Jonas and Joyce are named singers of the year

Jonas and Joyce are named singers of the year

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norman lebrecht

August 24, 2015

Echo Klassik, the biggest German music industry event, has just announced its annual awards:
Male singer of the year: Jonas Kaufmann

Female singer of the year: Joyce DiDonato

Solo recording of the year (voice): Elina Garanca

Instrumentalists of the year: Lang Lang (piano), Tianwa Yang (violin) Andreas Ottensamer (clarinet), Maurice Steger (flute)

Conductor of the year: David Zinman

The televised gala awards night will be on October 18.

Joyce_DiDonato_Simon_Pauly3

Awards for rising artists: Bryan Hymel, Sonya Yoncheva, Florian Noack, Sophie Pacini, Nemanja Radulović.

Classics without borders awards: Aurora Orchestra, David Orlowsky Trio, Kronos Quartet

Comments

  • Milka says:

    And so the downward spiral continues

  • Michael Smith says:

    I went to a Maurice Steger concert once. I won’t make that mistake again.

    • Marco Estefan says:

      Oh, yes, this concert with the Brandenburg Baroque Orchestra and Maurice Steger as leader was fantastic.
      I like the most these many colors he can produce with his recorders. In Fiorenza he played dark like a Mezzo-Soprano and in Vivaldi so bright and virtuoso.
      Absolutely unique.

  • Erich says:

    The usual suspects…televisual and talented…yes…but it’s such a transparent industry ‘fix’ devoid of fantasy.

    • Theodore McGuiver says:

      Too true. Virtuosic marketing coupled with political correctness made a few of these gongs pretty obvious.

  • marguerite foxon says:

    Joyce and Jonas. Of course. No brainer.

  • David Boxwell says:

    Hymel now seems to Falling, alas. (Sob!)

  • Martin says:

    This award is one of the reasons why I started to listen intensively to classical music.

    But since then I have stopped paying any attention to it as there are just way too many awards out there.

    Lang Lang got me into classical music years before and I also bought a Zinman cicle of Beethoven symphonies ages ago. But I stopped listening to the records.

    Then one year this award show shortly after going to a concert made me realize to what music I shall listen to. Nope, none of then won that year.

    Btw, since then I lost almost any fascination for Lang Lang, but not for Zinman.

    If Lang Lang brings people to classical music, then please plaster him with awards.

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