George Enescu International Competition: 34 young musicians to compete in the semi-finals in September
A total of 34 young musicians have passed the first stage of the George Enescu International Competition and are on to the semi-finals, which will take place in September at the Romanian Athenaeum in Bucharest.
Maiavankline · Journalist
· Updated · 4 min read
A total of 34 young musicians have passed the first stage of the George Enescu International Competition and are on to the semi-finals, which will take place in September at the Romanian Athenaeum in Bucharest.
The competition, now in its 18th edition, will open on September 4 on the stage of the Romanian Athenaeum, where a Gala Concert will be performed by the George Enescu Philharmonic, conducted by maestro Peter Ruzicka, followed by a performance put on by the three of winners of the previous edition’s instrument sections. The philharmonic will be premiering the piece that won last year’s Composition Section for Symphonic Music: An Axe For The Frozen Sea by Karlo Margetic. While the winning threesome will be performing the Triple Concerto for violin, cello, and piano by Ludwig van Beethoven.
According to the organizers, the competition functions as an international launching platform for future musicians and to promote George Enescu’s compositions among the new generation of artists around the world, thus being a natural complement to the George Enescu Festival.
The 18th edition of the George Enescu International Competition is split into four dedicated sections: cello, violin, piano, and composition, and takes place in three stages, both live and online.
Initially, there were 26 entries in the cello section, 21 in the violin section, 39 in the piano section, and 22 orchestral and chamber works entered in the composition section. The youngest competitor in the 2022 edition was a 13-year-old cellist, and the average age of applicants is 25.
The first stage of the competition took place online in May, as jury members analyzed the video recordings sent in by the contestants. For the first time in the history of the Competition, the competitors who passed the online stage entered the Semifinals directly.
In the cello section, 11 young musicians qualified for the Semifinals. In alphabetical order, they are Sofia Blându (Romania), Constantin Borodin (Moldova / Romania), Maria-Izabela Ghergu (Romania), Goeunsol Heo (South Korea), Jisoo Kim (South Korea), Benjamin Kruithof (Luxembourg), Jiaqi Liu (China), Constantin Siepermann (Germany), Francesco Stefanelli (San Marino), Ileana Waldenmayer (Italy) and Aihao Zheng (China).
The Cello Semifinal will take place on September 5 and 6 at the Romanian Athenaeum, in Bucharest, and will include Sonata no. 2 in C major for Cello and Piano Op. 26 by George Enescu. The Final will be on Thursday, September 8.
In the violin section, 12 young musicians qualified for the Semifinals. In alphabetical order, they are Stefan Aprodu (Romania), Takamori Arai (Japan), Kristina Besman (Russia), Heidi Hatch (Spain), Andrea Hughes (USA), Yoko Ishikura (Japan), Maria Marica (Romania), Joanna Ruseva (Bulgaria), Reika Sakamoto (Japan), Christian Sebastianutto (Italy), Ming-Chun Teng (Taiwan, China) and Grégoire Torossian (France).
