ARD International Music Competition

The ARD International Music Competition is the biggest international competition in Germany for classical music. It takes place once each year in Munich, Germany.

In 1952 the ARD International Music Competition took place in Munich for the first time and has evolved into one of the world’s most well known music competitions. It was started by the broadcasting corporations of what was once known as the Federal Republic of Germany. It is run under the backling of the Bayerischer Rundfunk and takes place usually in September. Winning a prize at this ARD International Music Competition has been an enormous aid for internationally famous artists such as Jessye Norman, Francisco Araiza, Natalia Gutman, Christoph Eschenbach, Nobuko Imai, Mitsuko Uchida, Thomas Quasthoff, Yuri Bashmet, Christian Tetzlaff, Sharon Kam, Heinz Holliger, Isabelle Moretti, Peter Sadlo, and Maurice André, to name just a few.

It is not so well known but the ARD International Music Competition started even earlier. Between 1947 and 1950 the Frankfurter Rundfunk assisted this “Young Soloists Competition”. The earliest competition discovered two female vocalists who would soon take their place among the international talented: Christa Ludwig and Erika Köth. Instrumentalists included the flautist Karl-Heinz Zöller and the pianist Robert Alexander Bohnke. This newly founded ARD continued the concept of bringing together talented young musicians from the entire globe.

The first ARD International Music Competition took place in 1952. What makes this competition so unique is that the categories alter from year to year to include, solo instruments, as well as voice and chamber ensembles. The importance of including modern music has been very prominent; Contemporary composers have regularly been commissioned to write new pieces for this Competition ever since the year 2001. A Feature that again distinguishes the ARD International Music Competition from others is that it not only stimulates competition among the many musicians but also serves the musical citizens a centre where musicians can meet.

Anywhere from 350 to 450 young musicians apply each year to compete. Some 200 candidates coming from anywhere from 35 to 40 countries make it past the preliminary first round. The large percentage of competitors come from countries other than Germany (up to 86%) and this provides the highest levels of competition.

Since 2001 Christoph Poppen, the well- known and admired Chief Conductor of the Munich Chamber Orchestra, has been Artistic Director of the ARD International Music Competition. Ingeborg Krause took over the task of organising the competition that same year, after serving 35 years as the head of another famous German competition called the “Jugend musiziert”.

During the year 2007 the ARD International Music Competition will be in September for the categories of oboe, trombone, percussion and piano trio. The of original compositions by Johannes Maria Staud, Søren Nils Eichberg, Jörg Widmann and Maricio Kagel will be required to be played.

Winners of past competitions

2008

(coming soon)

2007

* Oboe
**1st Prize: Ramón Ortega Quero, Spain
**2nd Prize: Ivan Podyomov, Russia
**3rd Prize: Maria Sournatcheva, Russia

*Trombone
**1st Prize: Fabrice Millischer, France
**2nd Prize: Frederic Belli, Germany
**3rd Prize: Juan Carlos Matamoros, Spain

*Percussion
**1st Prize: Johannes Fischer, Germany
**2nd Prize: Vassilena Serafimova, Bulgaria

*Piano Trio
**1st Prize: Tecchler Trio, Switzerland / Germany
**2nd Prize: Morgenstern Trio, Germany / France
**3rd Prize: Trio Cérès, France

2006

*Voice/Opera
**1st Prize: Jun Mo Yang, Korea
**2nd Prize: Joshua Hopkins, Canada
**3rd Prize: Ilse Eerens, Belgium
**3rd Prize: Anna Kasyan, Georgia

*Voice/Lied
**2nd Prize: Roxana Constantinescu, Rumania
**2nd Prize: Carolina Ullrich, Chile / Germany
**3rd Prize: Colin Balzer, Canada
**3rd Prize: Peter Schöne, Germany

*Piano
**1st Prize: Ben Kim, USA
**2nd Prize: Hisako Kawamura, Japan
**2nd Prize: Marianna Shirinyan, Armenia

*Wind Quintet
**1st Prize: Quintette Aquilon, France
**2nd Prize: Quintett Chantily, Germany / Hungary / Russia / Finland
**3rd Prize: Weimarer Bläserquintett, Germany

2005

*Violin
**1st Prize: Keisuke Okasaki, Japan
**2nd Prize: Akiko Yamada, Japan
**3rd Prize: Katja Lämmermann, Germany

*Cello
**1st Prize: Jing Zhao, China
**2nd Prize: Alexander Bouzlov, Russia
**3rd Prize: Alexander Chaushian, Armenia/GB

*French Horn
**1st Prize: Szabolcs Zempléní, Hungary
**2nd Prize: Louis-Philippe Marsolais, Canada
**2nd Prize: Renate Hupka, Germany
**3rd Prize: Christoph Eß, Germany

*Piano Duo
**2nd Prize: Victor y Luis del Valle, Spain
**2nd Prize: Piano Duo Poskute - Daukantas, Lithuania
**3rd Prize: Silivanova - Puryzhinskiy, Russia

2004

*Viola
**1st Prize: Antoine Tamestit, France
**2nd Prize: Ryszard Groblewski, Poland
**3rd Prize: Tomoko Akasaka, Japan

*Flute
**1st Prize: Magali Mosnier, France
**2nd Preis: Pirmin Grehl, Germany
**3rd Preis: Andrea Oliva, Italy

*String Quartet
**1st Prize: Quatuor Ébène, Frankreich
**2nd Prize: Faust Quartett, Germany
**3rd Prize: Quatuor Benaïm, Israel/France

*Harp
**1st Prize: Anton Sie, Netherlands
**2nd Prize: Nabila Chajai, France
**3rd Prize: Mirjam Schröder, Germany

2003

*Voice (female)
**1st Prize: Marina Prudenskaja, Russia
**2nd Prizes: Andrea Lauren Brown, USA::Measha Brüggergosman, Canada
**3rd Prize: Julia Sukmanova, Russia

*Voice (male)
**1st Prize: Gérard Kim, Korea
**3rd Prizee: Tyler Duncan, Canada::Günter Papendell, Germany

*Double Bass
**1st Prize: Nabil Shehata, Germany
**2nd Prize: Roman Patkoló, Slowakia
**3rd Prize: Ödön Rácz, Hungary

*Clarinet
**2nd Prize: Olivier Patey, France
**3rd Prize: Florent Pujuila, France

*Trumpet
**1st Prize: David Guerrier, France
**2nd Prize: Giuliano Sommerhalder, Switzerland
**3rd Prizes: Gabor Richter, Hungary ::Guillaume Couloumy, France

2002

*Bassoon
**2nd Prize: Matthias Rácz, Germany
**3rd Prizes: Jaakko Luoma, Finland::Lyndon Watts, Australia

*Oboe
**3rd Prizes: Nora Cismondi, France::Alexandre Gattet, France::Keiko Inoue, Japan

*Piano
**1st Prize: Denys Proshayev, Ukrain
**2nd Prize: Ferenc Vizi, Rumania
**3rd Prize: Chiao-Ying Chang, Taiwan

*Pianotrio
**2nd Prizes: Trio con Brio, Korea/Denmark::Trio Ondine, Sweden/Denmark/Norway

2001

*Violin
**2nd prize: Annette von Hehn, Germany
**3rd prize: MinJung Kang, Korea::Yamei Yu, Germany

*Violoncello
**1st prize: Danjulo Ishizaka, Germany
**2nd prize: Julie Albers, USA::Monika Leskovar, Croatia
**3rd prize: Thomas Carroll, Great Britain

*Saxophone
**2nd prize: Alexandre Doisy, France
**3rd prize: Lutz Koppetsch, Germany::Julien Petit, France

*Percussion
**1st prize: Marta Klimasara, Poland
**2nd prize: Eirik Raude, Norway
**3rd prize: Christophe Roldan, France

*Wind Quintet
**1st prize: Miró Ensemble, Spain
**2nd prize: Orsolino Quintett, Germany/Austria
**3rd prize: St. Petersburg Woodwind Quintet, Russia

2000

*Voice (female singer)
**1st prize: Zoryana Kushpler, Ukraine
**3rd prizes: Stefanie Krahnenfeld, Germany::Christa Mayer, Germany

*Voice (male singer)
**1st prize: Konrad Jarnot, Great Britain
**2nd prize: Nathaniel Webster, USA
**3rd prize: Friedemann Röhlig, Germany

*Viola
**2nd prize: Danuta Waskiewicz, Germany

*Flute
**2nd prizes: Rozàlia Szabó, Hungary::Henrik Wiese, Germany
**3rd prize: Kersten McCall, Germany

*Piano Duo
**1st prize: Mati Mikalai / Kai Ratassepp, Estonia
**2nd prize: Duo d'Accord, Taiwan / Germany

*String Quartett
**2nd prize: Avalon String Quartett, France/ Canada/ USA
**3rd prize: Quartetto Prometeo, Italy

1999

* Piano
**2nd prizes: Severin von Eckardstein, Germany::Oliver Kern, Germany
*Violin
**2nd prize: Bin Huang, V.R. China
**3rd prizes: Andrei Bielov, Ukraine::Francesco Manara, Italy
*Horn
**2nd prizes: Alessio Allegrini, Italy::László Seemann, Hungary
**3rd prize: Sibylle Mahni, Switzerland
*Organ
**2nd prize: Martin Kaleschke, Germany

External links

* [http://www.br-online.de/kultur-szene/klassik_e/pages/ard/ard.html ARD Competition]
* [http://masamizuno.com Directory of International Piano Competitions]