The Hungarian and international triumphs of our students of composition, violin and tuba
In April and May, 2016, numerous students of the Liszt Academy were awarded for their performances at Hungarian and international music contests. Two of them came first at our home competitions, the Composers’ Contest this year, three of our students won the competition organised by the OSA Archive, two of our violinists collected a gold medal at the International Balys Dvarionas Competition for Young Pianists and Violinists, while the tuba student Gergely Lukács was awarded 1st prize in Varaždin.
This year, the Composers’ Contest of the Liszt Academy was held on 22 April, in the framework of which several composers and performers were awarded. The first prize was shared between Ádám Brandenburg (1st year, MA- tutor of composition: Judit Varga) and Dániel Dobos (2nd year, BA – turor of composition: Gyula Fekete),the second prize went to Viktor Molnár (3rd year, BA – tutor of composition: János Vajda), while the Spanish Pedro Astasio came third, who is a student at the university as part of the Erasmus programme (tutors of composition: Bálint Bolcsó and Judit Varga). The jury members, János Devich, Árpád Barabás, Marcell Dargay, Márton Levente Horváth and Endre Olsvay presented some of our students of applied composition - Viktor Molnár (B. programme), Bence Farkas and Benedek Sulyok (BA programme) with a Special Jury Prize. These medallists will have the opportunity to attend the Munich Biennale, an international festival for new music theatre between 3 and 6 July. True the competition’s traditions, performers’ prizes were also given away. Seven Liszt Academy students collected the medals going to performers: the singer, Anna Szentes, the harpist, Barbara Kriesch, the clarinetist Barnabás Lenner Barnabás and the cellist Gergely Hadobás Gergely won with their own instruments, while Martin Rajna, student of Orchestral and Choral Conducting and Dávid Mester, student of applied composition came first as pianists and Fruzsina Forró, piano, was now recognised for her accomplishments as a flautist.
Relating to Axel Braun’s exhibition Some kind of opposition…. , the Blinken OSA Archive announced a competition for young composers below 30. The winning works were performed at the Finissage and Awards Gala of the exhibition Some Music, Something Else…The contestants were invited to submit pieces that had previously not been performed, from which the best ones were selected by the Jury made up of composers Gyula Fekete and Miklós Csemiczky, and conductor Gergely Madaras. The winning compositions were performed by the students of the Liszt Academy on 28 April at the opening of the exhibition.
The 10th International Balys Dvarionas Competition for Young Pianists and Violinist took place between 23 and 30 April. Two violinists of the Liszt Academy, Eszter Kökény and Miranda Liu earned the gold medal in the below 20 age group (tutor of violin: Eszter Perényi). In the final, the contestants had the honour to play together with the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra, when Miranda played the Violin Concerto in D major by Prokofiev, while Eszter performed the Dvarionas’ Violin Concerto in B minor. In addition to the gold medal, Miranda Liu became the „Favourite of the Audience” winning the audience award, while Eszter Kökény was awarded the Grand Prix of the competition and also became the winner of a special prize for the performance of a concerto by B. Dvarionas.
Our first year BA student, Gergely Lukács, tuba player did not only come first at the International Brass Competition in Croatia, but he also became the absolute victor of the category „tuba” (tutor of tuba: László Szabó).
Congratulations to all awardees!