Solo and chamber music prizes
Weimar students successful at the "Accordéon-nous" competition in Belgium
After winning two 1st prizes last year, students from the University of Music FRANZ LISZT Weimar were once again successful in Belgium: at the 6th international "Accordéons-nous" competition in Mons, Belgium, a duo consisting of clarinettist Taiga Nabeshima (class of Prof Thorsten Johanns) and accordionist Leonard Friese (class of Prof Claudia Buder) won 1st prize in the chamber music category. Weimar accordion student Ingmar Rosenthal won 2nd prize in the classical category.
Over 50 participants from 13 Asian and European countries took part in the competition. The grand jury consisted of 14 experienced jurors from all over the world - from Croatia to Canada. Works from various stylistic periods were required in the evaluation rounds, including works by Sofia Gubaidulina, Toshio Hosokawa and Matthias Pintscher in the accordion solo category. In the final round of the classical category, Georg Katzer's composition "Zungen und Saiten" was on the programme, to be performed together with a string trio.
"Competitions are always formative for musical development," says Weimar accordion professor Claudia Buder. "Because not only do concentration and perfection come together to a special degree in the playing, but people from different cultures with different musical horizons also meet at the competition venue. These diverse encounters are always a benefit, regardless of the prize to be won."
The Weimar students from the accordion class, who were successful in Belgium, had originally prepared to take part in the 61st International Accordion Competition in Klingenthal - but this was cancelled at short notice. "This is a great loss for the classical accordion world," says Prof Claudia Buder. The 6th edition of the international accordion competition in Mons follows the Klingenthal structure and is gaining in importance, as the number of international accordion competitions with a long-standing tradition in Europe is manageable.
Taiga Nabeshima was born in San Francisco and grew up in Tokyo. He started playing the clarinet in his primary school brass band at the age of 9. From the age of 12, he played in numerous Japanese amateur, school and university orchestras until he completed his bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering (at Keio University) in 2022.
Immediately afterwards, he began his Bachelor of Music at the University of Music FRANZ LISZT Weimar with Prof Thorsten Johanns. He has been a member of the Junge Philharmonie Augustusburg since 2023 and regularly plays as a substitute in various orchestras, including the Thüringer Symphoniker, the Jena Philharmonic and the Klassische Philharmonie Bonn.
Leonard Friese was born in Jena. From the age of 6, he received accordion lessons from Stephan Bahr at the Jena Music and Art School. His focus is on contemporary music. During his accordion studies at the Weimar Music university in the class of Prof Claudia Buder, he was involved in interdisciplinary projects, including at the Studio for Electroacoustic Music at the Weimar universities and in collaborations with contemporary composers such as Peter Helmut Lang, Katharina Rosenberger, Uroš Rojko and Fabien Lévy.
Since the winter semester 2023/24 he has been playing in a duo with Taiga Nabeshima. Leonard Friese is a founding member of the newly founded "ENSEMBLE MOMENT - Ensemble for Contemporary Music and New Concert Formats".
[23 April 2024]