Four prize winners of EMCY Member Competitions were invited to perform in a total of three concerts in Germany in May 2010, as part of the German national competition 'Jugend musiziert' in Lübeck. In this time, unlike the EMCY's General Assembly in April, neither the volcanoes nor the striking airline companies, were able to prevent the arrival of the musicians.

The special EMCY concert was held in cooperation with Kulturkreis Hasselburg on May 25th about 30 km north of Lübeck in a beautiful baroque hall of the Hasselburg mansion, which hosts one of the world's most significant collections of historical keyboard instruments. Our soloists - pianist Barbora Brabcová from Czech Republic, guitarist Jonas Kublicas from Lithuania, baritone Pablo Gálvez Hernandez with accompanist Miguel Ángel López Fernández-Vivas from Spain and violinist Triin Ruubel from Estonia with accompanist Stefan Veskovic - were very excited to play in such place and received a very warm welcome.

Concert in Hasselburg

On the next day the young musicians performed together with the 1st Prize winners of 'Jugend musiziert' at two different prize winner concerts – Barbora and Jonas about 70 km north of Lübeck in Landeskulturzentrum Salzau and Pablo in Musik und Kongresshalle in Lübeck. And then was it – the few busy days were over and it was time to say goodbye.

EMCY would like to thank 'Jugend musiziert' for the invitation and the opportunities they provided these young musicians. We are also grateful to the EMCY Member Competitions who sent musicians, as well as the young prize winners themselves and their accompanists, who impressed all and hopefully had a pleasant time in Germany!

A report by Keijo Kalmiste, EMCY Office