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Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy Competition decided - Prize goes to cello-piano duo from the Hanover University of Music and Performing Arts
Press release from 01/17/2010
Tonight, the prize-winning duo Christine Rauh (cello) and Johannes Nies (piano) from the Hanover University of Music and Theatre, who won this year's Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy Competition, will present themselves to the audience in the concert hall of the Berlin University of the Arts. Germany's oldest classical music prize is awarded annually by the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation in co-operation with Germany's state music academies. The best students from Germany's music academies compete in the two-day competition, which was decided yesterday. The duo from Hanover also receives the "Chamber Music Prize of the Friends of Young Musicians e.V.", which opens up additional diverse performance opportunities.
The "Scholarship of the Federal President for the Promotion of Young Musicians" has also been awarded as part of the competition for many years. This time it goes to cellist Ruodi Li and pianist Vasyl Kotys (Rostock University of Music and Theatre). The duo from the Hanns Eisler School of Music Berlin (Jonathan Weigle, cello, Zheeyoung Moon, piano) will receive a sponsorship award.
The Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy Competition is organised for two musical subjects that change every year. No prize will be awarded in this year's second subject, vocal ensemble. However, two ensembles will receive a sponsorship award: Anna Sophia Backhaus, Karolin Zeinert, Mareike Weiffenbach, Natalie Niederhofer (Franz Liszt University of Music Weimar) and Anna Lucia Richter, Elvira Bill, Michael Mogl, Thomas Schütz (Cologne University of Music). The accompanying piano duo of the Cologne ensemble will receive a special award (Ainoa Padrón, Christoph Schnackertz).
Tonight (17 January 2010, 7 pm, Concert Hall of the Berlin University of the Arts, Hardenbergstraße 1, Berlin-Tiergarten - tickets no longer available), the prizewinners and award-winners will present works by Brahms, Schumann, Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Rachmaninov and Richard Strauss, among others.
The Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy Prize was established in 1878 by the Prussian state in the form of a scholarship "for the training of talented and ambitious musicians". It was the ideal counterpart to the donation of the composer's music manuscripts and archive by his heirs to the Royal Library, now the Berlin State Library. The Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation honoured this commitment to the Mendelssohn family and resumed the tradition of awarding the prize in 1963.
About the prizewinners:
Duo Christine Rauh / Johannes Nies:Christine Rauh (born 1984) completed three years of preliminary studies with Gerhard Mantel at the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts, culminating in her main cello studies, which she completed with honours in 2005. She also received valuable inspiration from Mstislav Rostropovich and Philippe Muller in Paris. In 2009, she passed her concert exam with Jens Peter Maintz at the Berlin University of the Arts. She has received several awards: First prize and special prize for the best interpreter of a work by Isang Yun at the Tongyeong International Isang Yun Competition (2009) and the Stennebrüggen Prize of the Baden-Baden Philharmonic Orchestra (2008). She was awarded scholarships and Diplome di Merito from the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in 2007 and 2006. Johannes Nies (born 1984) joined Karl-Heinz Kämmerling's class at the Hanover University of Music in 2003 after four years of private tuition, where he began postgraduate studies with Markus Becker in 2007. Masterclasses with Sheila Arnold, Vassilia Efstathiadou, Pavel Gililov and Robert Levin rounded off his musical experience. He was accepted into Markus Becker's solo class in 2009. He has received several prizes and scholarships, including from the Richard Wagner Association (2007), the Villa Musica Foundation (2005), the Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes (2004), the Lions Club (2003), the Rhineland-Palatinate Future Initiative (2003) and the 'Jugend musiziert' competition (1996, 1999, 2002).
Duo Ruodi Li / Vasyl Kotys: Cellist Ruodi Li was born in Beijing in 1984. She has been studying with Gert von Bülow at the Rostock University of Music and Theatre since 2006. She holds a scholarship from the Horst Rahe Foundation in co-operation with the DAAD. In 2007 she performed with the Norddeutsche Philharmonie Rostock and in 2008 with the Lviv Philharmonic Orchestra. She has also performed several times with various ensembles in Switzerland and Canada. She won first prize at the Mykola Lysenko International Music Competition in Ukraine in 2007. In 2009, she was awarded second prize at the 55th International Music Competition "Maria Canals" in Barcelona and third prize at the International Joseph Haydn Chamber Music Competition in Vienna. The pianist Vasyl Kotys, born in Ukraine in 1984, attended the National Music Academy in Lviv (studying with Marija Kruschelnytzka) from 2002 after eleven years of private lessons at two Ukrainian music schools. In 2009, he moved to the Rostock University of Music and Theatre in the class of Matthias Kirschnereit. He has won numerous international piano competitions in Ukraine and the Czech Republic and has performed frequently in Ukraine and Poland.
Duo Jonathan Weigle / Zheeyoung Moon: Jonathan Weigle (born 1984 in Berlin) studied, initially as a junior cello student, at the Hanns Eisler Academy of Music Berlin with Kleif Canarius and Josef Schwab. He has been studying in Troels Svane's class since 2009. He has attended numerous masterclasses and receives regular chamber music lessons from members of the Artemis Quartet. He was a member of the Brandenburg Youth Philharmonic Orchestra and the Young German Philharmonic Orchestra and has been a Ferenc Fricsay scholarship holder of the Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin since 2009. Concerts as a chamber musician have taken him to Italy, Spain, England and Scotland. Zheeyoung Moon (born 1983 in Seoul, South Korea) studied piano from 2002 to 2005 at Seoul National University (with Hyoung Bae Kim). Since 2006, she has continued her studies at the Hanns Eisler School of Music in Berlin (with Michael Endres and Fabio Bidini). She has taken part in masterclasses with Bruno Leonardo Gelber, Dmitri Bashkirov, Brigitte Engerer and Dietrich Fischer-Diskau (song accompaniment). She has received numerous prizes at piano competitions (special prize "Georges Leibenson" at the 63e Concours de Genève 2008 in Switzerland, first prize and special prize Mendelssohn, 4th Berlin Piano Competition of the Renate Schorler Foundation 2008, Steinway Prize 2008 in Berlin, 2nd prize at the Havelländische Musikfestspiele Piano Competition 2006, 2nd prize at the 16th Seoul Competition for Young Musicians 2005).
Vocal ensemble from Weimar: Soprano Anna Sophia Backhaus (born in Görlitz in 1985) has been studying singing/music theatre at the Franz Liszt University of Music Weimar since 2004 and has performed on several stages in Germany. In addition to opera and lieder, she is passionate about church music and early music. For the past year she has been reciting poetry and prose at concerts, lectures, performances and short films. Born in 1986, alto Karolin Zeinert has been studying singing/music theatre at the University of Music in Weimar since 2005. As a trainee in the RIAS Chamber Choir Berlin, she took part in concert tours to Belgium, Italy, Norway and Germany. Since 2007, she has regularly taken on larger solo roles, including in Mozart's Requiem and Coronation Mass or Haydn's Missa in tempore belli. She has been a member of the Vocalconsort Berlin since 2008. Mezzo-soprano Mareike Weiffenbach began her vocal training with Renate Brosch. In 2007, she won first prize at national level in the vocal ensemble category of the "Jugend musiziert" competition. At the invitation of the Goethe Institute in Ankara, she went on a concert tour to Turkey in 2008. In 2007, she began studying school music at the Franz Liszt University of Music in Weimar, specialising in singing with Cornelia Entling. She is a member of the university's multi-award-winning chamber choir. After studying at the Mozarteum in Salzburg and studying school music and German language and literature at the University of Music and Theatre in Munich, Natalie Niederhofer began her vocal studies at the University in Weimar with Venceslava Hruba-Freiberger in 2004. She gained experience in opera and operetta at various theatres in Germany. As a soloist and choir and ensemble singer in oratorios, masses and recitals, she has a busy concert schedule.
Vocal ensemble from Cologne: Born in 1990, soprano Anna Lucia Richter began her studies in 2005 as a junior student at the Cologne University of Music, where she has been studying with Klesie Kelly-Moog since 2007. In 2008, she was the youngest participant to win second prize in the National Singing Competition in Berlin (junior category). In 2009, she undertook her first solo concert tour to Russia as a soprano in Bach's St Matthew Passion and made a recording of Schumann's Liederspiel "Der Rose Pilgerfahrt" with Michael Gees and Christoph Prégardien. Elvira Bill studies singing at the Cologne University of Music. She has sung as a soloist under the direction of Marcus Creed, Robin Gritton and Christopher Hogwood. Her repertoire includes all oratorios. She also performs recitals and solo concert programmes. As part of the Donaueschingen Music Festival 2009, she sang with the SWR Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Sylvain Cambreling in the award-winning world premiere of the installation opera "Batsheba. Eat the History!" by Manos Tsangaris. Two CD recordings were made in the same year. Michael Mogl sang with the Regensburger Domspatzen and in the concert choir of cathedral conductor Roland Büchner. He has been studying at the Cologne University of Music since 2007. He has received several scholarships and has already performed extensively at home and abroad. His repertoire ranges from old masters to contemporary music. The baritone Thomas Schütz has been studying at the Cologne University of Music since 2005 and also receives vocal coaching from Matthias Goerne. He performs as a soloist, with his repertoire primarily comprising oratorio literature from the 17th to 19th centuries. He has completed masterclasses with Matthias Goerne, Eric Schneider and the Hilliard Ensemble.
