Markneukirchen anniversary competition for violin and viola begins

Markneukirchen is celebrating 60 years of the “International Instrumental Competition” this May and is returning to its roots with the violin - a violin competition that was first held in 1950. What initially only took place on a national level developed from 1966 into an international competition with the highest musical standards and great appeal, held for all orchestral instruments as well as guitar, alternating annually between wind and string instruments. Together with the violin, its “big sister”, the viola, will be the focus of the competition in the city of musical instrument making in 2025.

A total of 64 participants will take part in the anniversary competition. Of the 161 applicants admitted yesterday, 26 participants aged between 16 and 29 years arrived for the violin competition and 38 for the viola competition. The young musicians come from 21 countries on 4 continents - most of them from China with 11 participants, followed by Germany with 8 participants and France with 7 participants.

With the rehearsals taking place today, the preparations are now reaching their climax and conclusion. Until May 16, the competition will be held in three selection rounds and one final round with orchestra. In the first round, all young musicians will present themselves to the two expert juries with a 20 to 25-minute program. In the violin category, solo works by Johann Sebastian Bach, Max Reger and contemporary composers will be performed. In the viola category, the participants will present two movements each from Schubert's Arpeggione Sonata and a solo suite by Max Reger.

The competition will take place in the Markneukirchen Music Hall for violin and in the Old Castle in Erlbach for viola. The competition begins on Friday at 10.00 a.m. Visitors are welcome to attend the auditions. Admission is free.

But not only violin and viola will be heard during the competition days. A varied and attractive supporting program also invites you to make further discoveries.

Friends of classical music can look forward to two highlights at the opening symphony concert on May 9: four former prizewinners will perform the solo parts in Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante (Cristina Gómez Godoy - oboe, Patrick Hollich - clarinet, David Spranger - bassoon, Achille Fait - horn). In addition, the Markneukirchen Grammar School Choir will be taking part in an opening concert for the first time, performing Beethoven's Choral Fantasy together with Nele Hufenbach at the piano and the Markneukirchen Symphony Orchestra. Also on the program: Beethoven's Symphony No. 1.

The Markneukirchen Wind Orchestra, also an amateur orchestra with numerous musical instrument makers in its ranks, will give its traditional competition concert on the following Tuesday, May 13, 2025. The soloist will be trumpeter Gerd Fischer from Markneukirchen - winner of the 1986 Markneukirchen International Instrumental Competition.

During the competition days, there will also be the opportunity to experience musical instrument making and its 350-year-old craft tradition, which was added to the list of intangible cultural heritage in Germany in 2014, up close in the instrument making workshops, in the Musical Instrument Making Experience, at exhibitions in the competition venues and at events organized by the Musical Instrument Museum, the Musical Instrument Making degree course, the Institute for Musical Instrument Making in Zwota and the Vogtland Guild of Musical Instrument Makers. The competition days will reach their climax on Saturday, May 17, 2025 with the final prizewinners' concert. From 7 p.m. onwards, the competition's top winners will once again present outstanding interpretations from their competition program in the Markneukirchen Music Hall - as soloists and accompanied by the Vogtland Philharmonic Orchestra Greiz/Reichenbach under the direction of Simon Edelmann and the competition pianists. The program will include Ludwig van Beethoven's Violin Concerto in D major op. 61 and one of the viola concertos by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Franz Anton Hoffmeister or Carl Stamitz, which will also be performed in the final rounds on 15 May (violin) and 16 May (viola).