It is already the fifth ICMA Awards Ceremony I have been a part of - the one on March 19th, 2025, at Tonhalle in Dusseldorf. This process has always been fascinating to me, starting from the audition of the disks that have entered the competition, to the process of nomination of the special awards, to the scoring of the disks participating in the competition, and, finally, the way all of them become a sonor reality in a ceremony that exceeds the boundaries of an ordinary concert - both due to the personalities on the stage, as well as the event's entire duration.

The Award Ceremony

In the chamber music hall of the Tonhalle complex in Dusseldorf, on March 19th, starting at 17:30, the International Classical Music Awards 2025 awards were given: 16 awards for disks and DVDs, as well as 10 special awards. The awards for the audio/video productions are decided following three voting rounds that I have participated in during October-November of 2024. The special awards are decided way ahead of time, and for some of them, even the jury members offer suggestions, as is the case for the Young Artist of the Year award and the Composer of the Year award. The complete list of all the ICMA awards of this year can be found at https://www.icma-info.com/winners-2025/.

A huge point of pride was the presence of a disk with Romanian participation among the winners for the audio/video productions - it's the first time a Romanian artist wins an ICMA award for a disk. I'm talking about the Enescu album signed by the Orchestre National de France (ORTF), led by Cristian Măcelaru for Deutsche Grammophon. Master Măcelaru wasn't able to participate in the event, having a concert in Stockholm around the same time. However, he was represented in Dusseldorf by Cristina Uruc, the Artexim manager, and he personally offered his thanks in a video recording presented at the award ceremony.

Of course, the award ceremony is an emotional moment, with many thanks, memories, and smiles. There was also a musical moment, performed by two of the pianists awarded during the ceremony: the Turkish Can Cakmur and Can Sarac, who performed Schubert for four hands. As usual, the ceremony was hosted by Remy Frank, the jury president, assisted by Nicola Catto, the jury's secretary. Frank's call to create a network of institutions that support the young talents awarded by the ICMA made a significant impact: it is the expression of the general interest to support the young musicians in whose hands rests, after all, the future of religious music.

The Gala Concert

At 20:00, the ceremony concert started, which could have been enjoyed live on Radio România Muzical. The Tonhalle Orchestra from Düsseldorf had Romanian violinist Dragoș Mânza as concertmaster, and, in the opening, had at the conductor's stand its own principal conductor, Adam Fisher, the one who was distinguished with the "Lifetime Achievement" award in 2022, but also the "Special Achievemenwt" award in 2025, for the Integral of Haydn Symphonies recorded with Danish Chamber Orchestra. A beautiful overture from "The Marriage of Figaro" opened up the evening ceremony, in the wonderful atmosphere of Tonhalle, a round, unusual hall that was opened a hundred years ago as a planetarium - the sky full of stars still watches over the concert hall.

A fierce and stylistically daring version was suggested for the third part of Piano and Orchestra Concerto No. 3 by Beethoven, Can Çakmur, the winner of the "Solo Instrumental" category, followed by the mature and very appreciated version of part one of Piano and Orchestra Concerto by Antal Dorati, with the German pianist Oliver Triendl's interpretation, which received a special award for the interest shown to uncommon repertoires throughout time, unfairly neglected - his last disk is the one that covers the Piano and Orchestra Concerto and the "Wedding in the Carpathians" Suite by Paul Constantinescu.

The version of the Danel Quartet, in which the Romanian violinist Vlad Bogdănaș is a part of, for part one of Quartet No. 2 by Dmitri Șostakovici, a page performed with a lot of sensitivity, picturing the great Russian composer's universe, was inarguably one of the best attractions of the ICMA ceremony.

In an impressive shape, considering that he already has an important age (78), the violinist Gidon Kremer presented himself, the owner of the title "Lifetime Achievement" at the ICMA Ceremony 2025. A solo violin serenade by Valentin Silvestrov and the piece Dreams for violin and orchestra by Viktor Kosenko, both Ukrainian composers, created an atmosphere of meditation for the important themes discussed nowadays by humanity, and was also marked by Gidon Kremer's speech.

It was followed by the resounding Hungarian Rhapsody by David Popper, performed in his volcanic style by cellist Ettore Pagani, "Claseek Young Artist of the Year", having as conductor Vitali Alekseenok. The baritone Jerome Boutillier, representing the production awarded in the "Premiere Recordings" category, suggested an aria from the piece "Le tribut de Zamora" by Charles Gounod.

With a true choreography straight out of the Sun King's time, then entered the stage Leonard Gracia Alarcon, harpsichord player and conductor, "The Artist of the Year", with a scrumptious interpretation of a moment from the "Fireworks" suite by Georg Friedrich Handel.

After the break, we listened to the delightful piece "Wiener Blut 200" by Cristoph Ehrenfellner, "The Composer of the Year", and an excerpt from the Theme with variations "The 4 Temperaments" by Paul Hindemith, with Anna Gourari on the piano, work and musician that appear on the disk that won the award for the "Assorted Programs" category. "Young Artist of the Year", the cellist Benjamin Kruithof, suggested the famous "Pezzo Capriccioso" by Piotr Ilich Tchaikovsky, proving once again his high class that will bring him up to the great cellists of the world (Benjamin is the winner of the Enescu contest in 2022, something that he considers essential for his development).

Two vocal moments: a lied from "The Boy's Magic Horn" by Mahler, with the baritone Samuel Hasselforn as soloist and the conductor Lukacs Borowicz, then excerpts from "Stabat mater" by Vivaldi, with the countertenor Andreas Scholl and the conductor Alessandro Tampieri, represented the categories awarded by the jury: "Vocal" and "Baroque Vocal". Two scrumptious voices, with different profiles, but with the same intrinsic professionalism and artistic effect over the audience, who especially savoured these two evolutions.

"Label of the Year", the award won by BR Klassik (the Bavarian classical music channel, with its recording studio), was represented by the evolution of the concertmaster of the Bavarian Radiofusion Orchestra, the violinist Stanko Madic, and the interpretation of a part from "Distant Lights Concerto No. 1" by Peteris Vasks - a wonderful contemporary music, with a huge effect on the public and a defence for what we cam only call a beautiful musicof the present.

The closing belonged to a 17-year-old pianist, the Turkish Can Saraç, "Discovery Award", who fiercely performed the last part of Concerto No. 1 by Tchaikovsky, therefore opening the gate towards the future: of music and the ICMA Awards.

Thanks are due to the organizer, Tonhalle from Dusseldorf, and the intendant, Michael Becker, for the great organization, with impeccable precision, of a musical production so complicated.

I can say that this was one of the most beautiful ICMA Ceremonies that I took part in. I recommend that you watch it on the YouTube channel Deutsche Welle.

And to look towards the future with pride, because in 2027, when the ICMA Ceremony will take place at the Transilvania Philharmonic in Cluj-Napoca, the first time this kind of production will come to Romania. It was my suggestion approved by the jury: the representatives of the philharmonic from Cluj were also present at Dusseldorf, in order to fully experience such an event. I thank the manager of the Philharmonic, Ms. Silvia Sbîrciu, for involving a Romanian orchestra in a ceremony of such level!

Deutsche Oper am Rhein

On March 20th, I had the opportunity to visit and attend one of the shows at Deutsche Oper am Rhein (at the opera studio where many Romanian singers were formed and developed).

And I found out that in the next years, there will be a new headquarters built for this opera, modern and adapted to the needs of the 21st century, important, with the approval of all the political actors from the town. It will not just be the headquarters of the opera, but also of the music school and of the musical library in town, a true cultural hub built on top of a site of a decommissioned mall in the center of Dusseldorf.

Then I attended a coupe of ballet show, "Kaleidoscope". Three stages with three different contemporary music genres, exploring different stylistic zones: the minimalism of Glass in "Moto Perpetuo", tribal influences in Alex Wilson's music for "Invocation", and the American flavour in the sonority thought out by John Adams in "Vers un pays sage". A common characteristic: the brilliance of the dancers and the very clean choreography. without any kitsch. An unusual evening that I recommend to all who come to Dusseldorf, the city on the Rhine, which offers a plethora of different cultural ways to spend free time. And for those who prefer a good beer, but also love the highest grade of artistic performances.