Eduard Marcu is the first double bassist to win the prize since its inception in 1982
Guildhall School of Music & Drama has announced 18-year-old double bassist Eduard Marcu as winner of the Lutine Prize for 2026. Marcu won first prize at the competition which took place on Saturday 20 June at Guildhall School’s Milton Court Concert Hall, where he performed Mišek’s Legende and Giovanni Bottesini’s Grande Allegro di Concerto ‘alla Mendelssohn’.
He receives the opportunity to perform a concerto with one of the Junior Guildhall ensembles, in addition to a cash prize.
Marcu studies with Elizabeth Hosford and joined Junior Guildhall in 2018. For the past two years, he has been a member of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain and will perform with the orchestra the BBC Proms 2026, under the baton of Thomas Adès.
He said: ’I am so delighted and grateful to have won the Lutine Prize 2026! Being the first ever double bassist to win is so special to me and I hope that this will help highlight what can be achieved on this incredible instrument outside of orchestral playing.’
Cellist Yoko Afi received the James Wilson Prize for second place. The other finalists were bassoonist Nahuel Anguis-Thomas, flautist Mayukhjit Chakraborty, violinist Evie Cooper and horn player Emma Sandford.
The six finalists were selected from a preliminary round by adjudicators Jonathan Lipton and Evan Rothstein. The contestants then presented a 20-minute recital to the jury comprising Emma Bloxham (BBC Radio 3 Commissioning Editor, Live Music), Matthew Jones, (head of Chamber Music at Guildhall School of Music & Drama); and Lieutenant Colonel Lauren Petritz-Watts (principal director of Music (Army) within the Royal Corps of Army Music).
The Lutine Prize is Junior Guildhall’s equivalent of the senior school’s annual Gold Medal competition, which in 2026 was won by violinist Caroline Durham.
This marks the second time a double bassist has won a major prize at Guildhall School with Strahinja Mitrović winning the Guildhall Gold Medal for Music in 2024. Strahinja will give his debut recital at Wigmore Hall on 22 July, as winner of the School’s annual Wigmore Recital Prize.
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