Press release 19.12.2008
Kuhmo Composition Competition won by
Mirtru Escalona-Mijares

The Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival’s international Composition Competition has been won by Mirtru Escalona-Mijares with a work entitled Neuf Haiku d’Enfants. A quintet for flute, clarinet, piano, violin and cello, it also incorporates short poems (haiku) written by children aged 11-13. Mirtru Escalona-Mijares was born in Venezuela and nowadays lives in France.

The winner of the second prize was Music for Chamber Ensemble by Kosovan Drinor Zymber, for flute, clarinet, piano and string quartet. The jury described this work as a colourful stream in which the music intertwines with tinkling bells on the performers’ clothes. The third prize went to David Dzubay from the United States and his “all water has perfect memory” for clarinet, string quartet and piano. In variation form, it has elements of minimalism and swing.

The winners were chosen by an international jury consisting of Silvia Colasanti (Italy), Kryštof Mařatka (France), Ralf Gothóni, Paavali Jumppanen and Juha T. Koskinen (Finland) and the Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival’s Artistic Director Vladimir Mendelssohn.

The jury also awarded commendations to the following composers: Klaus Wiede, a German living in Finland, for a string quartet, Moto Osada, born in Japan but resident in New York, for Kaguyama Dance for viola and piano, and Xiao Hu from China for a string quartet called Scenes from a traditional opera.

The first prize was worth 5,000 euros, the second 3,000 and the third 2,000. The winning works will be performed at the Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival in 2009 and 2010.

More than 200 compositions

There were 235 entries in the Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival Composition Competition, by 198 composers from 38 countries. The largest number came from the United States, followed by Germany and Finland. The other countries included Bangladesh, New Caledonia, Malaysia, Uruguay, Bosnia, Cyprus, Argentina, Singapore and Serbia.

The competition was for chamber works lasting 10-15 minutes and any combination of from one to ten instruments. The most popular format (56 entries) was a quartet, and 45 works were for a septet or larger ensemble.

The Composition Competition was held for the first time. The Festival has previously held competitions, for chamber ensembles, in 1998, 1999 and 2004. The Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival Composition Competition was sponsored by the Finnish Ministry of Education.

Further information:
Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival
Executive Director Tuulikki Karjalainen,
tel. +358 40 544 5122