62nd International ARD Music Competition – Prizewinners

The last of the prizewinners in the 62nd ARD International Music Competition have been chosen: in the final round in the violin category in Munich's Herkulessaal the American musician Christel Lee (22) won 2nd prize; she also won the Audience Prize. Bomsori Kim (24) from South Korea won a 2nd prize too. This year's competition was held in the categories violin, viola, piano trio and bassoon. In all, one 1st prize, seven 2nd and two 3rd prizes were awarded. For the first time in the history of the competition, it was the young women who made a clean sweep of the prizes in the solo instrument categories.

Axel Linstädt, Artistic Director of the ARD Music Competition, commented: "The 62nd ARD Music Competition will go down in history as 'The Women's Triumph'. That's because only female musicians made it to the final in all three solo categories, violin, viola and bassoon. Never before has there been a female prizewinner in the bassoon category; this has always been a male domain. And this year, all three winners are female. I am also delighted that the competition has yet again generated performances at the very high level that we are accustomed to."

In the Bassoon category Sophie Dartigalongue from France won 2nd prize and the Audience Prize, while Rie Koyama from Japan also won 2nd prize and 3rd prize went to María José Rielo Blanco from Spain.

In the Viola category Yura Lee from South Korea won the judges over with her reading of Bartók's Concerto for Viola and Orchestra, winning 1st prize, while her compatriot Kyoungmin Park won 2nd prize and 3rd prize went to Katarzyna Budnik-Galazka from Poland.

In the finale for the piano trio category the Van Baerle Trio won both 2nd prize and the Audience Prize, while a further 2nd prize went to Trio Karénine, which was also awarded the prize for Best Interpretation of the Commissioned Work.

In all, after the selection process for all entries, 222 young instrumentalists, male and female, and ensembles from 37 countries were invited to take part in the competition. All of the prizewinners will perform one more time in the three concerts on September 18, 19 and 20 that will be broadcast live at 8.05 pm on BR-KLASSIK radio and streamed a live on the internet at www.ard-musikwettbewerb

Prizewinners (in the running order of the final):

Bassoon

1st prize: not awarded
2nd prize: Sophie Dartigalongue (22), France
+ Audience Prize
2nd prize: Rie Koyama (22), Japan
3rd prize: María José Rielo Blanco (24), Spain

Viola

1st prize: Yura Lee (28), South Korea
2nd prize: Kyoungmin Park (23), South Korea
+ Audience Prize
3rd prize: Katarzyna Budnik-Gałązka (28), Poland

Piano trio

1st prize: not awarded
2nd prize: Van Baerle Trio, Netherlands/France
+ Audience Prize
2nd prize: Trio Karénine, France

Violin

1st prize: not awarded
2nd prize: Christel Lee (22), USA
+ Audience Prize
2nd prize: Bomsori Kim (24), South Korea

All the facts about the competition, videos and audios, the schedule and the results can be found, frequently updated, at
www.ard-musikwettbewerb.de

Founded in September 2000, RW Media Relations is a Munich –based public relations firm specializing in the arts, classical music and musical theatre. RW Media Relations supports artists, concerts agents, promoters and local press departments of cultural institutions with their PR work.

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This release was published on openPR.