“Meet, exchange, compete, and learn”, with these words Stephan Schmidt, President of the cciMB international Jury, summarized the importance/value of participating in the 3^rd International Maurizio Biasini Guitar Competition (cciMB) & Festival hosted by the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (SFCM) from January 14 – 17, 2016. Just before announcing the winner after the final round, Schmidt wanted to highlight the effort of the organizers to make the competition a positive and worthwhile experience for each contestant. The competition began in October 2015 when 11 talented guitarists from 9 different countries were selected, through a video audition procedure, to participate in the semifinal round in San Francisco. Highlight of the set program was the commissioned composition by Sergio Assad, Imbricatta in 10 asymmetrical layers, a very fine piece whose Brazilian and jazzy rhythm turned out to be quite challenging for the semifinalists.

 

The three guitarists who reached the finals had to face the challenge of performing the Concierto de Aranjuez by Joaquin Rodrigo accompanied by the SFCM Alumni Orchestra (Nicole Paiement, conductor) in addition to playing Sergio Assad’s Imbricatta in 10 asymmetrical layers, and a free choice piece. Twenty-four years old Marko Topchii from Kiev, Ukraine, already third prize at the cciMB 2013 in Basel, seized the first prize: $ 12’000 and an invitation to perform a recital in Switzerland (Rising Stars Series of the Allgemeine Musikgesellschaft Basel, 2017/2018), as well as other concerts in Italy (Association Conoscere la Musica – Mario Pellegrini, Bologna) and France (Festival International de  Guitare de Paris, 2016). Runner-up ($ 5’000) was 22-years old Clément Charpentier from Nancy, France, whereas third prize ($ 3’000) was awarded to Andrew Blanch, 24-years old from Camperdown, Australia.

 

The cciMB 2016 edition grew into a true guitar festival that started with a grand opening concert (Jan. 14) featuring two world premieres: a new Clarice Assad Guitar Concert O Saci-Pererê (2013) performed by the New Music Ensemble (Nicole Paiement, conductor; Marc Teicholz, soloist) and a new composition for eight guitars and two narrators, Nazcan (2015), by the Chilean composer Javier Farías performed by the Conservatory Guitar Ensemble (conductor David Tanenbaum). Furthermore, the winner of the SFCM biennial Guitar Concerto Competition 2015, Cristóbal Selamé, performed the Guitar Concierto no. 1 by the Italian composer Mauro Giuliani accompanied by the SFCM Alumni Orchestra. The festival continued with a recital by cciMB 2013 winner Emanuele Buono (Jan. 15) and a concert by the cciMB 2016 (Jan. 16) jurors who played Swiss and Italian composers (Haug, Scarlatti, Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Ghedini, Pisati, Evangelisti). Greatly appreciated by public and participants alike was the Harris Guitar Foundation Showcase (Jan. 16) with SFCM students presenting and playing some of the fine historical guitars of the collection.

 

Both the opening concert and the final round were broadcasted in live streaming and can now be seen on our YouTube channel (biasiniMCompetition) .

 

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