On Sunday 18th April EMCY’s General Assembly 2010 in Heerlen (Netherlands) came to a successful conclusion in spite of the significant volcanic obstacles. Many delegates were unable to attend due to the European flight ban but enough proxies were sent in to enable the Assembly to pass important changes to the statutes and officially adopt the Quality Standards for EMCY Member Competitions. This paper was a collaborative effort by the EMCY Board and Membership and underwent a year-long test phase preceding its adoption. The guidelines cover the repertoire, participants, jury, prizes, and organisation of a competition and are intended to assist competition organisers within and outside of the EMCY network in the improvement and development of their activities for young musicians.

The focus of EMCY’s 40th Birthday Celebration was a concert and reception held in the parliament building in Maastricht (Netherlands) on 16th April. Speakers included co-founder of EMCY, Dr Eckart Rohlfs, and Cultural Attaché of the Province of Limburg, Mrs Odile Wolfs. The performances of percussion duo Peter Fleckenstein/Quirin Reichl (Jugend musiziert, Germany), the trumpeter Sylvain Leclerc (Concours d’excellence, France) and pianist Asagi Nakata (International Franz Liszt Competition for Young Pianists, Weimar) formed a proposal from EMCY to the organisers of the bid for Maastricht to become Cultural Capital of Europe 2018 and to other future Cultural Capitals to include young talented musicians in their programmes.

Hosts in Heerlen were Schunck and the Charles Hennen Concours: International Chamber Music Competition for Strings. EMCY’s General Assembly was part of an extensive programme marking the 25th anniversary of this competition and the 100th anniversary of Heerlen Music School.

The European Union of Music Competitions for Youth (EMCY) is the European umbrella organisation for more than 50 national and international music competitions for children and young people. It was founded in 1970 as a union of national music competitions in order to develop the musical education and promotion of musical talents in the pre-professional area on a European level. Since 1992 international music competitions have also been able to become members. The office is based in Munich where EMCY is registered as a non-profit association. EMCY is a meeting point for highly talented young musicians and promotes and supports prize winners for instance through invitations to European concerts, concert tours, seminars and master classes.

The Press Release can be downloaded in English and German.

More information:

Claire Goddard (Secretary General)

EMCY c/o Deutscher Musikrat

Trimburgstr. 2/V

81249 München

GERMANY

Tel. +49 89 871 002 20 / Fax. +49 89 871 002 90

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www.emcy.org