Competition 2021 – important information
The 2021 Prague Spring Competition will take place!
The competition committee has decided that the competition can take place under strict public heath regulations. In order to be in compliance, we have had to change the competition as follows:
PIANO
Reduced numbers – Round I: 40 contestants, Round II: 10 contestants, semi-finals 5 contestants, finals 3 contestants
Round I will be held online on the basis of a video recording of repertoire of your choice (played from memory), which you listed in the application.
The competitors who advance to Round I are required to submit the this video recording in the form of a link sent to competition@festival.cz no later than by 8 April 2021 23:59 GMT (see below for the recording parameters).
No later than by 15 April 2021, the organisers will announce the results of Round I. The ten competitors who advance will take part in the next round of the competition in person in Prague.
The rest of the competition will be held in accordance with the schedule in person in Prague (arrival on 9 May 2021, Round II on 10 May 2021…).
STRING QUARTET
Reduced numbers – Round I: max. 10 quartets, Round II: 5 quartets, finals: 3 quartets
Rounds I and II will take place online on the basis of a video recording of repertoire of your choice, which you listed in the application.
Ensembles that advance to Round I are required to submit two video recordings for Rounds I and II separately in the form of links sent to competition@festival.cz no later than by 15 April 2021 at 23:59 GMT (see below for the recording parameters).
No later than by 20 April 2021, the organisers will announce the results Rounds I and II. The three ensembles that advance will take part in the finals in Prague in person.
The Finals will take place in person in accordance with the schedule in Prague (arrival on 12 May 2021, Finals on 13 May 2021).
Of course, wearing respirators will be required as well as regular testing, distancing, disinfection (including the instruments after used by each contestant) etc.
The competition will be held without an audience, but it will be streamed live on the competition’s Facebook page, website, and YouTube channel. Round II, the semi-finals, and the finals of the piano competition will be streamed. Only the finals of the string quartet competition will be streamed.
The results of the preliminary round will be announced on 18 March 2021.
VIDEO RECORDINGS
The entire repertoire for each round must be played in its entirety in a single take without any cuts and editing.
The recording must be current, i.e. it must be recorded between 18 March and 8 April 2021 (ev. 15 April 2021 for the String Quartet category).
The video must be recorded from a fixed camera angle, which may not change; the musicians’ hands and faces must be visible at all times.
Make an effort to achieve the best sound quality possible.
Upload the recording on a cloud-type server such as Dropbox, iCloud, Google Drive etc. (not on YouTube), and send a link to the e-mail address of the organisers: competition@festival.cz.
Technical requirements
- video quality – 720p or 1080i or 1080p
- audio quality – PCM, flac, mp3 min. 256 kbps or aac min. 192 kbps
- microphones of appropriate quality (not the built-in microphones in mobile devices)
- format – mp4, mov, avi, mpg, or mkv
ACCOMMODATIONS
For all competition participants in Prague, the organisers will secure paid accommodations in a selected hotel (we will send information to the chosen participants no later than by 20 April 2021) for as long as they are actively participating in the competition. Accommodations for prize winners will be paid for until the day when the prizes are presented. This does not apply to other accompanying persons.
