Interviews

Conductor Marin Alsop won a prize at the International Classical Music Awards with a Naxos album devoted to works by John Adams (Naxos), a composer with whom she regularly collaborates. The conductor is at the helm of the ORF Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien. Pierre-Jean Tribot of Crescendo, member of the ICMA Jury, interviewed her.

You recorded this John Adams album in Vienna with the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra. When we think of Vienna, we naturally think of Beethoven or Mahler. Is there a Beethovenian or Mahlerian dimension to the music of John Adams?
The ORF Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien is an extraordinarily versatile orchestra, playing the most avant-garde new music one day and the classics the next. For me, Adams is both unique and respectful of tradition. For my first season in Baltimore, I paired living composers with Beethoven, and John was my first contact. He asked for the most minimalist of Beethoven’s symphonies: Symphony No. 7! Read More →

ICMA Special Achievement Award winner Sylvain Cambreling has dedicated 50 years to symphonic music and opera, with a particular interest in contemporary music. ResMusica’s Nathalie Filloux met him to discuss the issues of our time.

You defend the great symphonic and operatic repertoire as well as contemporary music, both of which appeal to audiences that are still much divided. Do you see a rapprochement between the audiences for Mozart and Gounod and those for Georges Aperghis or Gérard Grisey?
It’s hard to talk about a rapprochement between audiences, but I would say there is a difference. Some audiences are ready to listen to everything, others are not; some are curious, others are not; some only appreciate today’s music, sometimes more out of snobbery than real interest. It’s not impossible to go from baroque to contemporary, since this is more an intellectual than a musical domain. Read More →

Anastassia Boutsko from ICMA Jury member Deutsche Welle has made an interview with Serbian violinist Lana Zorjan, winner of the 2024 Discovery Award.

You are just fifteen and already a seasoned musician who can look back on a great career: numerous solo appearances with great orchestras, major prizes… But how did it come that you are a musician?
That will probably sound almost too simple: I come from a family full of musicians. My parents are musicians, my dad is an opera singer, mother is a violinist, she’s a violin teacher. Both granddads are also musicians. Read More →

Filmmaker Bruno Monsaingeon has been awarded a Special Achievement Award at the International Classical Music Awards 2024 (ICMA). Patrick Jézéquel from ICMA’sa French Jury member ResMusica, made the following interview.

Bruno Monsaingeon, at the very beginning of Filmer la musique, you legitimize your undertaking by saying that « if words stumble over sounds, images reinforce them. » Does that mean you’re filming as a musician, given that you’re a violinist?
I could never have made my films without my knowledge of the repertoires of the violin, the piano, the cello and the quartet. What’s more, as a filmmaker myself, I necessarily have a relationship with the score. The idea is not to make a documentary about music, but to film it for its own sake. Read More →

In 2024, the Purcell Choir and the Orfeo Orchestra’s recording with Cyrille Dubois was awarded a prize at the International Classical Music Awards (ICMA). Máté Ur from ICMA jury member Papageno spoke with György Vashegyi, the artistic director of the two ensembles, about their award-winning recording and the Haydneum – Hungarian Centre for Early Music, which he founded.

As a conductor, researcher, and leader of major Hungarian cultural institutions, you have a wide range of responsibilities. Which one is closest to you?
At about the age of 15, I decided that music would be my vocation, the most important thing in my life, after my family. I founded the Purcell Choir and the Orfeo Orchestra in the early 1990s, when I was still a university student, and I also began my teaching career at the Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest, and although I have conducted several symphony orchestras over the years and have been asked to conduct several times at the Hungarian State Opera, these ensembles are still of fundamental importance to me. Read More →

Guitarist Cassie Martin is the winner of the ICMA Classeek Award 2024. Charlotte Saulneron from the French Jury member ResMusica made the following interview with her.

Since 2018 Cassie Martin has traveled the world, won several awards, and participated in numerous festivals. Her repertoire combines early, contemporary and world music. As a Eurostrings artist in 2020, she took part in Gautier Capuçon’s Un été en France 2022 tour and then represented France in Sergio Assad’s The Woman and the Guitar project.

Your repertoire ranges from Bach to traditional world music: Brazilian, Austrian, Italian and French. Where do you want to go with your next project, be it on stage or on record?
I have a lot of plans. Of course, I’d like to continue introducing the public to the vast, little-known repertoire of the guitar, from the Baroque to the contemporary. One of my current concert programs is entitled La guitare à travers les siècles, in which I take the listener on a journey through time, showing all the facets of this beautiful instrument. Read More →

Renaud Capuçon is Artist of the Year 2024 of the International Classical Music Awards. One look at his touring calendar or discography is enough to understand the extraordinarily broad range of musical activity the French violinist is engaged in. Capuçon’s activities go beyond soloist and chamber music work – he is a mentor, an artistic director of festivals, a conductor and artist committed to social and civic causes. The French musician remarkably managed to find time for a short conversation with Ariadna Ene-Iliescu, a collaborator of ICMA Jury member Radio România Muzical.

You have been named Artist of the Year of the International Classical Music Awards. What does this award mean to you?
It’s a great honour for me, of course, as a musician, as a violonist. I’ve known this association and this prize for a long time and I was absolutely surprised, because I didn’t know that I would be nominated. So when I got it, I was very happy! Read More →

What in 2009 might have seemed like a utopian undertaking is now an established reality in the field of musicological research and musical production: Palazzetto Bru Zane. Stefano Pagliantini from the Italian ICMA Jury member Musica talked with Alexandre Dratwicki, scientific director of the French Romantic Music Centre Palazzetto Bru Zane whose recording label is Label of The Year at the International Classical Music Awards (ICMA). Read More →

Italian Orazio Sciortino (*Syracuse, 1984) has been chosen by the jury of the International Classical Music Awards (ICMA) for their annual Composer Award. He is a musician with a wide-ranging catalog and an intense dedication to the interpretation of the classical repertoire as a pianist. Ismael G. Cabral from the Spanish ICMA Jury member Scherzo made the following interview.

 At what point in your career does this ICMA award come to you?
It’s not easy to have a perception of yourself, of the road you have traveled. I think I might be able to answer that question in 20 years, or maybe more. I will be 40 years old, and that is a round and relevant number at which it might make sense to take stock. Read More →