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Coupe Jeunesse Competition Report - Czechby Tibor Rácz |
At the CIA-IMC UNESCO Nijmegen Congress in 1991, the Marta Szokeová Methodical Centre of Czech expressed its wish for the Slovak selector competition to be called the Coupe Jeunesse. Surrounding countries that are not members of the CIA were invited to compete and also qualify. In this way, the philosophy of the Methodical Centre – to help young talent on their professional path, to help start their international careers and to help their media reputation – has realized a concrete form in the last years within the framework of this International Accordion Festival. Since the beginning of this event, hundreds of guests, soloists, chamber groups, orchestras, conductors, composers, such as Frank Marocco, Mika Väyrynen, Viatcheslav Semionov, Jonas Tamulionis have attended. Many of the winners of the world biggest accordion competitions have visited Bratislava or Dunajská Streda where the Coupe Jeunesse Festival has been held. The Government Office, national and international cultural institutions, ministries, a number of radio stations and TV channels, gazettes and magazines also report the festival, competition and the workshops, showing great international support for the Coupe Jeunesse. This year’s Festival, February 5th-8th, 2009, gathered 128 participants. At the Coupe Jeunesse there were 27 competitors from 6 different countries. Winners were: Category A (up to 14 years), Petra Antlová (Czech); Category B (up to 17 years), Michal Ochodnický (Slovak); Category C (up to 25 years) Lydia Skatchko (Belarus). The Slovak TV channels 1 and 2, Slovak radio, and Slovak and Hungarian media regularly reported the competition and the concerts. The participants of this Festival were real young stars of Europe and the world, winners of many international competitions. They were: the winners of the Czech and Slovak national competitions Petr Vacek and Dominik Frcka; and international winners Vladislav Pligovka (Belarus), Julien ‘Speedy’ Gonzales (France), Grayson Masefield (New Zealand) and Petar Maric (Serbia). The standing ovations of the audience, the artists themselves could probably report in greater detail – we only seldom see such success. |