Jeju International Brass Competition

Trumpet players from around the world gathered in South Korea for the Jeju International Brass Competition, August 8-16, 2017.

The Jeju International Brass Competition is carried out annually, for euphonium, bass trombone and tuba in the even years and for trumpet, French horn, tenor trombone and brass quintet in the odd years. Its 12th edition in the trumpet category took place on Jeju Island, South Korea. 62 candidates from the Peoples' Republic of China, France, Germany, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan competed at the Seogwipo Arts Center in the South of the subtropical island.

In the first round, each participant played the first movement of Joseph Haydn's Concerto in E-flat until the end of the development and could then choose between Arthur Honegger's Intrada and Triptyque by Henri Tomasi, both short but very revealing touchstones for trumpet players. 11 candidates opted for Tomasi's delicate "miniature sonata" while 51 chose Honegger.

22 competitors (roughly one third) were moved on to the second round in which Vincent Persichetti's Parable XIV for unaccompanied trumpet and either Johann Melchior Molter's Concerto no.1 in D major or Johann Friedrich Fasch's Concerto in the same key awaited them. Only two contestants played the Molter.

The finalists were Min Choi, HyunHo Kim (both from South Korea), Nobuki Inukai, Maki Tsuruta (both from Japan), Maximilan Morel (Germany) and Lucas Lipari-Mayer (France). Each of them performed the Concerto for Trumpet by Charles Chaynes, accompanied by the Jeju Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Szymon Kawalla.

HyunHo Kim (b. 1992, South Korea) was awarded the first prize. The second prize went to Maximilan Morel (b. 1994, Germany) and the third prize to Maki Tsuruta (b. 1994, Japan).

The jury consisted of Éric Aubier (France), Jean-François Michel (Switzerland), SeongSoo Park (South Korea), Max Sommerhalder (Germany), Rex Richardson (U.S.A.), Eisuke Yamamoto (Japan) and ShuHan Yeh (Taiwan).


2017 Jeju laureates and jurors
Left to right: SeongSoo Park, Éric Aubier, ShuHan Yeh, Rex Richardson, HyunHo Kim (1st prize), Maximilian Morel (2nd prize), Maki Tsuruta (3rd prize), Max Sommerhalder, Jean-François Michel, Eisuke Yamamoto.

Source: Max Sommerhalder (Switzerland)

 

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