Although a Young Soloists Competition, organized by Frankfurt Radio, was held in Germany from 1947 to 1950, it was in 1952 when the ARD (the German radio consortium) founded its International Music Competition, which has since become one of the most prestigious in the world of classical music.
Each year they bring together a series of specialties, between 350 and 450 young musicians, participating in each edition. The first trumpeter to win a prize was the Belgian Werner Roelstraete (second prize in 1958). Maurice André won first prize in 1963. Throughout all these years the trumpet has been called into competition in 1971, 1980, 1986, 1993, 1997, 2003 and 2011, with several first, second and third prizes. They have brought a total of twenty-one trumpeters into recognition, such as David Guerrier, Guy Touvron, George Vosburgh, Wolfgang Bauer, Jens Lindemann and Giuliano Sommerhalder.
The 2018 edition features 42 trumpet players born between 1989 and 2001, from 20 different countries. Of all of them, 19 went onto the second eliminatory round; 5 were left for the semifinals; and only 3 reached the final round:
Selina Ott — 1st Prize
Finally, Selina Ott (Austria, 20) has been awarded the 1st place winner for this prestigious German competition, the first woman and the youngest person to win this award in the history of the ARD Competition, after David Guerrier, who won it at 18. Mihály Könyves-Tóth (Hungary) and Célestin Guérin (France) won 2nd prize. Könyves-Tóth also took the Audience Award and Best Interpretation of the required work that was commissioned for the competition.
The jury, also international, was made up of:
- Ketil Christensen (principal of the Royal Danish Symphony Orchestra) — Chairperson.
- Eric Berlin (principal of the Albany Symphony Orchestra, and principal of the Boston Philharmonic, USA).
- Marco Blaauw (member of the Ensemble Musikfabrik in Cologne, Germany, and professor at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, Netherlands).
- Mireia Farrés (principal of the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra, Spain).
- Osamu Takahashi (principal of the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, Japan).
- Gábor Tarkövi (principal of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Germany).
- Wim Van Hasselt (professor at the University of Music Freiburg, Germany).
From Trumpet Magazine, we would like to express our sincerest congratulations to Selina Ott, for winning the 1st prize, but we would also like to congratulate all the participants, because competing in the ARD Competition is and of itself a huge accomplishment.
We will see you again soon at the next edition of ARD: 2024!