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News Success Success at the German Music Competition

The ensemble Barock_PLUS with students from our university and the ensemble Interchange with lecturer Friederike Vollert have been selected as scholarship holders of the German Music Competition in the category "Ensemble for Early Music". Congratulations! Deutschlandfunk Kultur will broadcast the recordings of the final concerts on 23 and 24 March on Easter Monday, 1 April 2024 at 20:03.

Baroque_PLUS

Dominik Heidl, harpsichord
Marie Erndl, recorder
Verena Spies, baroque cello
Tabea Wink, recorder

The Barock_Plus ensemble is full of energy and creativity. The young musicians not only perform early and high baroque works with great virtuosity, but also supplement their repertoire with music from antiquity, the Renaissance and modern times. The ensemble emerged from Duo Energico, founded in 2017 by the two recorder players Marie Erndl and Tabea Wink, which won the international ORDA competition in Amsterdam and the Royal Wind Music Prize, among others. Both recorder players are students of Prof. Jeremias Schwarzer and Prof. Maurice Steger at the Nuremberg University of Music, where they also met Dominik Heidl (class of Prof Wiebke Weidanz). Marie Erndl is now continuing her studies at the HfMdK Frankfurt with Prof Jan Van Hoecke. TTogether with the baroque cellist Anna Rudolph, they founded the ensemble Barock_Plus in 2022 and the following year won 1st prize at the Göttingen Händel Competition and 2nd prize at the Biagio Marini Competition in Neuburg an der Donau. In a line-up with three winds and harpsichord, the ensemble won 3rd prize and the audience prize at the SR Early Music Prize with bassoonist Saki Sugawara.

Ensemble Interchange

Matija Chlupacek, recorder
Friederike Vollert, recorder
Sara Roque Corado, baroque cello
Felix Ritter, lute and theorbo
Tuan-Han Hu, harpsichord

The five musicians of Ensemble Interchange come from Germany, Slovenia, Portugal and Taiwan. They specialise in the music of the 17th and 18th centuries. Using two recorders, baroque cello, lute/theorbo and harpsichord, the young soloists explore contemporary forms of expression and create their own individual sound colours in ensemble playing. In their performances they share their working processes in developing the repertoire and show new perspectives on historical contexts.
The quintet was founded in 2023 by Matija Chlupacek, Friederike Vollert, Sara Roque Corado, Felix Ritter and Tuan-Han Hu. The five young musicians were brought together by their great joy of playing, coupled with a high level of musicality and liveliness. The ensemble was named after the inspiring painting 'Interchange' (1955) by Willem de Kooning, created with rapid gestures and deep, expressive brushstrokes. The ensemble hopes that its music will create an equally stimulating exchange with its audience.
German Music Competition

German Music Competition

Since its founding in 1975, the German Music Competition (Deutscher Musikwettbewerb) has been the national competition with the widest range of support for young professional musicians.

Substantial support
The support measures begin where music education ends. In order to help young musicians establish themselves in concert life, the DMW focuses its sponsorship programmes on concert promotion.

  • As part of the German Music Competition's concert promotion programme, prizewinners and scholarship holders are invited to give chamber music concerts throughout Germany. The 250 or so members of the organisers' ring regularly take advantage of this opportunity to present highly talented young musicians to their audiences.
  • The prizewinners and scholarship holders receive advice on all aspects of career development. Workshops are organised for them on topics such as music law, programme design, etc. (digital and on-site).
  • Individual grants are normally awarded for three years.