York Early Music Festival International Young Artists' Competition
The application deadline has now closed for the 2009 York Early Music International Young Artists Competition.
The competition, which will take place at the National Centre for Early Music in York from 16 to 18 July as part of the 2009 York Early Music Festival, has attracted an international line up of young artists from around the world.
Seven groups have been short-listed for this year’s Competition. They are: Concitato (USA); Ensemble Meridiana and Grand Désir (Switzerland); MetroMarina (Belgium); Le Tic Toc Choc (France); Purcelli Abubu (Austria) and The Marian Consort (UK). Each group will present two short recitals in York. The preliminary recitals will take place on Thursday 16 and Friday 17 July in front of the audience but not the judging panel and will be introduced to the audience by singer Evelyn Tubb who will then invite competitors and the audience to reflect upon aspects of the performance. The competition final will take place throughout the day on Saturday 18 July where each Finalist ensemble will present a 20-minute programme in front of the panel of judges and a public audience. The results of the Final will be announced at the end of the day.
Prizes
The winners will receive a cheque for £1,000; a studio recording with BBC Radio 3; a concert as part of the 2010 York Early Music Festival and opportunities to work with the National Centre for Early Music on a UK wide tour and a professionally produced CD. A publicity portfolio of the selected ensembles will be assembled and distributed worldwide to organisers of early music concerts. There is a further cash prize presented by the Friends of York Early Music Festival.
Judging
The Final of the Competition will be judged by an international panel of performers and promoters which this year will include BBC presenter and singer Catherine Bott; Hermann Baeten, Director of Musica in Belgium; John Bryan, University of Huddersfield; Catherine Hocking, Lakeside Arts Centre, Nottingham and Philip Hobbs, Recording Producer for Linn Records.
Here is some information about the 2009 Competition Finalists
Concitato (USA)
This dynamic young group of period instrumentalists features the Spanish baroque violinist – Joan Plana, Canadian baroque ‘cellist – Anna Sampson and the American harpsichordist Jason Moy.
Concitato takes its name from the Italian ‘concitare’ meaning to incite or provoke. They perform a vast majority of instrumental music from the Baroque era and the flexibility of their core forces allows the inclusion of additional musical collaborators for larger ensemble or vocal works. Following the success of their Chicago debut in November 2008 and the completion of a series of concerts in Montreal their forthcoming performances include Austrian/German sonatas by Biber, Westhoff and Bach and French Baroque masterworks.
Concitato aims to redefine the way audiences hear the more well-known Baroque works by tastefully combining the latest discoveries in musicological research with cutting edge training from some of the most respected Early Musicians in the world.
Ensemble Meridiana (Switzerland)
Ensemble Meridiana consists of five young musicians from Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Sweden and Norway. Tore Eketorp viola da gamba; Christian Kjos harpsichord; Dominque Tinguely recorder/bassoon; Cecilie Valtrova violin and Karel Valter baroque flute, met during their studies at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Basel, Switzerland.
In March 2007 they won the first prize and audience prize in the 4th International Telemann Competition in Magdeburg and have since performed in the Bad Arolsen Baroque Festival and the Magdeburger Telemann Festtage where they received excellent reviews. In summer 2008 they performed in Kammermusik der Wartburgstadt in Bach’s house in Eisenach and represented the Schola Cantorum in a tour of Romania, appearing in Romanian television and radio. Future concerts in Basel, Berlin and Leipzig are planned for 2009.
Grand Désir (Switzerland)
Grand Désir’s artistic directors Anita Orme Della-Marta recorder/harp and Anne-Marieke Evers mezzo-soprano met at the Conservatorium of Amsterdam in 1997 where they soon formed a duo, specialising in both contemporary music and Medieval and Renaissance music. They went on to pursue further studies in Medieval music at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Switzerland where they met the other ensemble members of Grand Désir, including Tobie Miller recorder/harp/hurdy-gurdy who joins them in York. The group likes to work with different musicians for each individual programme which allows the flexibility to achieve the perfect instrumentation for each project.
Grand Désir made their debut at the ‘Fringe’ programme of the Utrecht Early Music Festival in 2005, since when they have given numerous performances and radio recordings in the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland and Australia. In November 2008 Grand Désir launched their new programme ‘Her Lady’s Devotion and in December made a CD recording of ‘Dance et Chanson. Forthcoming concerts in the Netherlands and Switzerland are planned for 2009 along with invitations to the Connecticut Early Music Festival (US) and the National Gallery in Washington DC.
MetroMarina (Belgium)
MetroMarina is a young and enthusiastic early music ensemble that focuses on the performance of late medieval music. The ensemble comprises of Christine Mothes voice; Anna Danilevskaia violin; Atsushi Moriya recorder; Tom Beets recorder and
David Catalunya clavisimbalum. Their main purpose is to revive both the well and lesser known fourteenth and early fifteenth century music by presenting innovative interpretations of the available sources, combining a virtuoso playing style with an honest respect for the original manuscripts.
The members of MetroMarina have worked with prestigious early music ensembles such as Capilla Flamenca (Belgium), Anthonella (Japan), Mala Punica (Spain) and Syntagma Musicum (Russia), and have all studied together in Barcelona where they met at the subway station MetroMarina. Since its founding in 2007 the ensemble has given concerts in Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Germany, Italy and Spain, all gaining critical acclaim. They were recently awarded the Förderpreis Alte Musik Saarland 2009 in Germany, which includes a prestigious recording session at the Saarländischen Rundfunk later this summer.
Le Tic Toc Choc (France)
The Parisian Baroque Enemble Le Tic Toc Choc comprises of Jensenka Balic Zunic violin, Lucile Boulanger gamba and Paolo Zanzu harpsichord. Le Tic Toc Choc is particularly passionate about the re-discovery of French seventeenth century disregarded works from le Grand Siècle. The group has performed regularly together in ensemble and with orchestras and has enjoyed working under the direction of internationally renowned conductors such as William Christie, Jérémie Rohrer and Laurence Cummings.
Amongst their future projects is a recording of the sonatas by a disregarded, though outstanding, musician from the Italian Violin School: Giuseppe Matteo Alberti.
Purcelli Abubu (Austria)
Founded in 2005, the Austrian recorder quartet Purcelli Abubu comprises four music students: George Fritz; Julia Fritz; Lydia Graber and Philipp Wagner who all took part in the final of the music competition ‘Prima la musica’. At the outset, the group took part in various master-classes led by prominent recorder players from the Amsterdam Loeki Stardust Quartet, Han Tol and Dorothee Oberlinger after which they were invited to take part in concerts all over Austria and Germany. As well as their ensemble playing, the members of Purcelli Abubu regularly play as soloists and with orchestras such as the European Union Baroque Orchestra; L’Orfeo Barockorchester and the Salzburger Barockensemble.
Their programmes explore the whole variety of the repertoire for the recorder consort, encompassing Medieval; Renaissance and Baroque music and leading them to transcribe rare pieces from the ‘Baldwin Manuscript’ to include in their concerts.
The Marian Consort (UK)
Taking its name from the Blessed Virgin Mary, a popular focus of religious devotion in the sacred music of all ages, The Marian Consort was formed at Oxford in 2007 with the aim of pairing the pursuit of theoretical knowledge in the field of Early Music with practical performance of the sacred & secular choral works of the period, enriching performance through scholarly insight.
The group normally performs one to a part (dependent on the repertoire) with smaller vocal forces allowing clarity of texture and subtlety and flexibility of interpretation that illuminate the music for performer and audience alike.
Recent performances have included Gesualdo’s Tenebrae Responsories at the 2008 Edinburgh Festival (‘astounding’ **** Glasgow Herald); a concert of Jean Mouton at the International Medieval and Renaissance Music conference in Bangor; and Charpentier’s neuf repons du Mercredi Saint in Oxford. Upcoming events include ‘Siglo de Oro - Music of Marian Devotion from Spain’s Century of Gold’ at the Conwy Classical Music Festival and a concert of JS Bach with Musici Durovernum in Canterbury Cathedral.
The Marian Consort is directed by Rory McCleery, a singer, graduate student at Oxford University and Lay Clerk in the Choir of New College.
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