Hungarian Istvan Vardai is the World’s Best Cellist

Istvan Vardai won first place in Munich where one of the word’s most prestigious classical music competitions took place, szeretlekmagyarorszag.hu reports.

A total of 312 musicians and ensembles from 37 countries participated in this year’s ARD International Music Competition where the 28 year old Hungarian cellist Istvan Vardai has been awarded 1st prize. Open to participants from any nation, born between 1985 and 1997, the annual ARD competition is the largest international classical music competition, in Germany.

The annual competition is conducted in different categories each year. 2014 was dedicated to cello, piano, percussion and wind quintet, but first prizes were only awarded in the percussion and cello classes (1st prize in this year’s Percussion Division was awarded to Italian Simone Rubino).

A student of László Mezö(Class of Special Talents at the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest), Reinhard Latzko(Music Academy of Vienna) and Frans Helmerson(Kronberg Academy), Istvan is a former prize winner at the Popper, Brahms, Emanuel Feuermanm, Tchaikovsky and Geneva International Cello Competitions.

Since his debut concert in 1998 in The Hague, István Várdai has performed in New York, London, Paris, Prague, Vienna, Frankfurt, Munich, Geneva, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Florence, Tokyo, Kobe, Beijing with great success. He has worked with conductors such as Ádám Fischer, Howard Griffith, Zoltán Kocsis, Josep Pons, Nicolás Pasquet, Gábor Takács-Nagy, Marcus Bosch, Roman Kofman and Simon Gaudenz. He has been invited to Santander Festival, the Gergiev Festival in St. Petersburg, the Pablo Casals Festival in El Vendrell (Spain), the Festival of Radio France in Montpellier, the Bellerive Festival (Switzerland), the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, the Schwetzingen Festival and the Budapest Spring Festival.
Previous 1st prize winners include luminaries: Jessye Norman, Francisco Araiza, Natalia Gutman, Christoph Eschenbach, Nobuko Imai, Mitsuko Uchida, Thomas Quasthoff, Yuri Bashmet, Christian Tetzlaff, Sharon Kam, Heinz Holliger, Isabelle Moretti,Peter Sadlo and Maurice André.

The 2nd prize was awarded to the 20 year old Andrei Ioniţă (Romania) and the 3rd prize was presented to the 21 year old Bruno Philippe (France).

based on article of szeretlekmagyarorszag.hu
by GAnina

Photo: www.zemplenifesztival.hu

Source: http://www.szeretlekmagyarorszag.hu/