Double Bassist Marc-André Teruel wins ICMA's Classeek Award

The International Classical Music Awards and young artist platform, Classeek, established this new award for the next generation of artists

Every year, the International Classical Music Awards (ICMA) releases its list of musicians, record labels, orchestras, recordings, and videos that stood out to its international jury of music critics.

ICMA recently announced a collaboration with Classeek, the Switzerland-based organization that joins a passion for the classical music world and the desire to provide global technological solutions to artists and musicians. The resulting ICMA Classeek Award was created to honor young and highly promising talents.

The winner of the first-ever ICMA Classeek Award has gone to double-bassist Marc-André Teruel.

Teruel will be presented the award during the ICMA Award Ceremony and Gala Concert at the National Forum of Music in Wroclaw, Poland, on April 21, 2023. This evening will also include a Gala Concert with a number of the winners and the NFM Wroclaw Philharmonic conducted by Music Director Giancarlo Guerrero.

At just 19, Marc-André Teruel won the prestigious Swiss competition “Rahn Musikpreis,” which will see him perform in concerts around Switzerland for the next four years. A winner of the Anton Bruckner First prize from the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, he has also won prizes at the Karl Ditters von Dittersdorf Competition in Slovakia and the Angelika-Prokopp Summer Academy of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.

He has played in a series of concerts with the French cellist Gautier Capuçon as part of his program “un été en France” and performed as a chamber musician at the Bürgenstock Festival in Switzerland with musicians such as Andreas Ottensamer, Ray Chen, and Maximilian Hornung.

He regularly gives concerts at the Wiener Konzerthaus, Wiener Musikverein, Salzburger Mozarteum, Auditorio Nacional de Música Madrid, and the Grand Auditorium de Radio France Paris.

"Nowadays the competition between young talented musicians is very strong," ICMA President, Remy Franck said. "We believe that the best should also receive and benefit from the best possible support! This is a common goal of ICMA as well as of Classeek. We have therefore added this new award to the already existing categories. It allows us to annually promote a young, outstanding musician chosen from a list of the open application finalists of Classeek’s flagship Ambassador Programme for talented artists. With our independent jury of 19 music critics from 16 different countries, we hope to strengthen the recognition of the winning musician. We are thrilled to organize this new award in close cooperation with Classeek and to develop profitable synergies between both organizations."

The other nominees for the ICMA Classeek Award were a selection of promising artists from the Classeek 2022-23 Ambassador Programme application, including pianists Callum McLachlan and Zhu Wang, violinist Julia Blachuta, cellist Ivan Skanavi, and clarinetist Arthur Stockel.

Additionally, the winner of the ICMA Young Artist Award, Sào Soulez Larivière, will secure a place in Classeek's 2023-24 Ambassador Programme for young artists.