soloist category in a completely sold-out Rudolfinum. He also received the Audience Prize and the Karel Komárek Family Foundation Prize. The German flautist Fabian Johannes Egger took second place and the Ukrainian violinist Margaryta Pochebut came in third.
“It was three years ago that I played on the steps of the Rudolfinum, one month later I performed in the Suk Hall and now I have made it all the way to the Dvořák Hall. In addition to the wonderful concerts in the following days, my victory in the competition also brought me a wonderful experience. I would definitely recommend that young artists should register in the competition,” said the winner directly after the results were announced. Unlike many other competitors, the final concert was his first opportunity to perform with a symphony orchestra and he made full use of it.
Adam Znamirovský’s comment on the concerts taking place in the following days refers to the traditional event that occurs directly after the finale. The Concertino Praga South Bohemian Festival, which is attended by all the laureates, takes place from 18 to 22 September at the châteaux in Český Krumlov, Bechyně and Jindřichův Hradec and in the pilgrimage church in Klokoty u Tábora. All of the concerts will be broadcast by Czech Radio’s Vltava station, either live or as recordings.
1. place
Adam Znamirovský (2010), pianist (Czech republic)
2. place
Fabian Johannes Egger (2007), flautist (Germany)
3. place
Margaryta Pochebut (2010), violin (Ukraine)
1. place
Duo Matejča–Schulmeister (Czech republic)
Daniel Matejča (2005), violin
Jan Schulmeister (2006), piano
2. place
Trio Florestan (Germany)
Marie Helling (2005), violin
Anna Meipariani (2007) cello
Clara Mandler (2006) piano
3. place
Duo Jaklová–Mráček (Czech republic)
Veronika Jaklová (2003), piano
Kristian Mráček (2003), violin
Introducing the jury of Concertino Praga 2023
The jury for the 2nd round:
More information about the jurors can be found on the Concertino Praga website.
Concertino Praga – the Antonín Dvořák International Radio Competition for Young Musicians – has been held each year since 1966. The mission of this multidisciplinary competition is to find extraordinary talents up to age 15 or 16. It is jointly organised by the Academy of Classical Music and Czech Radio. Candidates in two categories – solo and chamber music – are judged by an international jury of experts. In the first round, the jury evaluates the candidates anonymously on the basis of submitted recordings. The finals are held in public as a concert of the Dvořák Prague International Music Festival. In 2021, the competition is open to contestants in both categories. The solo category will be held for violin, cello, piano, harpsichord, harp, accordion, guitar, flute, oboe, clarinet, saxophone, bassoon, French horn, trumpet, and trombone. The chamber music category is open to ensembles ranging from duos to sextets.
The winners will receive a scholarship in the amount of up to EUR 5,000. Laureates will also have the opportunity to make a professional radio recording at Czech Radio and to appear at the South Bohemia Festival Concertino Praga.
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 became an active member in 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 multidisciplinary and international character of Concertino Praga has been strengthened thanks to the establishment of cooperation between Czech Radio and the Academy of Classical Music in 2019. This has brought together the potential of the large media company that founded the competition and has been leading it successfully for more than 50 years, and of an institution that has been presenting the internationally recognised Dvořák Prague Festival for twelve years. The support for exceptionally talented young artists was thus able to take on a new form, and the 54th annual Concertino Praga competition gained the subtitle 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 contestants therefore receive scholarships or a contribution towards the purchase of their own instrument thanks to major support from the Karel Komárek Family Foundation and other partners.
Click HERE to download the Application for the Scholarship Drawdown.
