The Trio Brontë has won the €13,500 first prize and the special prize for CD Production & Promotion
The piano trio category finals of the 12th Franz Schubert and Modern Music International Chamber Music Competition took place on 12 February at the University of Music and Performing Arts, Graz, Austria. The trios performed either Franz Schubert’s Piano Trio no.1 in B-flat major D.898 or his Piano Trio no.2 in E-flat major D.929, as well as a contemporary work written after 1978 of the trio’s choice.
The Trio Brontë won the €13,500 first prize, which includes career consulting and guidance. The group also won the special prize for CD Production & Promotion. This prize goes to only one of the ensembles in the entire competition, which also includes piano duos and piano-voice duos.
The €9,750 second prize went to the Astatine Trio, who also won the €1,500 special prize for the best interpretation of the prizewinning work from the International Piano Trio Composition Competition. The Bernstein Trio received the €6,750 third prize.
Both the Trio Brontë and Bernstein Trio played Schubert’s Piano Trio no.1, while the Astatine Trio played Schubert’s Piano Trio no.2. As the contemporary work of their choice, the Trio Brontë and the Astatine Trio performend Wolfgang Rihm’s Fremde Szene III for piano trio, and the Bernstein Trio played Give Me Phoenix Wings To Fly by Kelly-Marie Murphy.
The Berlin-based Trio Brontë comprises violinist Chiara Sannicandro, pianist Lili Bogdanova and cellist Annie Jacobs-Perkins. The members of the group met at the Hanns Eisler School of Music in Berlin, where they currently study with pianist Jonathan Aner and receive coaching from Kolja Blacher, Troels Svane and Eldar Nebolsin. Other competition success included winning the 2023 Ilmari Hannikainen International Piano Chamber Music Competition in Finland.
The trio is a 2024-25 Britten Pears Young Artist, which includes a two-week residency in Snape Maltings, UK. The group’s 2024-25 season also includes concerts in Germany, the Netherlands, the UK and the US.
The competition’s jury for the piano trio category was chaired by Chia Chou and comprised Vincent Coq, Ellen Margrete Flesjø, Thomas Hoppe, Anssi Karttunen, Minna Pensola, Isabelle van Keulen and Katharina Wincor. Other figures from the cultural sector were brought in for the final’s extended jury. They are Annett Baumeister, cultural manager of the city of Staufen, Germany; Inna Davidova, director of the Herman Braun Foundation, Latvia; Birgit Hinterholzer, secretary general of Jeunesse - Musikalische Jugend Österreichs; and Ulf Werner, programme and orchestra director at the Konzerthaus Berlin.
A gala concert will be held on 15 February at the Stefaniensaal (Congress Graz) at 7:30pm, featuring performances from all the competition’s prizewinners.
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