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In 2013, the Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy University Competition will take place for the first time with a new concept and for the first time under the artistic direction of Dr Dieter Rexroth. The best musical talents from German music academies will compete in the subjects of cello, percussion, wind chamber music and composition.

The winners in the composition category were announced at the weekend: the jury, chaired by Dr Dieter Rexroth, awarded two second prizes to Matthias Krüger (Cologne University of Music and Dance) for his competition composition "the machinery I have made" and to Katharina Roth (Lübeck University of Music) for her competition composition "Kleine Erzählungen". The first and third prizes were not awarded this year. The prize-winning works will be premiered by the ensemble of the International Ensemble Modern Academy (IEMA) as part of the prizewinners' composition concert on 19 January 2013.

The public competitions for the instrumental disciplines will take place from 16 to 18 January 2013 in the concert halls of the Berlin University of the Arts. The competition entries will be judged by internationally renowned musicians under the chairmanship of Prof Claus Kanngiesser (cello), Prof Dr Peter Sadlo (percussion) and Prof Burkhard Glaetzner (wind chamber music). The final concert on 20 January 2013 will be performed by the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie under the direction of Peter Tilling together with the prizewinners.

The Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy University Competition is the result of two important competitions: the Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy Competition of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, the oldest German classical music competition, and the University Competition of German Music Universities. This merger gives the competition a new artistic profile.

Prize money totalling over 50,000 euros will be awarded in three annually changing competition subjects and the subject of composition. The new concept also includes long-term support for the prizewinners with scholarships, follow-up performances and CD productions. Dr Dieter Rexroth has also taken over the newly established artistic direction of the Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy University Competition.

In addition to the organisers' prizes, the "Prize of the Federal President", which has existed in the form of a scholarship since 1989, will be awarded as part of the competition. The "Friends of Young Musicians" award a sponsorship prize for a participant under the age of 25. In addition, the associations of the "Friends of Young Musicians" organise follow-up concerts by the prizewinners in all eight German cities of their member associations (Berlin, Bremen, Düsseldorf / Meerbusch, Frankfurt a.M., Kassel, Cologne / Bonn, Mainz / Wiesbaden and Munich).

The competition's new funding instruments include prizewinners' concerts at the Young Euro Classic festival, which will take place on the first Sunday of the festival, 28 July 2013. The first prize winners will also receive follow-up funding in the form of a CD production, which will be released on the Berlin University of the Arts label. The production in the Mendelssohn violoncello category will be supervised by Kulturradio vom rbb. The recordings in the percussion and wind ensemble sections will be made by the sound engineering department at the UdK Berlin. These productions are supported by the association "Freunde Junger Musiker Berlin" e.V. The percussion prizewinners will have the opportunity to perform at concerts during the Kassel Music Days.

The Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy University Competition goes back to a donation from the heirs of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy. In return, the Prussian state pledged to support needy and highly talented students with a scholarship. After the first prizewinner in 1879, Engelbert Humperdinck, numerous important musical personalities such as Wilhelm Backhaus, Otto Klemperer, Kurt Weill and Marie Soldat were honoured. After the Second World War, the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation (SPK) resumed the award in 1963 under the name Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy Prize, as the historical donation is preserved in the Berlin State Library, one of the five institutions of the SPK. The traditional venue for the competition is the Berlin University of the Arts. A second traditional strand of the Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy University Competition is the University Competition of German Music Universities, which has been held annually since the early 1950s and provided the impetus for the founding of the Rectors' Conference of German Music Universities in the post-war years.

Current information about the Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy University Competition is available on the homepage. The video livestream planned for the prizewinners' concert on 20 January 2013 can also be accessed there.

Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy University Competition 2013

16 to 18 January 2013, from 10 a.m.
Public competitions
Violoncello competitions: Kammersaal der UdK Berlin, Fasanenstraße 1 B
Percussion competitions: Konzertsaal der UdK Berlin, Hardenbergstraße / corner of Fasanenstraße
Wind chamber music competitions, Joseph-Joachim-Konzertsaal der UdK Berlin, Bundesallee 1-12
Admission free

19 January 2013, 7:30 pm
Prizewinners' Concert Composition
Ensemble of the International Ensemble Modern Academy (IEMA)
Berlin University of the Arts, Joseph-Joachim-Konzertsaal, Bundesallee 1-12
Admission: 6 euros, reduced 4 euros

20 January 2013, 7 pm
Prizewinners' concert violoncello, percussion and wind chamber music
Junge Deutsche Philharmonie, conducted by Peter Tilling
Berlin University of the Arts, Hardenbergstraße concert hall / corner of Fasanenstraße
Admission: 6 euros, concessions 4 euros

Tickets for the two prizewinners' concerts will be available from the beginning of 2013 from the concert hall box office at Berlin University of the Arts on (030) 3185 2374 or at udkkasse(at)udk-berlin(dot)de

Further information and press tickets from:

Claudia Assmann
Tel. 030 3185 2456
Email: presse(at)fmb-hochschulwettbewerb(dot)de
www.fmb-hochschulwettbewerb.de

With the kind support of:

Stiftung Deutsche Klassenlotterie Berlin
Freunde Junger Musiker e. V. Berlin
Freunde Junger Musiker Deutschland
Elsa-Wera-Arnold-Stiftung
Prof. Manfred Trojahn
Bärenreiter Verlag Kassel
Young Euro Classic Berlin
Kasseler Musiktage e. V.
Junge Deutsche Philharmonie e. V.
Internationale Ensemble Modern Akademie (IEMA)
Ensemble Modern
Kulturradio vom Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg

Dr Dieter Rexroth, Artistic Director of the Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy University Competition

Dieter Rexroth is one of the most innovative dramaturges on the German music scene. Born in Dresden in 1941, he studied composition, conducting, musicology, German studies and philosophy in Cologne, Vienna and Bonn. After completing his doctorate with a thesis on Arnold Schönberg, he developed the special profile of the newly founded Paul Hindemith Institute in Frankfurt am Main as its first director for more than two decades (1972-1991). From 1980 to 1994, he worked as a dramaturge and programme designer for the "Alte Oper" Frankfurt and was co-founder of the "Frankfurter Feste" and its artistic director from 1986 to 1994. From 1996 to 2006, he was artistic director and head dramaturge at Rundfunkorchester und Chöre GmbH. In this role, he brought the now world-famous conductor Kent Nagano to Berlin, where he has been Artistic Advisor since 2000. In the same year, he took over as Artistic Director of the newly founded "Young Euro Classic" festival, which he made a permanent fixture of the Berlin Summer of Culture. Since 2006, he has also been Artistic Director of the "Kasseler Musiktage". As Artistic Director of the Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy University Competition, which was reorganised in 2013, he developed a concept that focuses on sustainable support for the prizewinners. In addition to his diverse activities as a source of ideas for cultural events of all kinds, Dieter Rexroth is the author and editor of numerous publications, including on Ludwig van Beethoven, Hans Werner Henze and Wolfgang Rihm.

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