The Jury of the International Classical Music Awards (ICMA) announced today the Awards for 2019. Brazilian pianist Nelson Freire is honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award. Spanish pianist Javier Perianes is Artist of the Year, Croatian bassoonist Matko Smolcic is Young Artist of the Year. The Discovery Award is awarded to 14-year-old Russian pianist Eva Gevorgyan.
Ars Produktion is the Label of the Year, and the newly created Composer Award goes to Spanish composer Francisco Coll. A Special Award is conferred to the Swiss music manager Numa Bischof Ullmann, General Manager of the Lucerne Symphony. In the Audio and Video categories, 19 productions are awarded a prize. The Lucerne Symphony Orchestra is honouring American-Dutch violinist Stephen Waarts, 22, with the Orchestra Award.
Among the artists performing on the winning audio and video releases are
– instrumentalists Maxim Emelyanychev, Christoph Heesch, Chouchane Siranossian, Christian Tetzlaff, Denes Varjon, Jörg Widmann, Tabea Zimmermann and Frank Peter Zimmermann
– singers Daniela Barcellona, Ildebrando D’Arcangelo, Elsa Dreisig, Barbara Hannigan, Anna Prohaska, Dorothea Röschmann, Albina Shagimuratova
– conductors Gustavo Dudamel, Marc Elder, Tönu Kaljuste, Kirill Karabits, Dmitrij Kitajenko, Jakob Lehmann, Hannu Lintu, Antonio Pappano, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Leif Segerstam, Michael Schønwandt
– Anima Eterna Brugge, Concerto Palatino, Berliner Barock Solisten, Peregrina Ensemble, Wroclaw Baroque Orchestra, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
– Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Gürzenich-Orchester Köln, NFM Wroclaw Philharmonic, Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Orchestre National de Montpellier, Paris Opera Orchestra, Staatskapelle Berlin, Staatskapelle Weimar, Turku Philharmonic Orchestra.
ICMA President Remy Franck says: « Only an international jury like ours can choose such an impressive, international range of winners, with productions from 18 labels and eight different countries. I am particularly happy that our jury does not only focus on long-established musicians, but also closely monitors a wide variety of labels, allowing the discovery of outstanding recordings by young artists, like the ones we have this year with Elsa Dreisig, our Young Artist of the Year 2017, with violinist Chouchane Siranossian and cellist Christoph Heesch. This proves again that at the ICMA less well-known musicians and smaller independent labels also have a chance. For us, only musical quality and integrity are important. »
The complete list of the 2019 ICMA Awards is available in the dedicated section of our website.
