Trombone and Viola at the Prague Spring

The 2023 Trombone Competition reached its end on May 15 with the finals taking place in Smetana Hall at The Municipal House in Prague. Throughout the evening, the audience could have heard the following pieces: Concertino in E flat major Op. 4 for Trombone and Orchestra by Ferdinand David and Cocerto for Trombone and Orchestra „Don Chisciotte o un autoritratto“by Juraj Filas. Both pieces were performed in cooperation with the PKF – Prague Philharmonia conducted by Ondřej Vrabec.
After having heard the three impeccable performances, the jury agreed on the following order:

First Prize – Gonçalo Nova
Second Prize – Juhyeon Seo
Third Prize – Tim Ouwejan

Alongside the laureate title, the jury also awarded two Honourable Mentions to Botond Drahos and Jarosƚaw Meisner. The winner of the first prize, Gonçalo Nova also received an invitation to perform at the 79th edition of International Music Festival in 2024.

In the viola category,  the three artists to advance to the final appeared in the Dvořák Hall at Prague's Rudolfinum, with each player performing two set works: Ligeti's Viola Sonata and Martinů's Rhapsody-Concerto for viola and orchestra.

First Prize went to Sào Soulez Larivière, who will return to perform at the next edition of the competition. Kyungsik Shin took Second Prize. The third candidate, Eric Seohyun Moon, was sadly disqualified because he did not perform the Ligeti Sonata from memory as requested.