The national singing competition Bundeswettbewerb Gesang Berlin came to an end with the final concert at the Deutsche Oper Berlin on 1st December 2014. The winners of our foundation’s special prize
had already been announced on Friday: soprano singer Sara Magenta Schneyer/Berlin (contestant in 2nd round of finals) and baritone Sebastian Wartig/Dresden will receive the opportunity of concert engagements sponsored with €5,000 each. Sebastian Wartig also won the 1st prize in the main competition.
At this year’s Bundeswettbewerb Gesang Berlin 2014 we gave a special prize to a female and a male contestant in the concert category who have proven themselves especially worthy of our support with their interpretations of Bach’s works.
The prize is worth €10,000 (2 x €5,000) and was awarded by the competition’s jury. Our foundation attached particular weight to the votes of jurors Ingeborg Danz (main competition) and Tobias Berndt (junior competition), as they have demonstrated their excellence in interpreting works of Bach in numerous concerts. Ingeborg Danz is also active on the board of directors of the Neue Bachgesellschaft Leipzig.
An exceptional property of this prize is that the money is not paid out to the winning contestants. Instead it is given as financial support to event organisers who will hire the winners for a concert (of vocal music by Bach, preferably cantatas – not passions or oratorios).
The prize amounts of €5,000 each can also be split up in order to facilitate as many concert engagements as possible.
Any interested organisers can now get in touch with the Johann Sebastian Bach Foundation to communicate wishes and suggestions for concerts to be funded. The foundation’s executive board and board of trustees will then decide upon the recipients and the amounts given to them.
With this prize and the unique way of paying out the prize money, we hope to give young promising singers, who have distinguished themselves with their interpretations of Bach’s cantatas, the opportunity of multiple concert engagements and thereby further the popularity of Bach’s cantatas and support young talents at the same time.
Prize winners and organisers commit to pointing out the involvement of our foundation in their concert related publications (advertising, programmes etc.).
The foundation’s executive board and board of trustees look forward to the inquiries from concert organisers and would like to thank Mrs. Danz and Mr. Berndt for their great work!