The competition was accompanied by a camera. The documentary has been published on the GWK YouTube channel:

Der Beitrag The competition video 2023 erschien zuerst auf International Fürstenau Flute Competition.

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.

Der Beitrag And the winner is… erschien zuerst auf International Fürstenau Flute Competition.

Anna Komarova, Luna Vigni and Leonardo Daniel Hernández Mendoza.

The final will take place on 30.09.2023 at 7 pm in the Münster Theatre (small house).
Tickets are available here.

Der Beitrag Final erschien zuerst auf International Fürstenau Flute Competition.

Der Beitrag 2nd round of the competition erschien zuerst auf International Fürstenau Flute Competition.

Tuesday, 26.09.2023

Wednesday, 27.09.2023

Der Beitrag Sequence 1st competition round erschien zuerst auf International Fürstenau Flute Competition.

Under the direction of Prof. Eyal Ein-Habar, flutist, conductor and artistic director of the Fürstenau Competition, the Münster Symphony Orchestra will accompany the young virtuosos. They will play Leonard Bernstein’s “Halil” and a flute concerto of their choice by Anton Bernhard Fürstenau.

Anton Bernhard Fürstenau (1792-1852) was one of the most famous German flutists of the 19th century and also excelled as a composer. He came from Münster.

The digital programme of the finale can be found here.

Time and place
30.09.2023, 7 pm
Münster Theatre: Kleines Haus, Neubrückenstraße 63, 48143 Münster, Germany

Tickets
15 €, reduced 8 € (pupils, students, GWK-members)
online: GWK – Ticketshop – All Events (reservix.de)
in the Theatre Münster webshop and at the theatre box office.

Der Beitrag Final of the 3 best erschien zuerst auf International Fürstenau Flute Competition.

Miguel Almeida, *2002,  Portugal

Graziella Araujo de souza, *1997, Brazil         

Seungyeon Baek, *1998, Korea

Gaja Bašič, *1999, Slovenia

Lena Beitelhoff, *2001, Germany  

Yin Chang, *1998, Taiwan        

Mara De Luca, *1997, Italy

Fulvio Ferrara, *1998, Italy        

Ana Ferreira, *1998, Portugal

Magdalena Ficner, *1992, Poland

Tommaso Gaeta, *1999, Italy

Sara García Montenegro, *1999, Spain

Olivier Girardin, *1994, France

Ayelet Goldberg, *1997, Israel, USA

Panak Hashemian, *1995, Sweden

Leonardo Daniel Hernández Mendoza, *1997, Mexico

Antonia Heyne, *1997, Germany

Samuel Hondekijn, *1997, Belgium

Sakhile Humbane, *1996, Germany

Natalia Karaszewska, *1999, Germany

Juree Kim, *1996, Korea      

Julia Klampfer,* 2001, Austria  

Anna Komarova, *1995, Russia

Hazuki Kono, *1994, Japan

Yeji Lee, *2000, Korea

Shangcong Lu, *1998, China

Xinran Luo, *2003, China

Lorenzo Messina, *2002, Italy

Maël Metzger, *2004, France

Kateryna Movchan, *1996, Ucraine

Hongyu Pan, *1997, China

Xavier Santos, *1997, Portugal                 

Jan Schmitz Marcó, *1998, Spain

Daniel Shao, *1995, Great Britain      

Benjamin Smith, *2001, USA

Karin Toyotome, *1999, Japan

Luna Vigni, *1998, Italy

Ebba Wallén, *1994, Sweden

Hanna Wozniak, *2000, Polen

Der Beitrag The participants of the 1st round erschien zuerst auf International Fürstenau Flute Competition.

Prof. André Sebald, Robert Schumann University Düsseldorf
studied with Karlheinz and Gertrud Zöller and conducting with Hans Drewanz in Darmstadt. Until 2018, André Sebald was the principal flute of the Gürzenich Orchestra in Cologne and teaches as a professor at the Robert Schumann Hochschule Düsseldorf. In addition, he is active as an adjudicator at competitions, lecturer and director of international courses for flute and chamber music and conducted the Sinfonia Königswinter for almost 20 years.

Friederike Wiechert-Schüle, Solo flute Sinfonieorchester Münster
born in Mannheim, she studied at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Munich with Paul Meisen and in Paris with Thierry Mathias and René Leroy. She was principal flute in the Lübeck Philharmonic Orchestra and the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra. Since 1991 Friederike Wiechert-Schüle is  the principal flutist of the Symphony Orchestra Münster. She also teaches at the Robert Schumann Hochschule Düsseldorf and plays in various chamber music formations.

Tamar Romach, Solo flute Badische Staatskapelle Karlsruhe
studied in her hometown of Tel Aviv with Eyal Ein-Habar and with Davide Formisano in Stuttgart. Already during her studies in Israel, she was accepted as a flutist in the West Eastern Divan Orchestra under Daniel Barenboim, of which she is still a member today. After engagements as principal flutist with the Royal Danish Orchestra in Copenhagen, the Swedish Chamber Orchestra and the Orchestra of La Scala in Milan, she has been principal flutist with the Badische Staatskapelle since 2013.

Der Beitrag Jury Preliminary Round (Video) erschien zuerst auf International Fürstenau Flute Competition.

Prof. Davide Formisano, Stuttgart University of Music and Performing Arts
graduated under the guide of M° C. Tabarelli, Milano and completed his studies with Jean-Claude Gérard at Musikhochschule Stuttgart and Aurèle Nicolet in Basel. The winner of numerous national and international competitions has been the first Italian flutist to win a prize at the ARD Concourse in Munich (2nd prize – 1st not assigned). Since then he has been as well a sought-after soloist throughout Europe, Asian and North and South America as a chamber musician being invited to play in festivals around the globe. In 1995 Davide Formisano obtained the solo flute role at the Hamburg Philharmonisches Staatsorchester, getting the same position in the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra one year later. From 1997 until 2012 he was the principal flute in the “Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala” and in the Philharmonic Orchestra Milano. Since 2007 he is a professor for flute at the Musikhochschule Stuttgart and gives masterclasses in Japan, Italy and in Nice, France.

Prof. Stephan Froleyks, Dean of Münster University of Music
studied at the conservatories in Hanover and Essen. He works internationally as a composer, interpreter and inventor of novel instruments. Stephan Froleyks has received several scholarships and art awards; his compositions, installations, audio pieces, multimedia works and theatre music have been commissioned by WDR, Radio Bremen and Deutschlandradio, among others, and are performed at many international festivals. As an interpreter and improviser (percussion/tuba), Stephan Froleyks works as a soloist and with various ensembles in the broad field of new music. Stephan Froleyks is professor for percussion and music of other cultures at the Musikhochschule in Münster. In addition to his artistic activities, he works as an author and curator of music and sound art festivals (including soundseeing.net and Klangzeit-muenster.de).

Prof. Anne-Cathérine Heinzmann, Folkwang University of the Arts, Essen
first studied with Prof. Jean-Claude Gérard (Stuttgart) and later with Jeanne Baxtresser (New York) and Michael-Martin Kofler (Mozarteum Salzburg). She also received important impulses from Aurèle Nicolet and Paul Meisen. The prize-winner of many national and international competitions gained valuable experience for many years as deputy principal flutist at the Frankfurt Opera and Museum Orchestra. From 2009-2018, Anne-Cathérine Heinzmann was a professor at the Nuremberg University of Music, and in October 2018 she accepted an appointment as professor of flute at the renowned Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen. She is also a sought-after teacher at numerous master classes in Germany and abroad and a welcome guest on jury committees.

Prof. Carlo Jans, Conservatoire de Luxembourg
studied in Luxembourg and Nancy with Jacques Mule and at the Conservatoire Royal de Liège with Raymond Guiot. He then moved on to study with Andràs Adorjàn at the Cologne Academy of Music and took private lessons with Aurèle Nicolet. Furthermore Jans studied conducting under Jan Stulen and Jean-Philippe Rieu at the Royal Music Academy of Music in Maastricht and with Jorma Panula in St.Petersbourg. Carlo Jans finished his studies with a “Doctor in Arts” at the Academy of Music in Lodz (Poland). Since 1984, Carlo Jans is teaching flute and chamber music at the Conservatory of Luxembourg. Between 2002 and 2009, Carlo Jans was teaching at the Musikhochschule Saarbrücken in Germany. He is often invited to lead masterclasses throughout Europe, Asia and North and South America. Carlo Jans is a regular guest at national and international flute conventions throughout the world.

Sarah Louvion, Solo flute Oper Frankfurt, Frankfurter Museumsorchester
Born in the north of France, Sarah Louvion studied flute and chamber music at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in Paris. She has won prizes at numerous international competitions. Engagements take the artist both as a soloist and as a sought-after chamber musician to play in numerous festivals at home and abroad. Sarah Louvion regularly conducts master classes in Europe and Asia, taught at the Hochschule für Musik in Mainz in 2015 and as a visiting professor at the Japanese Geidai University of the Arts in Tokyo and at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music in 2016/17. Since 2002 Sarah Louvion has been principal flute of the Frankfurt Opera and the Frankfurt Museum Orchestra.

Der Beitrag Jury Main Round erschien zuerst auf International Fürstenau Flute Competition.