Winning Ensembles of the 8th International Joseph Haydn Chamber Music Competition Chosen
For the 8th time, the International Joseph Haydn Chamber Music Competition, where young ensembles from all over the world compete, selected the best up-and-coming string quartets and piano trios. The two first prizes went to Trio Bohémo and Trio Pantoum, while the Chaos String Quartet and Trio Incendio were each runner-ups.
The University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna and the Joseph Haydn Institute for Chamber Music and New Music of the mdw organize the International Joseph Haydn Chamber Music Competition. / Picture: © Wikimedia Commons / PaulShunOSAWA / CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)
Organized every three years by the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (mdw) and the Joseph Haydn Institute for Chamber Music and New Music at the mdw, the competition has become one of the most important formats in the young international chamber music scene.
The focus of the competition, which boasts considerable prize money donated by renowned institutions and partners of the mdw as well as the university itself, and a high reputation, is the namesake himself. "To interpret Haydn skillfully and worthily is one of the greatest challenges for young professional ensembles," says jury chairman and chamber music professor Avedis Kouyoumdjian. In addition to the chamber music oeuvre of its namesake, however, the competition also deliberately places a special emphasis on chamber music works of the Viennese Classical period and the Second Viennese School.
The Joseph Haydn Chamber Music Competition is an important stimulus for international chamber music and especially for the further development of young ensembles on their way to a world career.
At the final concert in Vienna's MuTh, two first and two-second prizes were awarded ex aequo; the third prize was not awarded. Thus, the two first prizes went to the Czech trio Bohémo, which has already won several awards and made its debut at the Vienna Musikverein in 2022, and to the trio Pantoum, founded in 2016 at the Paris Conservatoire. Founded and based in Vienna is the second-place Chaos String Quartet, whose members hail from Hungary, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands. The trio Incendio, which also placed second, was founded in Prague in 2015, is currently studying at the European Chamber Music Academy and can also look back on several successes at international competitions.
mdw Rector Ulrike Sych stated, "I am proud that our Joseph Haydn Institute for Chamber Music and New Music has succeeded in establishing the Haydn Chamber Music Competition as one of the important international competitions in this field in the already more than 20 years of its existence and in anchoring it in Vienna."
About mdw
The mdw - University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna is one of the world's largest and most renowned universities for the performance arts of music, theater and film.
An international leader in all fields of study in music and the performing arts and related sciences since 1817, the university educates nearly 3,000 students from more than 70 nations and offers 115 fields of study and 41 university courses in 25 institutes.
It also employs about 1,260 people and presents more than 1,300 artistic and scientific events a year. It claims to be the largest art university in Austria and the largest music university in the world.