Koechlin International Flute Competition

 

Thank you so much to all competitors - I have had a gorgeous couple of weeks listening and re-listening to 80 videos of performances of Koechlin's 'Chants de Nectaire'.

It has been absolutely wonderful to hear such motivated people aged 9 - 77 from 20 countries who have gone to such efforts to learn the music and film themselves. Congratulations to all!

Huge thanks to Billaudot publishers whose generosity has made the competition possible, and to the ever-supportive sponsors:

 

Just Flutes - whose world-wide mail order service is second to none!
All Flutes Plus - very friendly central London specialist shop
Amis de Koechlin and Rockhampton Folk Festival

And  the enthusiastic and generous team of adjudicators who have been a delight to work with - Gitte Marcusson, Pierre-Yves Artaud, Marc Grauwels and Kathleen Stevenson.

 

First and second places were unanimous decisions in every category!

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Here below are the results, repertoire, a few further congratulations from myself and details of the final seminar/concert on Thursday April 29th - I hope you will join us.

Competitors should all have received a certificate and adjudicators feedback.

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Congratulations to the following:

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Category A - 14 years and under
1st place - Aksinia Khomenko
Joint 2nd place - Emme Hensel and Teodora Sion
Highly Commended - Diego Hoshino

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Category B - 18 years and under
1st place - Anna Lia Proschmann
2nd place - Daisy Noton
3rd place - Annie Banks
Highly Commended - Amy Cleverley

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Category C - 25 years and under
1st place - Dascha Schuster
2nd place - Mio Sasaki
Highly Commended - Tilly Coulton, Daryna Bachynska and Katie Taunton

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Category D - 25 years and over
1st place - Jonna Järvitalo
2nd place - Hanna Vigren
Highly Commended - Jessica Jiang and Sirius Chau

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Category E - 18 years and over amateur
1st place - Amelie Donovan
2nd place - Susan McDowell
Highly Commended - Hannah Lindsey-Clark

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 A few facts, further thoughts and thanks.....

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Choosing suitable repertoire can be a real challenge and is an integral part of the process; it is important that you love your chosen pieces and that they show your strengths. Six people immersed themselves in Koechlin and played extremely varied but entirely Koechlin programmes. Of the nine Koechlin pieces selected for the competition the most popular was 'Le Chevrier' (with 20 performances), then came 'Danses au Soleil du matin dans la campagne' (11), 'Jeux de la Lumiere', 'Jeux de Naiades' and 'Le Desir qui cree les Mondes' (all having 9 performances), 'Idylle' (8), 'Priere pour la Guerison' (6), 'Danse de Fauns' (5) and 'Sur la Mort d'un Chat' (4).

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The most popular accompanying piece was Honegger's  'Danse de la Chevre' with 8 performances and the notoriously difficult to adjudicate 'Syrinx' attracted 6 performances as did the Telemann Fantasies. Ferroud's 'Trois Pieces' and the 'Tango Etudes' of Piazolla both attracted 5 performances and there were three performances of Ian Clarkes music. There were two of each of  Ibert 'Piece', CPE Bach Sonata in A minor,  Paganini studies, and Hoover's 'Kokopeli'. Other classics included Karg-Elert's Sonata Appassionata, Bozza 'Image', Tomasi,  Hindemith's 8 Pieces, studies by Bitsch and Furstenau, Poulenc's 'Joueur de Flute', Eddie MacGuire's Prelude number 3 and the Flamenco Etude by Zgraja.......a wonderful and interesting selection!

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A few performances and performers deserve a special mention; there were wonderful and brave improvisations by Diego Hoshino and Amelie Donovan; great to hear this genre in action! There was some fantastic piccolo playing by Nevena Atanasova, Jessica Jiang and  Dascha Schuster, an atmospheric alto flute solo by Torsten Krebs and an amazing performance of Idylle on a bamboo flute by Anniruddha Ganesh from India. 

Several people took the plunge and played from memory - particular congratulations to Tessa Bradley who after a 20 year break from flute-playing memorised her whole programme proving that anything is possible with determination and courage.
I loved hearing Julian Armstrong who was born in the year that the 'Chants de Nectaire' were composed and tells me that in his day quite a few flautists played Koechlin. On the other end of the scale there were some ferociously talented very young performers in the U 14 category who would have been competing against players who are likely to have been playing for twice as long! I really look forward to hearing these promising players again soon.

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Personal thanks to all the teachers who encouraged their students to take part. Special thanks to Daisuke Sato in Japan and Wells Cathedral School in the UK who supported many competitors and other teachers who had multiple entries - you know who you are and your support is much appreciated - thank you!

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Please do join us at the Seminar/Concert - on Thursday April 29th - Zoom invite below.

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The session will feature live performances from the winners and other noteworthy competitors and there will be interviews with the adjudicators and a chance to ask questions.

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Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86376427986

Meeting ID: 863 7642 7986

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