Carl Nielsen International Music Competition

Carl Nielsen International Competition (Danish: Carl Nielsen Konkurrencen) is a competition for classical musicians (violin, clarinet, and flute) held in Odense, Denmark, in memory of the composer Carl Nielsen.

Overview
The competition was established in 1980 under the patronage of Queen Margarethe of Denmark. It became a member of the World Federation of International Music Competitions in 1981. Initially a violin competition, its first President was Henryk Szeryng. Later the competition added special editions for organists (since 1986), clarinetists (since 1997) and flutists (since 1998). At various times jury members included Max Rostal, Joseph Gingold, Norbert Brainin, Arve Tellefsen, Milan Vitek, Dorothy DeLay, Tibor Varga, Jean-Jacques Kantorow.

Since 2012, the organ competition is no longer part of the Carl Nielsen Competition, but is instead held as a separate competition. But the violin, clarinet and flute competitions have, after nearly four decades, established themselves as some of the most demanding and rewarding in the world, each offering winners the chance to launch a significant international career. From 2019, the Carl Nielsen International Competitions for violin, clarinet and flute will be held concurrently for the first time. Representing the 2019 competition as Artistic Advisors are three of the world's leading musicians in their fields – Nikolaj Znaider, Emmanuel Pahud and Martin Fröst.

During the 2022 edition of the competition a mentoring program called Espansiva! was held concurrently. The aim of this new program is to run alongside future editions of competition and to offer participants advice and insight during their time in Odense. During Espansiva! 2022, 10 talks were given by guest experts, soloists and musicians and 4 complementary workshops. There was opportunity for individual conversations with members of the Espansiva! team and each evening both participants and guest speakers were invited to "relax and eat together" at the aptly named Anarkist brewery located in Odense. The name Espansiva! comes from C. Nielsen's 3rd Symphony which also goes by the name Espansiva!

1st Prize
The 1st prize includes a sum of 25.000 Euro's as well as a recording deal with Orchid Classics and the Odense Symphony Orchestra with an approximate value of 13.000 Euros. The winner of this prize is also offered to appear as a soloist with top nordic orchestra's. In addition the 1st Prize winner of the Violin competition will also receive a bow made by Duncan EMCK, donated by "Ulf Eriksson Violiner".

2nd Prize
2nd Prize winner will be awarded 10.000 Euros.

3rd Prize
3rd Prize winner will be awarded 7.500 Euros

Special Prizes
Odense Symphony Orchestra Prize: 1.000 Euros awarded among the violin, Clarinet and Flute finalists. Junior Jury Prize: 1.000 Euros awarded among the violin, Clarinet and Flute finalists. Audience Prize: 1.000 Euros awarded among the violin, Clarinet and Flute finalists. Prize for best interpretation / Prize for Playing around Nielsen: 1.000 Euros awarded for the best performance of new piece commissioned for the violin competition and 1.000 Euros awarded amongst the 2nd round candidates of the Flute and the Clarinet competitions performing playing around Nielsen.

1980

 * 1st Prize: Kathleen Winkler
 * 2nd Prize: Per Enoksson
 * 3rd Prize: Hozumi Murata
 * 4th Prize: Adriana Rosin
 * 5th Prize: Grazyna Skowron
 * 6th Prize: Marius Nichiteanu

1984

 * 1st Prize: Osamu Yaguchi
 * 2nd Prize: Lenuta Ciulei-Atanasiu
 * 3rd Prize: Johannes Søe Hansen
 * 4th Prize: Jaroslaw Zolnierczyk
 * 5th Prize: Jacob Friis
 * 6th Prize: Anne Yuuko Akahoshi

1988

 * 1st Prize: Alexei Kochvanets
 * 2nd Prize: Heike Janicke
 * 3rd Prize: Joji Hattori
 * 4th Prize: Nicole Monahan
 * 5th Prize: Sigrun Edvaldsdottir
 * 6th Prize: Beata Warykiewicz

1992

 * 1st Prize: Nikolaj Znaider
 * 2nd Prize: Jennifer Koh
 * 3rd Prize: Pekka Kuusisto
 * 4th Prize: Ilja Sekler
 * 5th Prize: Not awarded
 * 6th Prize: Vladislav Adelkhanov

1996

 * 1st Prize: Adele Anthony
 * 2nd Prize (shared): Malin Broman and Jaakko Kuusisto
 * 3rd Prize: Not awarded
 * 4th Prize: Not awarded
 * 5th Prize: Esther Noh
 * 6th Prize: Tamás András

1999

 * 1st Prize: Leor Maltinski
 * 2nd Prize: Saeka Matsuyama
 * 3rd Prize: Mariko Inaba

2000

 * 1st Prize: Masaaki Tanokura
 * 2nd Prize: Dmytro Tkachenko
 * 3rd Prize: Mikkel Futtrup
 * 4th Prize: Mariusz Patyra

2004

 * 1st Prize: Hyuk Joo Kwun
 * 2nd Prize: Erin Keefe
 * 3rd Prize: Ui-Youn Hong
 * 4th Prize: Judy Kang

2008

 * 1st Prize: Hrachya Avanesyan
 * 2nd Prize: Yusuke Hayashi
 * 3rd Prize: Josef Spacek
 * 4th Prize: Eugen Tichindeleanu

2012

 * 1st Prize: Olga Volkova
 * 2nd Prize: Niklas Walentin Jensen
 * 3rd Prize: Eva Thorarinsdottir
 * 4th Prize: Ui-Youn Hong

2016

 * 1st Prize (shared): Liya Petrova and Ji Yoon Lee
 * 2nd Prize: Not awarded
 * 3rd Prize: Luke Hsu
 * 4th Prize (shared): Soo-Hyun Park, Ji Won Song, and Karen Kido

2019
2022
 * 1st Prize: Johan Dalene
 * 2nd Prize: Marie-Astrid Hulot
 * 3rd Prize: Anna Agafua Egholm


 * 1st Prize (shared): Hans Christian Aavik and Bohdan Luts
 * 2nd Prize: Not awarded
 * 3rd Prize: Eun Che Kim

1998

 * 1. Prize: Karl-Heinz Schütz
 * 2. Prize: Kazunori Seo
 * 3. Prize: Henrik Wiese
 * 4. Prize: Natalie Schwaabe

2002

 * 1. Prize: Pirmin Grehl
 * 2. Prize: Denis Bouriakov
 * 3. Prize: Fruzsina Varga
 * 4. Prize: Sarah Rumer

2006

 * 1. Prize: Alexandra Grot
 * 2. Prize: Lukasz Dlugosz
 * 3. Prize: ex aequo: Marion Ralincourt and Grigory Mordashov

2014

 * 1. Prize: Sébastian Jacot
 * 2. Prize: Yukie Ota
 * 3. Prize: Yaeram Park

2019
2022
 * 1. Prize: Joséphine Olech
 * 2. Prize: Marianna Julia Żołnacz
 * 3. Prize: Rafael Adobas Bayog


 * 1. Alberto Navarra
 * 2. Seoyeon Kim
 * 3. Alberto Acuna Almela

1997

 * 1. Prize: Spyros Mourikis
 * 2. Prize: Igor Begelman
 * 3. Prize: Carlo Failli
 * 4. Prize: Anne Piirainen

2001

 * 1. Prize: Alexander Fiterstein
 * 2. Prize: Nicolas Baldeyrou
 * 3. Prize: Jens Thoben
 * 4. Prize: Sebastien Batut

2005

 * 1. Prize: Olivier Patey
 * 2. Prize: Olivier Vivarès
 * 3. Prize: Björn Nyman
 * 4. Prize: Vincent Penot

2009

 * 1. Prize: Olli Leppäniemi
 * 2. Prize: Christelle Pochet
 * 3. Prize: Daniel Ottensamer
 * 4. Prize: Balazs Rumy

2013

 * 1. Prize: Sergey Eletskiy
 * 2. Prize: Mathias Kjøller
 * 3. Prize: Inn-Hyuck Cho
 * 4. Prize: Pierre Genisson

2019

 * 1. Prize: Blaz Sparovec
 * 2. Prize: Aron Chiesa
 * 3. Prize: Víctor Díaz Guerra

2022

 * 1. Oleg Shebeta-Dragan
 * 2. Ann Lepage
 * 3. Panagiotis Giannakas

1986

 * 1. Prize: not awarded
 * 2. Prize: Jesper Madsen
 * 3. Prize: Kevin Bowyer

1988

 * 1. Prize: Andreas Liebig
 * 2. Prize: Kayo Ohara
 * 3. Prize: Anne Nietosvaara

1990

 * 1. Prize: Kevin Bowyer
 * 2. Prize: Bine Katrine Bryndorf
 * 3. Prize: Yuzuru Hiranaka

1992

 * 1. Prize: Christopher Wrench
 * 2. Prize: Stephen Farr
 * 3. Prize: Christian Schmitt
 * 4. Prize: Pascale Melis
 * 5. Prize: Paul Theis

1994

 * 1. Prize: not awarded
 * 2. Prize: Rie Hiroe
 * 3. Prize - Ex Aequo: Walter Savant-Levet and Marina Zagorski
 * 4. Prize: Stefan Kordes
 * 5. Prize: Frédéric Desenclos

1996

 * 1. Prize: Hanne Kuhlmann
 * 2. Prize: Veronique le Guen
 * 3. Prize: Torsten Laux
 * 4. Prize: Jin Kim
 * 5. Prize: Heinrich Christensen

1998

 * 1. Prize: Johannes Unger
 * 2. Prize: Teilhard Scott
 * 3. Prize: Torsten Laux
 * 4. Prize: Samuel Kummer
 * 5. Prize: Làszló Deàk

2000

 * 1. Prize: not awarded
 * 2. Prize - Ex Aequo: Sarah Baldock and Charles Harrison
 * 3. Prize: Christina Blomkvist
 * 4. Prize: Burkhard Just
 * 5. Prize: Hedvig Dobias

2002

 * 1. Prize: not awarded
 * 2. Prize: Burkhard Just
 * 3. Prize: Helene von Rechenberg
 * 4. Prize: Katrin Meriloo

2004

 * 1. Prize: William Whitehead
 * 2. Prize: Clive Driskill-Smith
 * 3. Prize - Ex Aequo: So-Hyun Park and Johannes Hämmerle

2007

 * 1. Prize: Henry Fairs
 * 2. Prize: Gijs Boelen
 * 3. Prize: Daniel Bruun
 * 4. Prize: Ruth Draper

2011

 * 1. Prize: Philip Schmidt-Madsen
 * 2. Prize: Timothy Wakerell
 * 3. Prize: Simon Menges