The competition’s 57th edition will be held in Genoa from 16 to 27 October 2023
The relaunch of the International Violin Competition ‘Premio Paganini’, founded in 1953 to honour the Genoese virtuoso’s legacy, is going on. Spearheading the project is the City Mayor, Marco Bucci, who has entrusted the Presidency of the Prize to Giovanni Panebianco, former Secretary General of the italian Ministry of Culture. The project is animated by the principle ‘Renewal preserving tradition’ – i.e. maintaining the highest level of artistic excellence while embracing new communication systems and methods to reach a younger, wider audience and continue to promote great music and a positive image of Genoa to the world. To this purpose, Nazzareno Carusi, one of the most prominent Italian musician and cultural manager, has been appointed as artistic director.
The competition is now biennial and the 2023 edition has a certain number of important features: more than 40 prize-concerts to date, an unprecedented number, in the most prestigious venues in Italy and abroad, starting with the Teatro alla Scala in Milan; a new organisational structure; an independent headquarters; a new logo; a redesigned website and social accounts; and last but not least, the ‘Paganini Ambassadors’, eminent national and international figures promoting, in Italy and abroad, the competition and its artistic values.
Following the selection process for this, the 57th edition, a maximum of 30 young violinists will be chosen to perform in the competition, to be held in Genoa from 16 to 27 October 2023.
They will be chosen by a pre-selection committee, headed by the Artistic Director.
The Pre-Selections will take place in:
Buenos Aires, Italian Cultural Institute - 17 to 19 April 2023
Guangzhou, venue t.b.d. - 24 to 26 April 2023
New York, Italian Cultural Institute - 8 to 10 May 2023
Prague, Italian Cultural Institute - 16 to 18 May 2023
Tokyo, Italian Cultural Institute - 22 to 24 May 2023
Genoa, State Conservatory of Music ‘Niccolò Paganini’ - 29 to 31 May 2023
The music programme, which includes the new piece specially composed for the competition by Silvia Colasanti, includes some new elements: most notably the Final Round in two phases, the first prodromal to the second and consisting of the performance of a Mozart Violin Concerto without the conductor, to more deeply evaluate the finalists’ musical abilities.
The Jury boasts highly prestigious figures under the presidency of Salvatore Accardo, first overall winner of the ‘Premio Paganini’ in 1958. With him: Ilya Grubert (Netherlands), winner in 1977, Michael Guttman (Belgium), Emmanuel Krivine (France), Christopher Reuning (USA), Maxim Vengerov (Russia–Israel) and Reiko Watanabe (Japan).
As per tradition, the winner will have the opportunity of playing the ‘Cannone’, the celebrated violin by Giuseppe Guarneri ‘del Gesù’ (1743) donated by Paganini to his home town and now conserved at Palazzo Tursi, Genoa.
To participate, the candidates must fill the online form at the website of the Premio Paganini, which includes all of the information about the 57th edition: www.premiopaganini.it
The deadline for applications is 20 February 2023 at 12:00 (Italian time).
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