Pacific Quintett awarded 2nd prize and audience prize at the ARD Music Competition
At the renowned ARD International Music Competition in Munich, the Pacific Quintet won 2nd prize and the audience prize as a wind quintet. The ensemble with oboist Fernando José Martínez Zavala, clarinettist Liana Leßmann, hornist Haeree Yoo - for whom Pablo Neva Collazo stood in at the competition, flutist Aliya Vodovozova and bassoonist Kenichi Furuya has been studying at the Eisler in Prof. Martin Spangenberg's chamber music class since 2020.
The Pacific Quintet was founded in 2017 at the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan. Since then, the five ensemble members have been active on the international concert scene. They have already won 1st prize at the renowned competition of the Kulturkreis der deutschen Wirtschaft im BDI e.V. “Ton und Erklärung” 2021, 2nd prize at the “Carl Nielsen International Chamber Music Competition 2019” and the ensemble prize of the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern 2023. Their debut album UNITED was released in spring 2024 and reflects the diverse backgrounds of the ensemble members and their enthusiasm for new repertoire. They present music from their home countries of Germany, Honduras, Japan, South Korea and Turkey, as well as works by Leonard Bernstein, who has inspired the ensemble like no other composer.
This year's ARD Music Competition, one of the largest international music competitions since 1952, took place in the wind quintet, voice, oboe and cello categories. A total of four 1st prizes, four 2nd prizes and six 3rd prizes were awarded. With 726 participants from 58 countries, there was a new record in the history of the competition, after the pre-selection 312 musicians were admitted.
Eisler students and Eisler alumni are thus continuing the schools's success story at the ARD Music Competition: in 2023, Trio Orelon won 1st prize as a piano trio and violist Haesue Lee was awarded 1st prize and the audience prize in the viola category. In 2021, violinist Seji Okamoto won 1st prize; in 2018, Eisler alumni from Trio Lux and Trio Marvin shared 3rd prize, with 2nd prize not being awarded. In 2017 it was alumni Sarah Christian (1st prize) and Kristīne Balanas (3rd prize, violin), in 2026 double bassist Wies de Boevé (1st prize).