The finalists in the category double bass

The finalists of this year's 58th International Instrumental Competition Markneukirchen in the category double bass have been determined:

    Hong Yiu Thomas Lai (Hong Kong), born 1997
    Jose Trigo (Portugal), born 1997
    Moritz Tunn (Germany), born 1999

They were selected by the international jury from the 7 participants of the 3rd round in this category and will now perform in the final round on Thursday, 11 May 2023, 7.00 p.m. in the Musikhalle Markneukirchen.
The three candidates will present themselves with the Concerto No. 1 in F-sharp minor by Giovanni Bottesini accompanied by the Clara-Schumann-Philharmoniker Plauen-Zwickau conducted by GMD Leo Siberski. Tickets for this event can be purchased at the box office for 3 euros.
In addition to the experienced ladies and gentlemen of the international jury, the audience is also called upon to vote for their favourite on this evening and the following evening. The audience prize-winner will then be announced at the prize-winners' concert on Saturday, 13 May 2023, 7 p.m. in the Markneukirchen Music Hall and, if it is a bassist, will receive a double bass bow made by a master bow-maker from the Vogtland. If the winner is a violoncello player, he or she will receive a cello bow, also made in Vogtland. In both cases, the Sparkasse Vogtland will donate the prize worth up to € 2,500.

Hong Yiu Thomas Lai (Hong Kong), born 1997
Thomas Hong Yiu Lai began his musical training on the piano at the age of 4. From 2013 to 2019 he studied double bass at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts in the class of Božo Paradžik. 2019 to 2020 he took lessons with Duncan McTier at the Zurich University of the Arts. 2020 to 2022 he studied at the Nuremberg University of Music in the class of Dorin Marc. Since 2022 he has been studying at the Hochschule für Musik Detmold in the class of Stanislav Anischenko. He received further impulses at master classes from Janne Saksala and Jakub Fortuna, among others.
As a young double bass player he has won prizes in several competitions such as the ISB Double Bass Competition Age 14 And Under Division (USA).

He also regularly participates as an orchestral musician. In 2016/17 he was solo bassist with the Göttingen Symphony Orchestra on a temporary contract. Temporary engagements have taken him to the Philharmonia Zürich and the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, among others. From 2019 to 2021 he was an academist with the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra. He is currently the coordinated principal bass of the NDR Radiophilharmonie.

Jose Trigo (Portugal), born 1997
José Trigo was born into a musical family and began studying double bass with Alexandre Samardjiev at the age of 11. After graduating from high school, he enrolled at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Mannheim, Germany, where he studied with Petru Iuga and graduated with a Bachelor's degree in 2019.
He also received inspiration in master classes with Janne Saksala, Ödön Rácz, Stanislav Anischenko, Gunars Upatnieks, Philipp Stubenrauch and Franco Petracchi.
Already during his studies he gained orchestral experience as a member of the European Union Youth Orchestra, the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra and as a guest in the Orquestra Gulbenkian, the Georgian Chamber Orchestra Ingolstadt and the Württemberg Chamber Orchestra Heilbronn. In the 2018/19 season he participated in the Orchestra Academy of the WDR Symphony Orchestra in Cologne and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. He is also a 1st prize winner at several competitions such as the Eixo Atlantico, Vasco Barbosa, Galicia Graves International Competition and Serge Koussevitzky International Competition, having already won 2nd prize at the VII Bottesini International Competition and 2nd prize at the J. M. Sperger Competition.
José Trigo joined the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in April 2019 and completed his Master's degree at the Hochschule für Musik Nuremberg with Dorin Marc in 2022.

Moritz Tunn (Germany), born 1999
Moritz Magnus Tunn was born in Berlin in 1999. At the age of four he received lessons on the violoncello, later he learned to play the piano. At the age of eleven he switched to the double bass and was initially taught by Alexander Adelmann. During this time, Moritz Tunn won prizes at the national competition Jugend musiziert, the Michelangelo Music Competition and gained his first orchestral experience with the Georg-Friedrich-Händel Gymnasium Youth Symphony Orchestra as well as the German String Philharmonic Orchestra and in the state and national youth orchestras.
After graduating from high school in 2017, he began artistic studies in the autumn of the same year in the class of Prof. Frithjof-Martin Grabner at the Leipzig University of Music and Theatre. Since the winter semester 2018/19, he has been enrolled as a student at the Nuremberg University of Music, where he is taught by Prof. Dorin Marc and Prof. Michail-Pavlos Semsis.
He is currently a member of the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie and the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester. Many concert tours have taken him throughout Germany as well as to Brazil, Taiwan, Russia, Denmark, Austria, France and Italy.
Moritz Tunn also appeared as a soloist with the Haydn Chamber Orchestra at the Gewandhaus Leipzig, where he played the Concerto in B minor by G. Bottesini.
He gained orchestral experience with the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Württemberg Chamber Orchestra Heilbronn, the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden and the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, among others. Since April 2022 Moritz Tunn is an academist in the Karajan Academy of the Berlin Philharmonic and is taught by Matthew McDonald. He is a prize-winner of the International Johann Matthias Sperger Competition for Double Bass 2022.
Moritz Tunn is sponsored by the German National Academic Foundation.