Carl Nielsen International Competition |

The juries of the 2022 Carl Nielsen International Competition led by Noah Bendix-Balgley (violin), Yehuda Gilad (clarinet) and Karl-Heinz Schütz (flute) have announced the winners of this year’s competition at a prize ceremony in the Danish composer’s hometown of Odense.

FIRST PRIZE WINNERS

Violin – Joint First Prize: Hans Christian Aavik (23)
& Bohdan Luts (17)
Clarinet: Oleg Shebeta-Dragan (27)
Flute: Alberto Navarra (24)

SECOND PRIZE WINNERS

Clarinet: Ann Lepage /25)
Flute: Seohyeon Kim (20)

THIRD PRIZE WINNERS

Violin: Eun Che Kim (24)
Clarinet: Panagiotis Giannakas (21)
Flute: Alberto Acuna Almela (25)

The Prize for Best Interpretation of a piece commissioned for the violin competition (1000 euros), was awarded to Hans Christian Aavik for his performance of Jesper Koch’s “Maze” and the Prize for Playing Around Nielsen (1000 euros each) was awarded to Jonathan Leibovitz (clarinet) and Violeta de los Angeles Gil Garcia (flute).

A Special Prize was awarded to Gerbrich Meijer (clarinet), offering a trip to the Buffet Crampon factory to choose and bring home a brand new clarinet, developed by Buffet Crampon and donated by Buffet Crampon and the Martin Fröst Foundation.

Additional prizes (1000 euros each) include the Odense Symphony Orchestra Prize awarded to Hans Christian Aavik (violin), Oleg Shebeta-Dragan (clarinet) and Seohyon Kim (flute) and the Junior Jury Prize awarded to Bohdan Luts (violin), Oleg Shebeta-Dragan (clarinet) and Seohyon Kim (flute).

VIOLIN COMPETITION
SEMI-FINAL RESULTS

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE THREE PARTICIPANTS WHO HAVE BEEN VOTED THROUGH TO THE VIOLIN FINALS
(PRE-FINALS 8 APRIL & FINALS 10 APRIL)

Hans Christian Aavik
Eun Che Kim
Bohdan Luts

FLUTE COMPETITION
SEMI-FINAL RESULTS

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE THREE PARTICIPANTS WHO HAVE BEEN VOTED THROUGH TO THE FLUTE FINALS ON SATURDAY 9 APRIL

Alberto Acuna Almela
Seohyeon Kim
Alberto Navarra

CLARINET COMPETITION
SEMI-FINAL RESULTS

ONE OF THE PARTICIPANTS VOTED TO GO THROUGH TO THE FINALS OF THE CLARINET COMPETITION HAS DECIDED TO WITHDRAW FOR PERSONAL REASONS. THE THREE PARTICIPANTS WHO WILL PERFORM AT THE FINALS ON SATURDAY 9 APRIL ARE:

Panagiotis Giannakas
Ann Lepage
Oleg Shebeta-Dragan

VIOLIN COMPETITION
SECOND ROUND RESULTS

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE SIX PARTICIPANTS WHO HAVE BEEN VOTED THROUGH TO THE VIOLIN SEMI-FINALS ON WEDNESDAY 6 APRIL

Hans Christian Aavik
Ava Bahari
Lorenz Karls
Eun Che Kim
Bohdan Luts
Sarah Jégou-Sageman

FLUTE COMPETITION
SECOND ROUND RESULTS

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE SIX PARTICIPANTS WHO HAVE BEEN VOTED THROUGH TO THE FLUTE SEMI-FINALS ON TUESDAY 5 APRIL

Alberto Acuna Almela
Violeta Gil Garcia
Seohyeon Kim
Alberto Navarra
Nikolai Song
Yuan Yu

CLARINET COMPETITION
SECOND ROUND RESULTS

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE SIX PARTICIPANTS WHO HAVE BEEN VOTED THROUGH TO THE CLARINET SEMI-FINALS ON TUESDAY 5 APRIL

Alberto Álvarez García
Panagiotis Giannakas
Hyensoo Kim
Ann Lepage
Gerbrich Meijer
Oleg Shebeta-Dragan

VIOLIN COMPETITION
FIRST ROUND RESULTS

The Jury of the Violin Competition has announced the 12 participants voted to proceed to Round 2 on Monday 4 April

Hans Christian Aavik
Ava Bahari
Kingston Ho
Sarah Jégou-Sageman
Lorenz Karls
Eun Che Kim
Bohdan Luts
Jason Moon
Elias David Moncado
Alexey Stychkin
Karen Su
Chaofan Wang

FLUTE COMPETITION
FIRST ROUND RESULTS

The Jury of the Flute Competition has announced the 12 participants voted to proceed to Round 2 on Monday 4 April

Alberto Acuna Almela
Federico Altare
Gladys Avignon
Violeta Gil Garcia
Su Kyung Jang
Seohyeon Kim
Janette Leván
Mael Marcon
Pablo Alcantara Martinez
Alberto Navarra
Nikolai Song
Yuan Yu

CLARINET COMPETITION FIRST ROUND RESULTS

The Jury of the Clarinet Competition has announced the 12 participants voted to proceed to Round 2 on Sunday 3 April

Minkyung Chu
Alberto Álvarez García
Panagiotis Giannakas
Youjin Jung
Hyensoo Kim
Hyesoo Kim
Jonathan Leibovitz
Ann Lepage
José Luis Ingles Martinez
Gerbrich Meijer
Luz Sedeño
Oleg Shebeta-Dragan

ANNOUNCING THE PARTICIPANTS FOR VIOLIN, CLARINET & FLUTE

The Carl Nielsen Competition is delighted to announce the 72 young musicians between the age of 17 and 29 who have been chosen to take part in this year’s competitions for violin, clarinet and flute from 31 March – 10 April. With candidates from 24 countries, Odense is set to welcome more nationalities than ever in the Competition’s 22 year history. The announcement follows Denmark’s decision this week to lift all covid restrictions.

More than two-thirds of this year’s participants have also signed up for Espansiva! – a new mentoring programme, specifically designed to offer industry insight through talks, workshops and one-to-one personal conversations for the contestants at appropriate moments during the 11 days of the Competition.

Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider, Competition President says “We look forward to welcoming as many young musicians as possible to Odense, knowing that it is more important than ever for them to have the chance to compete and spend time together. Excellence, Curiosity, Individuality and Community are the values that were core to Carl Nielsen in his approach to life and music, and they remain the same values that underpin the approach of both the Competition and Espansiva!”

Details of all particiants are featured on the competition website, which will be updated with any changes or replacements which may result from possible travel restrictions in the weeks leading up to 31 March.

2019 CARL NIELSEN COMPETITION

2019 WINNERS

The juries of the 2019 Carl Nielsen International Competition led by Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider (violin), Paul Meyer (clarinet) and Karl-Heinz Schütz (flute) have announced the winners of this year’s competition at a prize ceremony in the Danish composer’s hometown of Odense.

FIRST PRIZE WINNERS

Violin: Johan Dalene (18, Sweden)
Clarinet: Blaz Sparovec (24, Slovenia)
Flute: Joséphine Olech (24, France)

Each first prize winner receives 12.000 euros, a solo recording with the Odense Symphony Orchestra for international release on Orchid Classics and the chance to perform with up to 10 orchestras. Presenters so far confirmed are the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, New Japan Philharmonic, Orchestra Filharmonica di Torino, Oslo Philharmonic, Gothenburg Symphony, Norrköping Symphony Orchestra, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Swedish Chamber Orchestra, Swedish Radio Orchestra, Magdeburgische Philharmonie, Aalborg Symphony Orchestra, Aarhus Symphony, Copenhagen Phil and competition host the Odense Symphony Orchestra.

SECOND PRIZE WINNERS

Violin: Marie-Astrid Hulot (21, France)
Clarinet: Aron Chiesa (22, Italy)
Flute: Marianna Julia Żołnacz (19, Poland)

each receives 10.000 euros

THIRD PRIZE WINNERS

Violin: Anna Agafia Egholm (22, Denmark)
Clarinet: Víctor Díaz Guerra (22, Spain)
Flute: Rafael Adobas Bayog (21, Spain)

each receives 8.000 euros

Prize for Best Interpretation

The Prize for Best Interpretation (2.000 euros each) of a new piece commissioned for each competition was awarded to Anna Agafia Egholm for her performance of Sally Beamish’s Prealudium and Allegro for Solo Violin; Ann Lepage for her performance of Tobias Broström’s La noche oscura (The Dark Night) for solo clarinet and Rafael Adobas Bayog for his performance of Thomas Larcher, deep red, deep blue for flute and piano.

Odense Symphony Orchestra Prize

The Odense Symphony Orchestra Prize (1.500 euros each) – chosen by members of both the Odense Symphony Orchestra and Copenhagen Phil – was awarded to Johan Dalene (violin), Blaz Sparovec (clarinet) and Joséphine Olech (flute).

Junior Jury Prize

The Junior Jury Prize (1.500 euros each) – chosen by a jury of young people aged between 14 and 20 who all play violin, clarinet or flute themselves – was awarded to Anna Agafia Egholm (violin), Blaz Sparovec (clarinet) and Joséphine Olech (flute).

Photos of all the Competition winners and Prize Ceremony are available to download from the competition website

This year marked a new stage in the Carl Nielsen Competition’s history. By presenting all three competitions alongside each other, there has been a festival like atmosphere celebrated not only in Odense but throughout the world where audiences have been following the livestream on the world’s leading classical music channel, medici.tv. Over 700 000 videos have been viewed during the 10 days by audiences coming from 154 countries and over 5750 cities. Thanks to a dedicated competition website the online coverage has also included updates, blogs, behind-the-scene videos and replays of each round of the competition, all of which continues to be available on https://nielsen2019.medici.tv for a further three years.

Announcing the 2019 winners Competition President and Head of the Violin jury, Nikolaj-Szeps Znaider, commented: “We are delighted to have with us tonight three First Prize Winners who are, without doubt, talents of tomorrow. On behalf of all my fellow jury members I would like to congratulate Johan Dalene, Blaz Sparovec and Joséphine Olech. We look forward to following each of them as they continue their respective musical journeys and to supporting them in the coming years.”

“This year’s competition welcomed talented young musicians from 26 countries to Odense and the level of the competitors far exceeded our expectations. I think it goes without saying that we were looking for – and found – three winners who are ready to embark on top international careers but our search goes beyond that. Our aim is to nurture the next generation of young musicians by offering them an important platform to further their careers and an atmosphere of genuine support and warmth, which I hope we have created over the last ten days here in Odense.”

Paul Meyer, Head of the Clarinet jury, commented: “What has been special about this competition is the spirit in which each jury member has felt the same passion for encouraging the young musicians to find their own voice and individuality. Most important is to be convinced that what we do is essential in helping the next generation. These are the corner stones of musical life which are also true to the spirit of Carl Nielsen.”

Karl-Heinz Schütz, Head of the Flute jury and himself a previous winner of the Carl Nielsen Competition, commented: “This competition has always been different from other big competitions, because the composer Carl Nielsen’s music stands at its core. We wanted to take the Nielsen Challenge to the heart of the flute competition and asked the second round participants to create their own “new” piece for solo flute – inventing a musical collage entitled “Playing around Nielsen” which drew musical quotes from a cross spectrum of the flute repertoire. Our wish was to awaken the contestants curiosity in the hope that they would find their own personal and creative approach to music making and, to our surprise, many of the participants surpassed our expectations by far!”

https://nielsen2019.medici.tv

https://carlnielsencompetition.com

Meet the stars of tomorrow!

We are delighted to announce the 9 finalists for the violin, clarinet and flute competition 2019!

Violin

(From the left)

Clarinet

(From the left)

Flute

From the left

The jury notes are available here. The order of contestants and repertoire for all final concerts are available here.

Don’t forget that you can live stream all final concerts via Nielsen2019.medici.tv!

Jury notes from the second round and time schedule for violin and flute semi-finals are now available!

Violin

From the top left

Maeda, Hina
Ting, Belle
Hulot, Marie-Astrid
Dalene, Johan
Egholm, Anna Agafia
Germer, Michael

Flute

From the top left

Demin, Matvey
Eder, Marley
Bayog, Rafael Adobas
Zolnacz, Marianna Julia
Duleba, Lívia
Olech, Joséphine

Jury notes from the violin and flute juries for the second round are available here. The time schedule for all three the semifinals are available here.

The clarinet semi-final will be live-streamed at 19:00 via Nielsen2019.medici.tv!

Photo of flute and violin contestants: Knud Erik Jørgensen, Odense Symfoniorkester – OS

Photo: Knud Erik Jørgensen, Odense Symfoniorkester – OS

Flute jury votes and time schedule for the second round is now available!

The flute jury came to a conclusion about who continues to the second round in the flute competition:

Aleksandra Pleterski
Matvey Demin
Joséphine Olech
Tomasz Sierant
Yuan Yu
Erika Macalli
Rafael Adobas Bayog
Ruofan Min
Livia Duleba
Mael Marcon
Marley Eder
Marianna Julia Zolnacz

Go to our page jury votes and click on Flute for the jury votes and notes! The order of candidates for the second round is available here.

For older news, keep on scrolling!

Why are there only males on the clarinet jury?

Since we have received enquiries as to why the Carl Nielsen Clarinet Competition does not include female members on the jury, we feel it important to advise that we invited a number of the world’s leading clarinetists, both male and female, and as none of the female clarinetists asked were available, the jury membership veered exclusively towards their male colleagues who were available.

The jury vote for the 1st clarinet round is available!

At 19:00 on the 23rd of March 2019, the clarinet jury came to a conclusion about who continues to the second round in the clarinet competition:

Andrzej Ciepliński
Han Kim
Ann Lepage
Aron Chiesa
Cristina Mateo Sáez
Víctor Díaz Guerra
Yuhsin Galaxy Su
Wooyun Kim
Jonas Lyskjær Frølund
Blaz Sparovec
Ivan Tikhonov
Gerbrich Francine Meijer

Go to our page Jury votes for the results! The order of candidates for the second round is available here.

Photo: Knud Erik Jørgensen, Odense Symfoniorkester – OS

The flute contestants have arrived!

The time schedules for all three competitions (only clarinet and flute are available at the moment) are gathered here.
While the clarinet contest kicked off earlier this morning, we have now welcomed the flute contestants! And, as you may have guessed, the order of contestants for the flute competition is now available as well.

22nd of March 2019
• 10:00-10:30 Ingrid Neset Søfteland
• 10:35-11:05 Joséphine Olech
• 11:10-11:40 Maria Storm Steinaa
• 11:55-12:25 Marley Eder
• 12:30-13:00 Yerzhan Kuzhanov
• 13:05-13:35 Chaeyeon You
• 14:25-14:55 Sung Hue Kim
• 15:00-15:30 Tomasz Sierant
• 15:35-16:05 Erika Macalli
• 16:20-16:50 SooJung Yoon
• 16:55-17:25 Andrei Krivenko

23rd of March 2019
• 10:00-10:30 Stephanie Kwak
• 10:35-11:05 Sirius Chau
• 11:10-11:40 Matvey Demin
• 11:55-12:25 Aleksandra Pleterski
• 12:30-13:00 Lívia Duleba
• 13:05-13:35 Mael Marcon
• 14:25-14:55 Marianna Julia Solnacz
• 15:00-15:30 Rafael Adobas Bayog
• 15:35-16:05 Héléna Macherel
• 16:20-16:50 Evgeniya Spalinger
• 16:55-17:25 Yuan Yu
• 17:30-18:00 Ruofan Min

If you are in Odense, you can join the flute contestants in the Pro Musica Hall in Odense Concert hall! Otherwise, all three competitions are available for Livestream.

The clarinet contestants have arrived!

We are thrilled to finally have welcomed the clarinet contestants! As many of you might have wondered, the order of contestants for the clarinet competition is now available:

21st of March 2019
• 10:00 – 10:30 Mio Yamashita
• 10:35 – 11:05 Alexey Vovchenko
• 11:10 – 11:40 Li-Ling Lee
• 11:55 – 12:25 Seung-Hwan Lee
• 12:30 – 13:00 Han Kim
• 13:05 – 13:35 Ann Lepage
• 14:25 – 14:55 Christina Mateo Sáez
• 15:00 – 15:30 Julija Vrabec
• 15:35 – 16:05 Magnus Holmander
• 16:20 – 16:50 Andrea Caputo
• 16:55 – 17:25 Yuhsin Galaxy Su
• 17:30 – 18:00 Wooyun Kim

22nd of March 2019
• 10:00 – 10:30 Gerbrich Francine Meijer
• 10:35 – 11:05 Aron Chiesa
• 11:10 – 11:40 Magdalena Faust
• 11:55 – 12:25 Victor Díaz Guerra
• 12:30 – 13:00 Jonas Lyskjær Frølund
• 13:05 – 13:35 Anton Maiseyenka
• 14:25 – 14:55 Sergio Coelho
• 15:00 – 15:30 José Carlos Domingues Almela
• 15:35 – 16:05 Andrzej Cieplinski
• 16:20 – 16:50 Lorenzo de Virgiliis
• 16:55 – 17:25 Blaz Sparovec
• 17:30 – 18:00 Ivan Tikhonov

The jury announcement for the first round will take place at 19.00 on the 22nd of March 2019.

Make sure to follow the competition via Nielsen2019.medici.tv!

Photo: Knud Erik Jørgensen, Odense Symfoniorkester – OS

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