The Jury of the International Classical Music Awards – ICMA announced the winners for 2011 in 20 categories.
« Our international and independent Jury has selected the winners from a nomination list comprising over 500 CD and DVD productions and a wide range of artists and labels. Our winners are the expression of the highest artistry and demonstrate that this Jury is a stubborn holdout for nonaligned value judgments in a world of low-common-denominator commercialism! » said Remy Franck, President of the Jury.
The renowned pianist and founder of the Beaux Arts Trio, Menahem Pressler, wins the Lifetime Achievement Award; composer and conductor Esa Pekka Salonen is Artist of the Year; French pianist David Kadouch Young Artist of the Year; Chandos Label of the Year. A Special Achievement Award goes to the label BIS for its complete Sibelius Edition, a landmark in that composer’s discography. The Classical Website Award goes to the Digital Concert Hall, a tremendous initiative from the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. The Awards of the 14 CD and DVD categories are shown in the winner section on this website. Among the recipients of those prices, the Jury selected the Harmonia Mundi recording of Mozart’s Zauberflöte under the baton René Jacobs as Recording of the Year.
The winners will receive the ICMA Trophies during the annual Award Ceremony, which takes place this year in Tampere, Finland on April 6. This evening will also include a Gala Concert at Tampere Hall, with the participation of a number of the winners and the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by its music director Hannu Lintu. The concert will be broadcast by Finnish Radio and numerous other radio stations of the European Broadcasting Union’s worldwide network.
The International Classical Music Awards are the preeminent awards for classical music on an international level. The jury consists of professional music critics of the most important magazines, online services and radio stations: Crescendo (Belgium), Fono Forum (Germany), Gramofon (Hungary), IMZ (Austria), MDR-Figaro (Germany), Musica (Italy), Musik & Theater (Switzerland), Orpheus Radio (Russia), Pizzicato (Luxembourg), Resmusica.com (France), Scherzo (Spain) and Viva Classica (Finland).
End of January, the ICMA Jury met in Las Palmas, attending the Festival of the Canary Islands and having its General Assembly at the Teatro Guiniguada. Main topics on the Agenda were the preparation of the next Award Ceremony in Milan (March 2013) with the Orchestra LaVerdi conducted by John Axelrod as well as the Rules and Regulations for the 2014 Awards. The Awards 2013 will be published on the 1st of February.
In Las Palmas, a number of decisions also were taken to allow the preparation of the Award Ceremony 2014 which will be held in Warsaw. The Award Ceremony and Gala Concert on the 12th of April will be part of the renowned Beethoven Easter Festival in the Polish capital city.
