Baroque cellist Víctor García García receives €10,000 and further performance engagements
The 24th International Johann Sebastian Bach Competition concluded on 27 July with an award ceremony at the Old Town Hall in Leipzig, Germany. In the cello category, the first prize of €10,000 and further concert engagements was awarded to Spanish cellist Víctor García García, 30, who performed on Baroque cello. The second prize of €7,500 was won by US cellist Johannes Gray, 27, and the third prize of €5,000 by Italian cellist Bartolomeo Dandolo Marchesi, 30.
Gray also received the €500 Friends of the Bach Archive Association audience prize, and the special CD production prize from Genuin Music Production. The Bärenreiter Urtext Prize of a voucher worth €500 was awarded to Spanish cellist Guillem Gràcia Soler, 18.
The award ceremony was followed by a prize winners concert at Leipzig’s St Thomas Chruch, where Bach worked as Kapellmeister and is now buried.
The competition is held every two years in the following alternating disciplines: piano, harpsichord and violin/baroque violin; and organ, voice, violoncello/baroque violoncello. The 2024 edition is in the latter of the two alternations. This year’s jury comprised Phoebe Carrai, Timothy Eddy, Ophélie Gaillard, Jens Peter Maintz, Werner Matzke, Hidemi Suzuki and Pieter Wispelwey.
García García is a historical cello lecturer at the Hogeschool voor de Kunsten Utrechts Conservatorium in Utrecht, the Netherlands, and plays on a Cuypers cello and Pieter Affourtit bow on loan from the Dutch Musical Instruments Foundation. He has studied at institutions including the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, UK, the Universität der Künste Berlin, Germany, and the Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía in Madrid, Spain. He also performs as part of early music group Ayres Extemporae, which recently won the first prize in the York International Young Artists Competition.
García García turned to social media to show his gratitude for the support he received throughout the International Johann Sebastian Bach Competition:
‘It has been a very long journey towards this moment and I am just grateful to have been given the opportunity to share this music with the audience. It was amazing to meet all the other colleagues. Congratulations to everyone for their wonderful playing!’
Read: Winners announced at the York International Young Artists Competition 2024
Read: Ysaÿe International Violin Competition results announced
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