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Simone McIntosh, Mezzo-Soprano, 2022 CMIM Aria Division

By Eva Stone-Barney on 2 October 2022 Classical Music, Music Competition, Vocal

Canadian mezzo-soprano Simone McIntosh has no shortage of impressive accolades under her belt already. The Vancouver native is a graduate of both UBC and the Schulich School of Music, where she was awarded the prestigious Wirth Vocal Prize. She recalls the moment following her Wirth Prize and COC victories, saying: “I sat down and said, I can do this.” And she certainly could! McIntosh went on to participate in both the Canadian Opera Company’s Ensemble Studio program, as well as the San Francisco Opera’s Adler Fellowship program. This year, McIntosh will relocate to Zurich, where she will be a member…

Meredith Wohlgemuth, Soprano, 2022 CMIM Art Song Division

By Adrian Rodriguez on 2 October 2022 Classical Music, Music Competition, Vocal

La Scena discovered American soprano Meredith Wohlgemuth’s crystalline soprano and soaring high notes when our panel prepared our predictions for the CMIM 2022 (see the April/May 2022 issue). We predicted that she would win first prize in the Art Song division. Fast-forward to June 2022, when Wohlgemuth was clearly the jury’s unanimous choice for First Prize in the Art Song Division as well as the Joseph Rouleau Career Development Grant ($50,000), Normand Beauchamp Winner’s Tour Grant ($15,000) and the French Mélodie Art Song Award with her duo partner, Jinhee Park who took home the $5,000 John Newmark Prize for Best…

Yunchan Lim, Piano, 2022 Cliburn Piano Competition

By Paul E. Robinson on 2 October 2022 Classical Music, Music Competition, Piano

This past June in Fort Worth, Tex., 18-year-old Yunchan Lim became the youngest person to ever win gold at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. His performance of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 during the final round was remarkable by any standard and convinced the members of the jury that he deserved the highest award. But it is likely that he had already separated himself from the other contestants with stunning performances of Liszt’s monumental Transcendental Études and Scriabin’s Piano Sonata No. 2. Yunchan Lim was born in Siheung, South Korea, and began piano lessons at the age of 7.…

Robert Conquer, Trombone, 2022 Michael Measures

By Zenith Wolfe on 2 October 2022 Classical Music, Music Competition, Winds

In 2022, young trombonist Robert Conquer has an outstanding accomplishment to show for his decades of musical training: the Michael Measures First Prize, available annually to one exceptional musician enrolled in the National Youth Orchestra (NYO) summer training program. Though he has only been part of the NYO for four years, it has quickly become one of the most influential parts of his musical career. “The NYO Canada program is, hands down, one of—if not the—best orchestral training (opportunities) one can receive in Canada,” he said. “It’s been a musically transformative experience every time I’ve participated in it.” The key…

Wilhelm Magner, Viola, 2022 Prix d’Europe

By Robert Rowat on 2 October 2022 Classical Music, Music Competition, Strings

For the first time in its 111-year existence, the Prix d’Europe was awarded to a violist in 2022. “This was quite an accomplishment for me,” said Wilhelm Magner, whose prize comes with $50,000. “It would not have been possible without the support of my teacher at McGill, André Roy, during the past three years.” Magner is heading to Yale University this fall, to begin his master’s in Ettore Causa’s viola studio. Like many violists, Magner began playing violin. “As a child, I first wanted to play the flute, but after watching Fiddler on the Roof, I decided I had to play…

Vivian Kukiel, Violin, 2022 Canadian Music Competition’s Stepping Stone

By Robert Rowat on 2 October 2022 Classical Music, Music Competition, Strings, Violin

Toronto’s Vivian Kukiel first appeared on our radar in 2018 when she won the Ilona Fehér International Violin Competition in Budapest, Hungary. Her comet re-entered our skies in June when she won the Canadian Music Competition’s Stepping Stone final—“one of the most exciting but also nerve-racking experiences of my musical journey so far,” she said. “When (executive and artistic director) Marc David announced that I had won the whole competition, I was so overjoyed I think I went into a state of shock.” One month earlier, Kukiel and the other three members of the Holt Quartet recorded Johannes Brahms’s Piano Quartet…

David Potvin, Piano, 2022 Eckhardt-Gramatté Competition

By Zenith Wolfe on 2 October 2022 Classical Music, Music Competition, Piano

In the contemporary Eckhardt-Gramatté competition, a competitor’s repertoire must consist of works made no sooner than the 1950s, at least half of them composed by Canadians. So when young pianist David Potvin played exclusively Canadian music, his exceptional effort tying the repertoire together did not go unnoticed by the judges, who awarded him the first-place prize from among six finalists. “I tried to pick a program of contrasting works but present them in an order where they complemented each other well,” Potvin said. “There’s so much wonderful Canadian piano music so I thought, why not? I think I got just as…

Jaeden Izik-Dzurko, Piano, 2022 Santander, Hilton Head and Maria Canals Competitions

By Zenith Wolfe on 2 October 2022 Classical Music, Music Competition, Piano

Young pianist Jaeden Izik-Dzurko is on a hot streak in 2022! Only months after receiving First Prize at the Hilton Head (March) and Maria Canals (April) competitions, he took home the gold two more times at the Shean (May) and Santander (August) competitions. To the award-winning pianist, competitions are exhausting, especially when hosted back-to-back. The lengthy practice and rehearsal processes are hard enough, but each time he gets on stage he has to make a conscious effort to calm himself down, since he finds competitions more nerve-racking than normal performances. “I always treat each competition round like a performance,” he…

Newswire | Detailed Schedule of the 2022 Cliburn Amateur Competition Announced

By Newswire on 30 September 2022 Music Competition, Newswire

FORT WORTH, Texas, September 29, 2022—The eighth edition of the Cliburn International Amateur Piano Competition, for non-professional pianists age 35 and older, begins two weeks from yesterday and will run from October 12 to 18, 2022, in Fort Worth, Texas at Van Cliburn Recital Hall (300 E. 4th Street) and Bass Performance Hall (4th & Calhoun Streets). Announced today are the order of play for the Preliminary Round and the full roster of free festival events that are open to the public. Full details are below. “We are so pleased to finally be able to welcome these outstanding pianists—who have been preparing for this moment for…

CIOC Organ Festival 2022 : Jean-Willy Kunz Pulls Out All Stops

By Hassan Laghcha on 30 September 2022 Classical Music, Music Competition

Running through October, the Canadian International Organ Competition (CIOC) offers a dozen or so performances spread out over six different church venues. Not only is the program quite varied in terms of styles but so are its participants, including a handful of noteworthy names. The event’s artistic director Jean-Willy Kunz (pictured below) and his team have granted spots to many rising talents playing in a range of musical settings, both acoustic and electronic, with a view of attracting audiences of differing musical tastes. One good example of its eclectic programming, as Kunz points out, is the Bach-Mobile, an organ mounted on…

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