7th International Conducting Competition Jeunesses Musicales Bucharest

The 7th edition of the International Conducting Competition Jeunesses Musicales Bucharest took place at the Romanian Athenaeum, from August 28th to September 1st, 2016. The competition had a glamorous finale namely the Extraordinary Concert – Soirée Stradivarius which took place in the Grand Hall of the Romanian Athenaeum on September 1st and had as protagonists the three finalists of the competition: Yu-An Chang from Taiwan, Simon Proust from France and Nodoka Okisawa from Japan.

Under the baton of the three finalists, the Symphonic Orchestra of the “George Enescu” Philharmonic and the soloist Răzvan Stoica offered to the public a unique sonorous performance, proof of their excellence and virtuosity. The jury was formed of 8 conductors, incredible artists who have reached international fame - Sigmund Thorp, Cristian Florea, Christian Ehwald, Jacek Rogala, Bujor Prelipcean, Gheorghe Costin, Daniel Weissmann and Cristian Oroşanu.

Yu-An Chang, 29 years old, from Taiwan, won 1st Place and earned the privilege of being called one of the greatest conductors in the world. Yu-An was one of the finalists of the 2015 edition of the International Conducting Competition Besançon and at the moment he is studying at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler in Berlin. He debuted in 2015 alongside the Konzerthaus Orchester Berlin. The 2nd Place went to the French conductor Simon Proust, 29 years old, who recently graduated the “Conservatoire National Supérieur de Paris”. The 3rd Place went to Nodoka Okisawa from Japan who is currently studying at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler from Berlin.

During the gala, Helmuth Reichel Silva received the Special Prize of the Symphonic Orchestra of the “George Enescu” Philharmonic and Maxime Pitois and Timur Zangiev received certificates of Honorable Mention.

The Extraordinary Concert – Soirée Stradivarius saw the participation of several distinguished guests, who proved once more to be flawless artists: the “George Enescu” Philharmonic Symphonic Orchestra and the conductor Haoran Li, the winner of the 2014 edition of the International Conducting Competition Jeunesses Musicales Bucharest who conducted the Carmen Fantasy by Franz Waxman.

The gala concert also saw the participation of the extraordinary violinist Răzvan Stoica, at the present one of the most important young European musicians. Since 2009, Răzvan Stoica has earned the extraordinary privilege of performing on an Antonio Stradivari violin from 1792, the second Stradivari violin in Romania.

The concert included the works of J. Sibelius, P.I. Ceaikovski, C. Saint Saens, J. Brahms, P.I. Ceaikovski and D. Shostakovich, each of the three finalists conducting pieces of equal length and complexity. The Grand Hall proved to be overcrowded with the 900 persons who came to enjoy the concert.