music competition

The first prize of the 51^st Francesc Viñas International Singing Contest, which rewards young opera performers from all over the world, was awarded recently ex aequo to Korean soprano Seyoung Park, aged 31, and Korean tenor Junghoon Kim, aged 25. British singer Anna Patalong won the second prize, while Peruvian Ximena Agurto came in third place. The award ceremony, which was held in Barcelona’s Liceu Theatre last weekend, included a concert with performances by all the winners conducted by internationally-renowned director Guerassim Voronkov and accompanied by the Liceu Symphonic Orchestra.

15 days of top-level piano competition are coming up in March in Barcelona. To promote one of the world’s most prestigious international piano competitions, organised in Barcelona since 1954, 10 grand pianos were installed last Saturday in the middle of the street, on the Catalan capital’s Passeig de Gracia boulevard. The pianos could be tried by the pedestrians for free. In addition, a huge variety of concerts in different places all over Barcelona are being held. 91 pianists from 26 countries are participating in the 2013 Maria Canals International Music Competition. The winner will be known in two weekends from now.

The 50th anniversary of the prestigious international competition of opera and oratorio-lied singing, named in honour of the Catalan tenor Francesc Viñas, awarded the joint first prize to Katerina Tretyakova, from Lithuania, and Michal Jakub Partyka, from Poland. The second prize went to Amartuvshin, from Mongolia, and the third prize was for Valeriu Caradja, from Moldova. The first junior prize was for Marina Nachkebiya, from Georgia. The final stage of the competition took place on Friday with 15 singers taking part in Barcelona’s Gran Teatre del Liceu. The award ceremony was on Sunday and the winners showed the audience their talent. Besides, the Liceu Theatre organised an exhibition and published a book to showcase Francesc Viñas’ career and the history of the competition named after him.

The 58th edition of the prestigious international piano competition awarded the jury’s first prize to Soo Jung Ann, who is 25 years old. The Japanese interpreter Nozomi Nakagiri and Ukraine’s pianist Vadym Kholodenko won the second and third prizes. Nakagiri also received audience’s prize. The competition ran from March 9th to March 21st, and the final was held at Barcelona’s Palau de la Música Catalana. 89 artists of 23 different nationalities participated in this year’s edition. More than 100 Catalan families offered their grand pianos for the occasion.

The pianist founded the world-prestigious International Music Competition Maria Canals for piano interpreters. She died this morning at 96 years old in her house in Barcelona.