Double bassist wins the first ICMA Classeek Award

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The jury of the International Classical Music Awards (ICMA) has announced the winners of 26 awards for the 2023 edition. Celebrating excellence within the classical music sector, the award winners were selected from a nomination list comprising 391 productions and a wide range of artists and labels.

New to the 2023 was the ICMA Classeek Award, a collaboration between ICMA and the Swiss-based digital platform for young artists Classeek. French-Austrian double bass player Marc-André Teruel was announced as the inaugural recipient of the award. He will receive a trophy during the ICMA Award Ceremony in Wrocław, Poland on 21 April, during which he will perform with the NFM Philharmonic alongside its music director Giancarlo Guerrero.

Born in 2002, Teruel has enjoyed competition success, including victory at the Swiss competition ’Rahn Musikpreis’ at the age of 19, winner of the Anton Bruckner first prize from the Vienna Symphony Orchestra and prizes at the Karl Ditters von Dittersdorf Competition in Slovakia and the Angelika-Prokopp Summer Academy of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. He has performed internationally as both as a solo artist and chamber musician, including concerts with cellist Gautier Capuçon, clarinetist Andreas Ottensamer, violinist Ray Chen, and cellist Maximilian Hornung. Teurel has performed in concert halls including the Wiener Konzerthaus, Wiener Musikverein, Salzburger Mozarteum, Auditorio Nacional de Música Madrid, and Grand Auditorium de Radio France Paris.

He plays a double bass made by Martin Stoß, Vienna, 1827, provided to him by a private sponsor from Austria.

The other nominees for the ICMA Classeek Award were a selection of young artists from the 2022-23 Ambassador Programme application, including pianists Callum McLachlan and Zhu Wang, violinist Julia Blachuta, cellist Ivan Skanavi and clarinetist Arthur Stockel.

In addition to the new ICMA Classeek Award,cellist David Geringas won the Lifetime Achievement Award, while soprano Ermonela Jaho was named Artist of the Year. French-Dutch violist Saò Soulez-Larivière was named Young Artist of the Year and 15-year-old violinist Leonhard Baumgartner won the Discovery Award.

’We are proud and excited to launch the new ICMA Classeek Award which is organised in collaboration with the successful digital platform Classeek and to continue our long lasting cooperation with the International Music Academy Liechtenstein,’ said jury president Remy Franck. ’Together with the Young Artist Award, we are able to promote three young and highly promising talents.

’We look forward to our Gala in Wrocław which will was for sure be an exciting evening filled with memorable appearances and wonderful music,’ Franck concluded.