Casals and Feuermann
Cello students of Prof. Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt's class win highly endowed prizes
The cello class of Prof. Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt at the University of Music FRANZ LISZT Weimar is enjoying remarkable success. A few days ago, 17-year-old bachelor student Luka Coetzee won the first prize of 18,000 euros at the "Pablo Casals International Award" in El Vendrell (Spain), the birthplace of the famous cellist Pablo Casals.
Also this week, cello student Ivan Skanavi won the first prize of 15,000 euros at the international cello competition "Grand Prix Emanuel Feuermann". The 25-year-old Master's student was also awarded the special prize of 3,000 euros for the best interpretation of a commissioned work by Jörg Widmann.
"This year, the Feuermann Competition is the most important cello event next to the Queen Elisabeth Competition, which my student Hayoung Choi had already won," says Weimar cello professor Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt happily, adding with a smile: "It can go on like this."
The judging rounds of the Feuermann Competition took place in the Chamber Music Hall of the Berlin Philharmonie, in the Concert Hall of the University of the Arts and in the Great Broadcasting Hall of the "Haus des Rundfunks". In the final, Ivan Skanavi played the Second Cello Concerto by Dmitri Shostakovich with the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Joseph Bastian.
Skanavi's fellow Weimar student Luka Coetzee is also delighted with their success: "It is a great honour to have won the 1st prize of the Pablo Casals International Award, and it is a privilege to now be a small part of his great legacy as a cellist and a human being."
In the final of the Casals Competition in El Vendrell, the cellist played three movements from Johann Sebastian Bach's Suite for Solo Cello No. 3 and Antonín Dvorák's Cello Concerto in B minor. "This prize helps young cellists under the age of 22 to continue their musical studies with the help and support of the Pau Casals Foundation," explains Luka Coetzee.
Luka Coetzee, born in Canada in 2004, made her solo debut at the age of eleven with the Calgary Civic Symphony. Most recently, she received the Kronberg Academy's Frans Helmerson Prize in September 2022 and performed as a soloist with the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra. In October 2022 she won the 2nd prize and the special jury prize at the 8th International Dotzauer Competition for Young Cellists.
In the same month, Luka performed as 1st prize winner of the 9th Johansen International Strings Competition in Washington D.C. with the National Philharmonic Orchestra. Luka Coetzee has performed in concert halls all over the world, including the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, the Berlin Philharmonie, the Tonhalle in Zurich, the Victoria Hall in Singapore and also at the Rheingau Music Festival.
Ivan Skanavi was born in Moscow in 1996 and began playing the cello at the age of six. He first studied at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory before continuing his studies at the Weimar Musikhochschule in the class of Prof. Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt. He is a prizewinner of the "Russian National Cello Competition", the "Ton&Erklärung" competition in Hanover and the TONALi competition in Hamburg.
In 2019 he reached the semifinals of the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow and also the second round of the ARD International Music Competition. Ivan Skanavi has already performed with the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, the Svetlanov Symphony Orchestra, the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, the chamber orchestra "Musica Viva" and the Talinn Chamber Orchestra. He has made guest appearances at the Verbier Festival, the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, the "I Mozartini" Festival in Italy and the Beethoven Days in Bonn, among others.
[24 November 2022]