Vladimir Mendelssohn Composition Competition
Second Edition, 2023

And the winner is…. FRANCESCO DARMANIN!

Last September 29 during the Mendelssohn Days III, it took place the award night in Ascoli Piceno and it was the occasion to announced the winner of the II Edition of the International Vladimir Mendelssohn Composition Competition:

Francesco Darmanin with its "The sudden lightness".

The night was characterised also by the other two intense programs of the two other finalists Daniele Di Virgilio with "Scherzetto Notturno" and Wei-Shiang Chang with "It's just a dream"

Excitingly, the Klimt Quartet, with its instrumental ensemble of violin, viola, cello and piano, brought to life also the pairing of Vladimir Mendelssohn's Aphorisms and texts by writer Alessandro Baricco.

In the end, Luca Cipriano and Alessio Falciani were appreciated for their magnificent performance the winner composition of the Konvergiencie Festival in Bratislava, Adam Hudec with “Self-centered Variations”.

  • The competition aims to stimulate the musical creativity of young composers, according to the values that characterized the music and life of Vladimir Mendelssohn (1949-2021), visionary composer, violist, teacher and artistic director.

Rosita Piritore is the winner of the first edition of Vladimir Mendelssohn Composition Competition!

Tuesday, 13 September 2022 marked the end of the first edition of the composition competition dedicated to Vladimir Mendelssohn. It was a great pleasure to have all three finalist composers present, who watched together with the audience as the Elaia Quartet, consisting of Leonie Flaksman (violin), Theresa Jensen (violin), Francesca Antonia Rivinius (viola) and Karolin Spegg (cello), performed their pieces. The four musicians enthusiastically accepted the challenge of performing these compositions for the first time, working closely with the composers, who said they were lucky to have had the opportunity to see their works performed so masterfully by artists of the highest calibre.

Our first thanks therefore go to them, whose interpretation involved the audience and gave life and character to the chosen pieces, and undoubtedly a special thanks and best wishes to the composers who, right up to the very end, dedicated themselves to conveying their directives and suggestions.

Our congratulations as already announced are for Rosita Piritore, winner with 'Quartetto D'archi', a piece of research that the composer wanted to carry out in order to express the concept of self-symmetry, a property that often goes unnoticed to our eyes but which surrounds us and which we find in mathematics, geometry but also in nature and in living beings. Self-similarity is demonstrated when the entirety of an object is exactly or approximately similar to one of its parts, therefore capable of repeating itself in its form on different scales, a complex concept brilliantly expressed in the composition that also captured Vladimir Mendelsshon's "Sense of Humour", the theme of the competition, whose characteristic feature was the ability to perceive, express and represent the most curious, specular yet contrasting and amusing aspects of reality.

Finally, a heartfelt thank you to the jury, which despite the logistical difficulties and professional commitments of the various members who carefully studied and offered their technical contribution to the final judgement, and to Vladimir Mendelsshon's wife, who was present last night at the premières evening.

Jury

Richard Danielpour (President), Emanuele Casale, Krystof Maratka, Bruno Monsaingeon, Roland Pöntinen.

 

Vladimir Mendelssohn

Composer, viola player, artistic director, inventor of new musical formats, Vladimir Mendelssohn was a visionary musician and a complete artist. A model for the next generations.