Budu Wins Haskil Competition

NEC Pianist Cristian Budu ’12 MM, ’14 GD Wins 2013 Clara Haskil International Competition

Student of Wha-Kyung Byun Takes Home the Only Prize, 25,000 Swiss Francs, Plus Two Special Prizes

Cristian Budu, a pianist from São Paulo, Brazil and a student of Wha-Kyung Byun, has won the Clara Haskil International Piano Competition in Vevey, Switzerland. One of the most demanding and prestigious competitions in the world, the Haskil honors a talented young pianist who emulates the artistic values of its namesake—that is, musicality, sensitivity, humility, constant questioning, perpetual seeking for excellence, listening to partners and respect for the composer. Clara Haskil, a Swiss pianist of Romanian origin, who was born in 1895 in Bucharest and lived in Vevey until her death in 1960, was greatly admired for the profundity and poetry of her playing.

The competition, which takes place every two years and is currently celebrating its 50th anniversary, chooses only one winner and sometimes none at all. The prize is 25,000 Swiss francs. Besides the grand prize, Budu won the Audience Prize of 3000 Swiss francs and the “Children’s Corner” Prize of 2000 Swiss francs. Previous winners of the competition include Richard Goode, Cynthia Raim and Till Fellner.

Along with cash awards, the competition offers the winner concert performances and this year potential engagements include the Lucerne Festival, Verbier Festival and the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande among others.

Budu, who received his Master of Music in 2012, is a candidate for the Graduate Diploma in 2014.  He is the recipient of the Nanna Rose Endowed Scholarship. He will perform a piano transcription of the Liebestod (as transcribed by Franz Liszt) from Wagner's Tristan und Isolde at the Music in Proust event that NEC will present at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, November 10 at 3 pm. To watch an excerpt from his performance of the Brahms Piano Quartet No. 3 Op. 60 at the Haskil competition, click below.

For further information, check the NEC Website

ABOUT NEW ENGLAND CONSERVATORY
A cultural icon approaching its 150th anniversary in 2017, New England Conservatory (NEC) is recognized worldwide as a leader among music schools. Located in Boston, Massachusetts, on the Avenue of the Arts in the Fenway Cultural District, NEC offers rigorous training in an intimate, nurturing community to undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate music students from around the world. Its faculty of 225 boasts internationally esteemed artist-teachers and scholars. NEC alumni go on to fill orchestra chairs, concert hall stages, jazz clubs, recording studios, and arts management positions worldwide. Half of the Boston Symphony Orchestra is composed of NEC-trained musicians and faculty.

NEC is the oldest independent school of music in the United States. Founded in 1867 by Eben Tourjee, an American music educator, choral conductor and organist, its curriculum is remarkable for its wide range of styles and traditions. On the college level, NEC features training in classical, jazz, and Contemporary Improvisation. Graduate and post-graduate programs supplement these core disciplines with orchestral conducting and professional chamber music training. Additional programs, such as the Sistema Fellows, a professional training program for top postgraduate musicians and music educators that creates careers connected to music, youth, and social change, and Entrepreneurial Musicianship, a cutting-edge program integrating professional and personal skills development into the musical training of students to better develop the skills and knowledge needed to create one’s own musical opportunities, also enhance the NEC experience.

Through its Preparatory School, School of Continuing Education, and Community Programs and Partnerships Program, the Conservatory provides training and performance opportunities for children, pre-college students, and adults. Through its outreach projects, it allows young musicians to engage with non-traditional audiences in schools, hospitals, and nursing homes—thereby bringing pleasure to new listeners and enlarging the universe for classical music, jazz, and Contemporary Improvisation. Currently more than 750 young artists from 46 states and 39 foreign countries attend NEC on the college level; 1,400 young students attend on the Preparatory level; and 325 adults participate in the Continuing Education program.

The only conservatory in the United States designated a National Historic Landmark, NEC presents more than 900 free concerts each year. Many of these take place in Jordan Hall (which shares National Historic Landmark status with the school), world-renowned for its superb acoustics and beautifully restored interior. In addition to Jordan Hall, more than a dozen performance spaces of various sizes and configurations are utilized to meet the requirements of the unique range of music performed at NEC, from solo recitals to chamber music to orchestral programs to big band jazz, Contemporary Improvisation, and opera scenes. Every year, NEC’s opera studies department also presents two fully staged opera productions at the Cutler Majestic Theatre or Paramount Center in Boston, and a semi-staged performance in Jordan Hall. This past 2012-2013 season, the operas produced were Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice, Britten’s The Turn of the Screw, and Rossini’s La Gazzetta.

NEC is co-founder and educational partner of From the Top, a weekly radio program that celebrates outstanding young classical musicians from the entire country. With its broadcast home in Jordan Hall, the show is now carried by National Public Radio and is heard on 250 stations throughout the United States.

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