Geneva International Music Competition Explained

The Geneva International Music Competition is one of the world's leading international music competitions, founded in 1939. In 1957, it was one of the founding members of the World Federation of International Music Competition (WFIMC), whose headquarters are in Geneva.^[1]

Today, the Geneva Competition alternates between several main disciplines: piano, flute, oboe, clarinet, cello, viola, string quartet, voice and percussion. Every second year, it offers a Composition Prize. Upcoming competitions are cello & oboe (2021), piano & composition (2022), flute & string quartet (2023) and voice & composition (2024).^[2]

Its prizewinners include world-famous artists such as Martha Argerich, Arturo Benedetti-Michelangeli, Victoria de los Ángeles, Alan Gilbert, Nelson Goerner, Friedrich Gulda, Heinz Holliger, Nobuko Imai, Melos Quartet, Emmanuel Pahud, Maurizio Pollini, Georg Solti, José van Dam, Christian Zacharias and Tabea Zimmermann.^[3]

In addition to its official prizes, the Geneva International Music Competition offers a career development programme, which provides precious support and advice to help boost laureates' careers. This programme includes two years of concert management, as well as CD recordings, international tours, a festival and professional workshops.^[4]

1st prize winners

1939 Clarinet Robert Gugolz Switzerland
1939 Piano Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli Italy
1939 Voice Maria Stader, Hungary
1942 Piano Georg Solti Hungary
1947 Clarinet Henri Druart France
1948 Piano Charles Reiner Hungary^[5]
1950 Clarinet Paul-Jacques Lambert France
1953 Piano Jacques Klein Brazil
1954 Voice Pamela Bowden United Kingdom
1957 Clarinet Petko Radev Bulgaria
1957 Piano Dominique Merlet France (ex aequo)
1957 Piano Martha Argerich Argentina (ex aequo)
1957 Voice James Milligan Canada^[6]
1959 Oboe Heinz Holliger Switzerland
- 1960 Clarinet Peter Rieckhoff 1961 Piano Désiré N'Kaoua France
1961 Flute Michel Debost France
1962 Organ Joachim Grubich Poland
- 1971 Cello Myung-wha Chung 1972 Clarinet Thomas Friedli Switzerland
1972 Viola Atar Arad Israel
- - 1972 Voice Konstantin Ploujnikov 1973 Double Bass Ivan Kotov 1973 Flute Kohno Toshiko Japan
    - 1973 Quartet Quatuor Kreuzberger 1973 Trombone Anatole Skobelev 1974 Harp Olga Ortenberg 1974 Voice Gary Kendall United States
  - 1975 Guitar Dusan Bogdanovic 1976 Piano Tatiana Chebanova 1976 Voice Katherine Ciesinski United States
1977 Oboe Jean-Christophe Gayot France
1977 Viola AnaBela Chaves Portugal
1977 Voice Kristine Ciesinski United States
1978 Voice Margareta Haverinen Finland
1979 Voice Jean Christian France
1980 Bassoon Gilbert Audin France
1980 Vocal Quartet New York Vocal Ensemble United States
- - - 1982 Percussion Peter Sadlo 1982 Piano Evgeny Krouchevsky 1982 Viola Tabea Zimmermann 1983 Bass Nico Abondolo United States
1983 Voice Juliana Gondek United States
1984 Conducting Grzegorz Nowak Poland
1985 Organ Jonathan Biggers United States
1985 Voice Chihiro Bamba Japan
- 1986 Cello Leonid Gorokhov 1987 Trumpet Ole Edvard Antonsen Norway
1987 Viola Hong-Mei Xiao China
1987 Voice Maria Diaconu Romania
- 1988 Guitar Viktor Vidović 1988 Oboe Alex Klein Brazil
1988 Trombone Jonas Bylund Sweden
1990 Clarinet Fabio Di-Casola Switzerland
1990 Piano Nelson Goerner Argentina
1990 Violin Zheng-Rong Wang China
1991 Cello Wenn-Sinn Yang Switzerland
1991 Tuba Jens Bjørn-Larsen Denmark
1992 Flute Emmanuel Pahud Switzerland
1993 Organ: Alessio Corti Italy
1993 Violin Manara Francesco Italy
1993 Voice: Jane Irwin United Kingdom
1994 Conducting: Alan Gilbert United States
1995 Bassoon: Laurent Lefèvre France
1995 Cello: Claudio Bohorquez Germany
1995 Guitar: Georgi Vassiliev Bulgaria
1996 Trumpet: André Henry France
1997 Clarinet: Martin Fröst Sweden
1998 Double Bass: Janusz Widzyk Poland
- 1998 Oboe: Alexei Ogrintchouk 2000 Cello: Rafael Rosenfeld Switzerland
2000 Voice: Annette Dasch Germany (ex aequo)
2000 Voice: Werner Erik Nelson United States (ex aequo)
2001 Flute: Silvia Careddu Italy
2001 Piano: Roland Krüger Germany
2001 Quartet: Quatuor Terpsycordes Switzerland
2002 Percussion: Aiyun Huang Canada
- 2002 Piano: Sergey Koudriakov 2005 Viola: Ryszard Groblewski Poland
2008 Cello: István Várdai Hungary
2009 Voice: Polina Pasztircsák Hungary
2010 Piano: Mami Hagiwara Japan
2011 Composition: Artur Akshelyan Armenia
2011 Quartet: Artemis Quartet Germany (ex aequo)
2011 Quartet: Hermès Quartet France (ex aequo)
2012 Piano: Lorenzo Soulès France
- - 2013 Composition: Kwang Ho Cho 2014 Piano: Ji-Yeong Mun 2015 Composition: Shoichi Yabuta Japan
2016 Quartet: Vision String Quartet Germany
- 2017 Composition: Jaehyuck Choi 2018 Clarinet: Kevin Spagnolo Italy
2018 Piano: Théo Fouchenneret France (ex aequo)
2018 Piano: Dmitry Shishkin (ex aequo)
2019 Composition: Daniel Arango-Prada Colombia (ex aequo)
2019 Composition: Hinako Takagi Japan (ex aequo)
2019 Percussion: Hyeji Bak,

Search all prizewinners from 1939

Previous Disciplines

1995 and before, the competition also included a prize for Bassoon. ^[7]

External links

Notes and References

Web site: 17 June 2018. Who we are. 25 June 2020. World Federation of International Music Competitions. en-GB.
Web site: The Competition Concours de Genève. 25 June 2020. www.concoursgeneve.ch.
Web site: Search Laureates Concours de Genève. 25 June 2020. www.concoursgeneve.ch. 19 December 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20181219182517/https://www.concoursgeneve.ch/section/laureates/search_laureates/. dead.
Web site: Career development Concours de Genève. 25 June 2020. www.concoursgeneve.ch.
Charles Reiner. Betty Nygaard King, Gilles Potvin. 16 December 2013. The Canadian Encyclopedia.
News: Baritone Dies At 33. Calgary Herald. 29 November 1961. 42.
Web site: Concours International d'Execution Musicale Genève (CIEM) 1995 – International Competition for Musical Performers Geneva (CIEM) 1995 .