The George Enescu International Competition is a

music competition A music competition is a public event designed to identify and award outstanding musical ensembles, soloists, composers, conductors and musicologists. Pop music competitions are music competitions which are held to find pop starlets. Exampl ...

for young

pianists A pianist ( , ) is an individual musician who plays the piano. Since most forms of Western music can make use of the piano, pianists have a wide repertoire and a wide variety of styles to choose from, among them traditional classical music, j ...

, violinists, cellists and composers, that takes place in

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north of ...

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

. It has helped launch the careers of many musicians, and among its list of first-prize winners are legendary pianists such as Radu Lupu, the winner in the 1967 edition. Other winners include Spanish pianist Josu De Solaun Soto, Russian pianists

Elisabeth Leonskaja Elisabeth Leonskaja (born 23 November 1945) (In Russian: Елизавета Ильинична Леонская) is a Soviet and Austrian pianist. She was born to a family of Jewish and Polish extraction living in Tbilisi, then the capital of t ...

, in 1964, and Dmitri Alexeev, in 1970.

Overview

The competition started in 1958, as part of the George Enescu Festival, and celebrated its first five editions (1958, 1961, 1964, 1967, and 1970) in what was then the

Socialist Republic of Romania The Socialist Republic of Romania ( ro, Republica Socialistă România, RSR) was a Marxist–Leninist one-party socialist state that existed officially in Romania from 1947 to 1989. From 1947 to 1965, the state was known as the Romanian People ...

. It was considered, by the countries of the

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, one of the most prestigious music competitions. Jury members included famous musicians such as Claudio Arrau,

Nadia Boulanger Juliette Nadia Boulanger (; 16 September 188722 October 1979) was a French music teacher and conductor. She taught many of the leading composers and musicians of the 20th century, and also performed occasionally as a pianist and organist. From a ...

Arthur Rubinstein Arthur Rubinstein ( pl, Artur Rubinstein; 28 January 188720 December 1982) was a Polish Americans, Polish-American pianist.

Magda Tagliaferro Magdalena Maria Yvonne Tagliaferro (19 January 18939 September 1986) was a Brazilian-born pianist of French parentage. Magdalena Tagliaferro was born in Petrópolis, Brazil. Her father, who had studied piano with Raoul Pugno in Paris, was a voi ...

Guido Agosti Guido Agosti (11 August 19012 June 1989) was an Italian pianist and piano teacher. Agosti was born in Forlì in 1901. He studied piano with Ferruccio Busoni, Bruno Mugellini and Filippo Ivaldi, earning his diploma at age 13. He studied counterp ...

Florica Musicescu Florica Musicescu (21 May 1887, Iaşi–19 March 1969, Bucharest) was a renowned Romanian pianist and musical pedagogue, daughter of the renowned composer, conductor and musicologist Gavriil Musicescu. She taught piano music for many decade ...

, Dmitri Bashkirov,

Carlo Zecchi Carlo Zecchi (8 July 190331 August 1984) was an Italian pianist, music teacher and conductor. Zecchi was born in Rome. A pupil of F. Baiardi for piano and of L. Refice and A. Bustini for composition, he began his career as a concert pianist at o ...

, and

Lazar Berman Lazar Naumovich Berman (russian: Ла́зарь Нау́мович Бе́рман, ''Lazarʹ Naumovič Berman''; February 26, 1930February 6, 2005) was a Soviet Russian classical pianist, Honoured Artist of the RSFSR (1988). He was hailed for a h ...

. Probably because of financial circumstances during Ceausescu’s dictatorship, the competition was abandoned in 1970, though it resumed twenty-one years later. The competition is a member of the

World Federation of International Music Competitions The World Federation of International Music Competitions (WFIMC) is an organization based in Geneva, Switzerland that maintains a network of the internationally recognized organisations that aim to discover the most promising young talents in classi ...

Geneva Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaki ...

. The competition and prize-giving ceremony has historically taken place in the

Romanian Athenaeum The Romanian Athenaeum ( ro, Ateneul Român) is a concert hall in the center of Bucharest, Romania, and a landmark of the Romanian capital city. Opened in 1888, the ornate, domed, circular building is the city's most prestigious concert hall an ...

, with the mayor always traditionally attending.

Prize money

Cello, Violin and Piano prizes: * First prize – €15.000 * Second prize – €10.000 * Third prize – €5.000 Composition prizes: * Prize for symphonic music section – €10.000 * Chamber music section – €7.000 * Prize for originality – €5.000;

Winners

Piano section

Violin section

* Silvia Marcovici (1970) * Alexandru Tomescu (1999) *

Nemanja Radulovic Nemanja ( sr-Cyrl, Немања) is a masculine Serbian given name. It is derived from the by-name borne by the founder of the Nemanjić dynasty, Stefan Nemanja (1114–1199), a Serbian grand prince who was venerated as a saint after his death. ...

(2001) * Valery Sokolov (2005) *

Anna Tifu Anna Tifu (born 1 January 1986) is an Italian classical violinist who has made an international career. She won the George Enescu International Competition in 2007. Career Anna Tifu was born to a Romanian father and Italian mother in Cagliari ...

(2007) * Jarosław Nadrzycki (2009) * Stefan Tarara (2014)

References

External links

* {{official, https://www.festivalenescu.ro/en/ Piano competitions Culture in Bucharest Events in Bucharest Music festivals in Romania 1958 establishments in Romania