In an accident of the calendar, summer 2019 has seen the Tchaikovsky, Queen Elisabeth, Sendai and Montreal competitions taking place within days of each other and on three different continents. his faced many would-be contestants with a dificult choice – which one would be the best for them? ‘Every contest is different,’ says French violinist and Montreal jury member Pierre Amoyal. ‘In its spirit and the broad repertoire choice it offers the players, the Montreal International Musical Competition relects perfectly the openness of the Canadian people.’
Alongside Amoyal, the jury comprised Kim Kashkashian, Boris Kuschnir, Cho-Liang Lin, Mihaela Martin, Barry Shifman, Dmitry Sitkovetsky, Pavel Vernikov and non-voting chairman Zarin Mehta, a former president of the New York Philharmonic. Listening to the penultimate and final rounds, it was clear there had been no shortage of imaginative applicants for them to choose from.