News

UR classics is delighted to welcome to his roster Kimbo Ishii, a conductor who currently is in the midst of a thriving career throughout Europe, America and Asia. We also welcome pianist Christopher Park, ECHO „Rising Star“ and prize winner of the Leonard Bernstein Award.

1st prize: Dimitri Pinchuk, saxophone – 2nd prize: Alexander Kronbichler, oboe

3rd prize: Jin Zhicheng, horn  – Audience prize: Jin Zhicheng, horn

 Special prize for the best interpretation of a contemporary piece: Guo Yu, oboe

Congratulations!

The International Aeolus Wind Instrument Competition is one of the most prestigious music competitions in the world and is open to flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, saxophone, trumpet, horn, trombone and tuba players. It has been held once a year in Düsseldorf since 2006. The 20th edition of the competition in 2026 will feature the categories trumpet, trombone and tuba. The total prize money is €60,000, with the first prize worth €20,000.

https://www.aeoluswettbewerb.de/ and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lWlMKVwD5M&t=22s

Summer is the time for festivals and masterclasses. The artists can try out new things and meet like-minded people, which is often not possible during the normal season:

Svetoslav Borisov will once again conduct at the Varna Summer Festival in August, this year with performances of Rigoletto and Faust as well as two opera galas. Paul Goodwin finally has time for his great passion, teaching: he will rehearse Handel’s opera Ariodante with young singers at the Barock Vokal Akademie Mainz and perform it in Kiedrich im Rheingau.

Polina Tarasenko has been invited to the International Trombone Festival in Ontario, Canada, where she will perform a solo recital. She will then teach young trombonists at the Numskull Brass Festival in Caudete, Spain.Liv Migdal performs with like-minded musicians at the Pelion Festival in Greece, Zofia Neugebauer spends the summer playing chamber music at the Verbier and the Demenga Festival and Jean-François Heisser is active at various French festivals, including the Saintes Festival and the Messiaen Festival

The Anhaltisches Theater Dessau has nominated Svetoslav Borisov as First Kapellmeister and Deputy Music Director. The contract was signed today and will take effect in August 2025. Svetoslav Borisov held the same position at the Theatre Magdeburg from 2016/2017 to the present. He will remain Artistic Director of the Kammerorchester CON FUOCO in Graz and Permanent Guest Conductor at the Opera Varna. Congratulations!

With two new CD releases, Ania Vegry and Liv Migdal are giving new life to works by composers who have long been unjustly forgotten:

On the second CD dedicated to the chamber music works of the German-speaking Prague Jew Hans Winterberg (label eda records EDA 53), Ania Vegry interprets the four songs Dort und hier (1936/1937) for the rare instrumentation soprano plus piano trio based on poems by Franz Werfel. The recording – with other chamber music works by Winterberg – immediately made it onto the quarterly longlist of the German Record Critics’ Award.

‘The Cosmos of Paul Ben-Haim’ (CPO 555 621-2) – Liv Migdal’s touching homage to the German-Israeli composer Paul Ben-Haim is a great declaration of love to the music of a gifted late Romantic and melodic composer, whose steady career came to an abrupt end when the National Socialists seized power in 1933. The double album – conceived by Liv Migdal – is a comprehensive anthology with works such as the Fantasie Yizkor (with the Weimar Staatskapelle), duo compositions for violin and piano and selected songs.

After concerts in South Africa and Spain at the start of the season, Ewa Strusińska has been back in Germany in recent weeks: she was invited to conduct the autumn session of the Berlin State Youth Orchestra for the third time. After an intensive week of rehearsals at the Kammerakademie Rheinsberg, the concerts with Gustav Mahler’s 1st Symphony in Berlin’s Haus des Rundfunks and in the Philharmonie in Gorzów Wielkopolski were enthusiastically acclaimed by the audience. Immediately afterwards, she made her debut with the Rheinische Philharmonie Koblenz in front of a sold-out audience with works by Beethoven, Webern and Ries – and then travelled to Stockholm for the revival of Prokofiev’s Cinderella at the Royal Swedish Opera.

The Anima Trombone Quartet celebrated a great success last weekend: the ensemble with Polina Tarasenko, Tolga Akman, Elai Grisaru Drori and Amit Rozenzweig won the first prize at the 1st International Littin Competition for Trombone Quartet in Frankfurt/Main. The competition was attended by 25 ensembles from Europe, South America and East Asia. Congratulations!

The start to the new season could not have been more different for our conductors:

Svetoslav Borisov conducted performances of The Flying Dutchman and La Traviata at the Varna Summer Theatre and on the opera stage in Bansko in August and early September.  Florian Csizmadia started the new season of the Vorpommern Philharmonic Orchestra with a world première by Sebastian Hilli and Anton Bruckner’s Symphony No. 7. Paul Goodwin was once again a guest of the Baroque Vocal Academy Mainz in August to work with young singers and the Neumeyer Consort on Handel’s opera Alcina. Shao-Chia Lü travelled to South Korea, where he conducted works by Shostakovich with the KBS Symphony Orchestra and Leonidas Kavakos. Ewa Strusińska was also drawn to faraway places: at the end of August, she conducted two concerts with the Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra and the KwaZulu-Natal Philharmonic Orchestra with works by Barber and Schumann.

An auspicious start to the 2024/2025 season!