Anna Komarova from St. Petersburg wins the 1st International Fürstenau Flute Competition in Münster, Westphalia. A third prize each
Leonardo Hernández from Mexico and Luna Vigni from Italy.
The three prizewinners performed the finale with the Münster Symphony Orchestra under Eyal Ein-Habar, the artistic director of the competition, in the theatre of the cathedral city. The programme included Leonard Bernstein’s work “Halili” and the 8th Flute Concerto by Anton Bernhard Fürstenau, the competition’s namesake, who comes from Münster. The Fürstenau Competition was organised by the GWK Society for Westphalian Cultural Work and the Münster Academy of Music in cooperation with the Münster Symphony Orchestra and made possible by the Volksbank im Münsterland and the Werte-Stiftung-Münsterland.
36 highly talented young flutists had qualified for participation in the Fürstenau Competition with their live recording of the compulsory pieces by Fürstenau and J. S. Bach. They came from 21 countries – from the USA to Russia, from Ukraine to South Africa, from Mexico to Sweden, from Portugal via South Korea and Germany to China. 35 had entered the public competition at the Musikhochschule and the Münster Theatre. A preliminary jury with Prof. Eyal Ein-Habar, Prof. André Sebald, Friederike Wiechert-Schüle and Tamar Romach had selected the candidates to be invited to Münster on the basis of their application videos. The jury of the three-stage competition in Münster was made up of internationally renowned flutists who are also active as teachers: Prof. Davide Formisano, Carlo Jans, Prof. Anne-Cathérine Heinzmann and Sarah Louvion, as well as the Dean of the Münster University of Music, Prof. Stephan Froleyks, and the General Music Director of the City of Münster and Chief Conductor of the Münster Symphony Orchestra, Golo Berg.
The Fürstenau Competition promotes excellent young flutists with an outstanding artistic personality on their way to an international career. In the final, the 28-year-old Anna Komarova from St. Petersburg inspired the jury, orchestra and audience alike with her full, yet extremely differentiated tone, outstanding creative power, technical sovereignty and compelling stage presence. Komarova’s 1st prize is endowed with 10,000 € and additionally with performances in concert series of the GWK. The two 3rd prize winners each receive € 5,000 in prize money. A 2nd prize was not awarded.
The Fürstenau Flute Competition is named after Anton Bernhard Fürstenau, one of the most renowned German flute virtuosos of the first half of the 19th century. He was born in Münster in 1792 and died in Dresden in 1852 as a member of the court orchestra. At the time, he was compared to Paganini and Liszt. Early on, as a “child prodigy”, he had gone on concert tours with his father as a duo. As was customary at the time, Fürstenau wrote much of his soloist repertoire himself. The competition named after him is intended to recall Anton Bernhard Fürstenau, whose etudes no flute student can still get around today, as a composer of the early Romantic period.