The International Classical Music Awards (ICMA) organized their Award Ceremony and Gala Concert yesterday at the Philharmonic Hall in Warsaw, hosted by the Ludwig van Beethoven Easter Festival. The Award Ceremony was presented by ICMA’s President Remy Franck, and awards were given to such artists as Charles Dutoit, Krzysztof Penderecki, Andreas Staier, Adrien Boisseau, Joseph Moog, Andrea Bacchetti, Daniel Hope, Holger Schröter-Seebeck and Signum Quartet. After the Award Ceremony, the Gala concert took place at the Philharmonic Hall, which was sold out since weeks. Read More →

The International Classical Music Awards (ICMA) organize their Award Ceremony and Gala Concert today at 5:00 p.m. at the Philharmonic Hall in Warsaw, hosted by the Ludwig van Beethoven Easter Festival. The Award Ceremony will be attended by numerous personalities from the world’s musical life, composer Krzysztof Penderecki, conductors Charles Dutoit, José Maria Florencio and Holger Schröter-Seebeck, label representatives from Audite, BIS, Dux, Melodiya, Glossa, eaSonus, Alia Vox and of course by the ICMA winners 2014. After the Award Ceremony, a Gala concert takes place at the Philharmonic Hall, which is sold out since weeks. Read More →

Swiss conductor Charles Dutoit was conducting Ravel’s ‘Daphnis et Chloé’ when an earthquake hit the area. This was reported by the Los Angeles Times: « Six minutes into the performance of Ravel’s complete « Daphnis and Chloé, » at 9:09 p.m., a 5.1-magnitude earthquake centered near La Habra struck Walt Disney Concert Hall, one of the largest temblors since the hall’s 2003 opening. The hall rocked and rolled for several seconds — like an airplane experiencing turbulence — and the place vibrated for more than a minute. Although the orchestra seemed a bit rattled at first and the audience gasped, the unflappable veteran Charles Dutoit kept on conducting, never breaking stride, and the performance continued pretty much unimpeded. (…) « I work a lot in Japan, so we have this all the time, » Dutoit said, while admitting that « it was hard to keep the concentration of the orchestra. »

ICMA Jury Member Radio 100,7 (Luxembourg) has been awarded the Jury Prize at Luxembourg’s first Award for Investigative Journalism, organized by the Association luxembourgeoise des Journalistes (ALJ). The Award was presented to Jean-Claude Franck, Editor in chief of Luxembourg’s successful Public Radio. Read More →

What a parade! One Quartet, three pianists, one violinist, one viola player four conductors and the Polish Sinfonia Iuventus Orchestra, all winners of ICMA’s prestigious Award list 2014! These world renowned artist gather on the 12^th of April at Warsaw’s Philharmonic Hall for the ICMA Gala Concert 2014, hosted by the Ludwig van Beethoven Festival. Here is the program: Read More →

‘Auf dem Abstellgleis der Musikgeschichte’ titelte ICMA-Jurymitglied ‘Musik & Theater‘ anlässlich des bevorstehenden 300. Geburtstages von Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach. Tatsächlich sollte die Rezeption des zweiten – und zu Lebzeiten eminent populären – Bachsohnes und dessen vielgesichtigen Werke-Kosmos über zweieinhalb Jahrhunderte mehr oder weniger brach liegen. Heute, in den Wochen und Monaten rund um das Jubiläum, hat sich das Bild deutlich geändert. Read More →

The 10^th Aram Khachaturian International Competition will be held in Yerevan from June 6 to 14, 2014. This year the Competition is open to pianists of any nationality born between June 6, 1982 and June 6, 1998. Martin Hoffmeister, Board member of the ICMA Jury and Head of Music for the daytime program of German Radio MDR Figaro is a member of the international Jury chaired by Armen Babakhanyan (Armenia). Other Jury member are Alexander Bonduryansky (Russia), Anna Malikova (Russia), Carsten Dürer (Germany), Didier Michel Martin (France), Jong-Hwa Park (South Korea) and Marco Sollini (Italy). Read More →