Butterfly Flute is runner-up in the Nielsen
mainYuki Ota, the Chicago-based flute player who survived an early round when a huge butterfly landed on her face, has taken second place in the international Carl Nielsen competition tonight.
The winner is… Sebastian Jacot from Geneva, former principal flute of the Hong Kong Philharmonic and the Saito Kinen Festival.
Congrats all round!
The winner Sebastian Jacot is a good looking lad
http://www.dr.dk/Temaer/Carlnielsen2014eng/2014/09/20/002847.htm
and the press reported “jury chair Pierre-Yves Artaud told us … ‘He has all the qualities we were looking for. He has charisma, musicality, and technical prowess’…”
I hope by “charisma” they mean the sound he produces independent of how he looks. Otherwise, that might well be a good reason for why competitiions, like audtions, should be conducted behind a screen.
“I am so pleased that we have discovered this new talent.” It’d be too bad if music competitions became surrogates for talent or modeling agencies, looking for the most marketable “total package.”
It will take something extra to cut through the clutter of pianists and violinists competing for concert engagements.
Well, in all fairness they didn’t really “discover” Sebastian Jacot at the Nielsen He was also the first place winner at the Kobe Competition, another major flute competition, in 2013.
This article…
http://www.dr.dk/Temaer/Carlnielsen2014eng/2014/09/20/141654.htm
… says Yukie Ota has never appeared as a soloist with an orchestra.
The Kalamazoo Symphony should take advantage of her new fame and do something about that since they have her on board already.
Absolutely! Her concerto round with the Odense Symphony was the strongest of the 3 finalists, according to many viewers. It looked like she’s been doing it all her life!
I truly enjoyed her interpretation of the Nielsen Concerto. It was superb. I hope audiences will have a chance to hear her perform it live!
I hope we hear a lot more about Yukie Ota. She is not only gifted but of course the winner at grace-under-fire. 🙂
Pedant alert: Sebastian Jacot wasn’t principal in Hong Kong but assistant or No.2 to Megan Sterling. Either way though he’s a terrific player.