Charlier competition winner Clément Saunier

Tine Helseth

Tristram Williams

Jury and finalists, L-R: Guy Touvron, Tristam Williams, Pasi Pirinen, Fred Mills, Jan van der Roost, Tine Helseth, Clément Saunier, Gabriele Cassone, Reinhold Friedrich and Dominique Bodart

On the occasion of the 150th birthday of the Kingdom of Belgium, and in honour of the great Belgian trumpet player Théo Charlier, the first Théo Charlier International Trumpet Competition was held in Brussels from October 31 to November 5, 2005. This new competition was open to advanced trumpet players under thirty years of age. The organisation was very pleased with the appreciation and enthusiasm of both the audience and the forty-four trumpet players from twenty nationalities who competed for the first prize.

The competition jury consisted of the well-known trumpet players Gabriele Cassone, Reinhold Friedrich, Fred Mills (chair), Pasi Pirinen and Guy Touvron. In addition, the Belgian composer Jan van der Roost and Dominique Bodart, musical director of the competition, were also jury members.

For the first round, the players had to play a work for trumpet and piano (to be chosen from the Sonatas by Paul Hindemith, Halsey Stevens and Stanley Friedman, or the Sonatine by Jean Françaix, or the Tanz-fantasie by Thierry Eschaich), a work for trumpet solo (to be chosen from Solus – Stanley Friedman, Sonatine – Hans-Werner Henze, One Trumpet – Martijn Padding, Paths – Toru Takemitsu, or Sequenza X – Luciano Bério) and a study by Théo Charlier (number 2, 8, 11, 12 or 24). The following players went through to the semi-finals: Ismaël Betancor (Spain), Olivier Bombrun (France), Fabio Brum (Brazil), Tine Helseth (Norway), Paolo Paravagna (Italy), Clément Saunier (France), Yuval Shapiro (Israel) and Tristram Williams (Australia).

The semi-finals took place on November 3rd in the “Onze Lieve Vrouwe van Genade” church in Brussels. Every competitor was required to play the Sonata in C for trumpet and organ by Harald Genzmer and a baroque concerto (the Concerto in D by Vivaldi/Bach, Concerto Saint Marc by Albinoni or the Telemann Concerto). The finalists were Tine Helseth, Clément Saunier and Tristram Williams.

During the finals, held on Saturday November 5, 2005, the candidates were accompanied by the Beethoven Academy Orchestra, conducted by Didier Bouture. The candidates had to play the Concerto per Tromba by Jan van der Roost and the Concerto by Haydn, Hummel or Neruda.

The International Théo Charlier Prize was awarded to Clément Saunier of France. He also received the prize for the best interpretation of the work by Jan van der Roost. The second prize was awarded to Tine Helseth of Norway and the third prize to Australia’s Tristram Williams. A special prize for the best Belgian candidate was awarded to Danny Aerden.

Websites:
Competition website (in French, other languages shown as available)
Gazzette des Cuivres - online article in French brass news site