The British composer John Woolrich discusses the challenges contemporary music faces and the vital role of amateur musicians My interview with John Woolrich for Cozio has just gone live here, and in it he says many interesting things about his conception of string sound and how he composes for different stringed instruments. I also asked him more general questions that led to a fascinating discussion about the language of contemporary music and the importance of amateur music

The jury of the Pierre Fournier Award hands out no main prize but two Incentive Grants in the prestigious cello contest at Wigmore Hall There were insteresting results at today's Pierre Fournier Award for cellists at Wigmore Hall, where the jury held back the main award and gave two Incentive Grants, each worth £1,000, to Jonathan Dormand and Valentino Woritzsch. Founder and Honorary President Ralph Kirshbaum explained the decision as he announced the results: 'The distinctio

As the Tchaikovsky Competition kicks off, we revisit a 2014 interview with the great Irish pianist Barry Douglas, who won the contest in 1986, and who is on the piano jury this year. He discusses the pleasures, the benefits and the perils of music competitions. Read the original article here. Benefits vs pressures ‘I was building up my career slowly and steadily, but winning something like the Tchaikovsky Competition is of vast importance. People invite you if they know that

Jury places audience favourite in fifth place at Queen Elisabeth Violin Competition in Belgium Music competitions get a lot of bad press these days. How can musical talent be judged and ranked? How can any expert jury member be objective? I’ve defended the concept several times before here and here and I believe they can have an important role to play in today’s musical landscape. But yesterday’s results at the prestigious Queen Elisabeth Competition were baffling to me and m

Valery Gergiev was optimistic about the rise of Asian musicians but sounded a note of caution about the pressure on young competition winners, as he launched the 2015 International Tchaikovsky Competition Valery Gergiev described the rise of Asian classical musicians during today’s press conference for the International Tchaikovsky Competition, saying, ‘There is a clear tendency that Asian representation is increasing every competition.’ His analysis went beyond the usual rac

Violinist Benjamin Baker has just been selected for the final rounds of the Queen Elisabeth Violin Competition. Such contests are notoriously stressful, so why would anyone put themselves through that? He explains all here Participants were announced today for the prestigious Queen Elisabeth Violin Competition in Brussels, Belgium, in May. The only UK player going forward is Benjamin Baker (also representing New Zealand), who is a seasoned competition winner: he came first at

Competitions are a vital part of the classical music world, whether you like it or not. They offer many benefits to players and to the music community, but there is room for improvement and maybe even for a whole new model. Key people offer their perspectives Music competitions are much in the news these days, particularly over at Slipped Disc, where Norman Lebrecht is doing excellent work to expose irregularities in some of the less salubrious organisations and their results

Julian Lloyd-Webber has come out in The Times against competitions, and accused them of being corrupt. That’s quite a broad brush with which to tar them all. Having been to a fair few string ones during my twelve years at The Strad magazine, and commissioned reports from even more, I’d beg to differ. Admittedly, I tried only to visit competitions myself if I knew they were well-respected, but I don’t remember seeing someone win who didn’t deserve to, from some perspective. Th