The Jury of the International Classical Music Awards (ICMA) today announced the Awards for 2020 which mark the tenth anniversary of this prestigious musical recognition. Austrian-Russian pianist Elisabeth Leonskaja is honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award. Latvian soprano Marina Rebeka is Artist of the Year, Italian cellist Erica Piccotti is Young Artist of the Year. The Discovery Award is awarded to 16-year-old German cellist Philipp Schupelius.
Pentatone Classics is the Label of the Year, and the Composer Award goes to Luxembourgish-Spanish composer Ivan Boumans. A Special Award is conferred to the American conductor John Axelrod, who is conducting this year already his third ICMA Gala concert, as well as to Jérôme Lejeune, who forty years ago founded the Belgian label Ricercar.
The Royal Seville Symphony Orchestra is honouring Spanish guitarist Pepe Romero with the Orchestra Award. In the Audio and Video categories, 18 productions are awarded a prize.
Among the artists performing on the winning audio and video releases are
– instrumentalists Thomas Adès, Can Cakmur, Kirill Gerstein, Alina Ibragimova, Gidon Kremer, Dorothee Oberlinger, Cédric Tiberghien, and the late Dina Ugorskaja
– singers Ian Bostridge, Tassis Christoyannis, Léa Desandre, Franco Fagioli, Vivica Genaux, Asmik Grigorian, Georg Nigl, Judith Wanroij,…
– conductors Stéphane Denève, Maxim Emelyanychev, Adam Fischer, Wilhelm Furtwängler, Sivards Klava, Franck Ollu, Sakari Oramo, Christophe Rousset, and Franz Welser-Möst.
– Ensembles Capella Marciana, I Sonatori della Goiosa Marca, La Pifarescha, Latvian Radio Choir, Les Talens Lyriques, Jupiter
– Berliner Philharmoniker, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Danish Chamber Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Wiener Philharmoniker
ICMA President Remy Franck says: « The ICMA jury members come from 16 countries and, with many years of experience, offer an international view on the various releases for a fair and balanced assessment. As a result, ICMA is able to present again an outstanding international list of winners, with productions from 18 labels and 10 different countries. As a totally independent and international jury we want to ensure that the ICMA quality seal reflects the continually evolving musical landscape and that the winning releases encompass a very good global mix of long-established musicians and young artists at the beginning of their career. This proves again that at the ICMA less well-known musicians and smaller independent labels have the same chances like the most renowned performers and labels. 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.
