157 young instrumentalists from 35 countries enrolled in the Prague Spring Competition

For the 74th edition of the International Music Competition, the Prague Spring Festival received a total of 77 applications in the field of viola and 80 applications in the field of trombone. In the field of viola, the largest number of young applicants under the age of 30 comes from China, South Korea and the United States of America. In the field of trombone, largest number of applicants has been entered from the Czech Republic, Poland and Germany. In total, young artists from 35 countries have applied in both fields.

“I am always wait impatiently until the deadline for applications and I am eager to see the interest expressed in the announced fields of the upcoming edition. This time, eight dozen participants from literally all over the world have applied for each instrument. It is a number from which, after auditing their recordings, the best ones will be selected which we will hear live in May during their competitive performances. I am looking forward to all those who will be invited,” says Michal Kaňka, Chairman of the Permanent Competition Board.

 “Whenever I talk to colleagues at international festivals, everyone is excited about the stellar names of our international jurors. Now that we see the number of entries which indicates the level of interest in the competition raised around the world, I am sure that we have something to look forward to,” says Pavel Trojan, Director of the Prague Spring Festival.

The public part of the competition will take place from May 7 to May 14 in Prague. The final round in viola is scheduled for Saturday, 13 May 2023 in Rudolfinum, during which the Hradec Králové Philharmonic will be conducted by Robert Kružík. The trombone final will take place on Sunday, 14 May 2023 in the Municipal House with PKF-Prague Philharmonia and conductor Ondřej Vrabec.

The viola jury will be chaired by Antoine Tamestit (France) and the jurors will be Kristina Fialová (Czech Republic), Garth Knox (Ireland), Pavel Nikl (Czech Republic), Cynthia Phelps (USA), Lars Anders Tomter (Norway) and Tabea Zimmermann (Germany).

The jury in the field of trombone will be chaired by Zdzisław Stolarczyk (Poland) and the jurors are Zoltán Kiss (Hungary), Robert Kozánek (Czech Republic), Fabrice Millischer (France), Lukáš Moťka (Czech Republic), Oliver Siefert (Germany) and Jeremy Wilson (USA).