The call for entries closed on 31 January with a huge international response: exactly 200 young musicians from 43 countries on five continents applied. The competition will be held in the violin, viola, and cello categories between 17–26 June in Debrecen.
The applicants, who include musicians from the US, Iceland, Germany, Armenia, Uzbekistan, and New Zealand, will take part in a video pre-selection before the three-round competition. Applicants will be informed of the results of the pre-selection by 28 February at the latest.
The three-round competition will take place from 17–26 June 2022, with violinists, violists, and cellists competing against each other rather than in separate categories. In the first round, the contestants perform solo, and in the second round they perform with piano accompaniment or as a duo. The six best will qualify for the orchestral finals, performing one concerto each as soloists with the Kodály Philharmonic Orchestra of Debrecen.
On the first competition, the nine-person international jury will be chaired by a true living legend, 85-year-old György Pauk, professor of the London Royal Academy of Music, who will be joined by teachers from the world’s most prestigious institutions:
- Kristóf Baráti (violin, Budapest),
- Anne Shih (violin, Mainz),
- Denis Severin (csello, Genf, Bern),
- Wilfried Strehle (viola, Berlin),
- Máté Szűcs (viola, Geneva),
- István Várdai (cello, Vienna),
- Quirine Viersen (cello, Amsterdam), and
- Dániel Somogyi-Tóth, Music Director of Kodály Philharmonic Debrecen.
Not to mention the number of applicants, this list of names alone is an indication that the competition is aiming to be at the forefront of European music from the very beginning—it will be one of the leading events on the music competition calendar not only in the country, but also in the region.
