For the International Classical Music Awards 2018, the ICMA Jury has once more selected musicians and organizations that have distinguished themselves through outstanding achievements. The independent and international jury has also chosen their favourites from 357 nominated audio and video releases.
Jury President Rémy Franck said: « Running for eight years, ICMA has become a huge annual celebration and a widely respected benchmark for musical excellence. One of the reasons of this recognition is that our Jury is not influenced by any kind of lobbying during the process of picking the winners. To start our votes, we again had a strong nomination list, and our goal was to only pick the best out of the best. Each year, the Jury identifies the highest standards, and the musicians honoured in 2018 are testament to the worlds thriving and vibrant music community. »
Herbert von Karajan's favourite baritone, José van Dam, receives the Lifetime Achievement Award, Manfred Honeck, Music Director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, is ICMA's Artist of the Year. The Young Artist of the Year Award goes to the outstanding Luxembourgian-Austrian percussionist Christoph Sietzen. With the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra hosting the Award Ceremony and the Gala Concert on April 6 in Katowice, the ICMA Jury paid special attention to the Polish music life and awarded an Outstanding Young Polish Artist Award to pianist Szymon Nehring. The winner of the Discovery Award, which ICMA organizes in collaboration with the International Music Academy of Liechtenstein, is the sixteen-year-old Chinese flutist Yu Yuan.
Alpha is Label of the Year, and among the other winners are the Krzysztof Penderecki Centre Luslawice, the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra in Katowice, and Melodiya for its Anthology of Russian Symphonic Music.
Among the audio and video awards, the recipients are Capella de Ministrers, Stefan Temmingh, Philippe Jaroussky, Véronique Gens, Łukasz Borowicz, Krystian Zimerman, Quartetto di Cremona, Sol Gabetta, Cornelius Meister, Alexander Liebreich, Hannu Lintu, Herbert Blomstedt and Markus Poschner.
The ICMA Jury is looking forward to welcoming the winners at the Award Ceremony and Gala Concert on April 6 at the magnificent concert hall of the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra in Katowice, conducted by Alexander Liebreich.
The complete list of the 2018 ICMA Winners can be found here.
Since 2010, ResMusica has been the French representative to the ICMA Jury.