Fondazione Mariele Ventre

International Competition for Choir Conductors "Mariele Ventre"

4th edition - October 9th-13th 2007

LORENZO DONATI is the winner of the fourth edition of the International Competition for Choir Conductors "Mariele Ventre"

The final concert, presented by Simona Marchini, and the ceremony to present the awards to the winners of the fourth edition of the International Competition for Choir Conductors "Mariele Ventre" took place on the 13th October, in the Teatro Comunale of Bologna.

37 participants of 18 different nationalities sent their application for the competition. Out of these, 10 competitors were chosen by the Jury for the final selection:

Maike Katharina Bühle (Germany)

Jerica Bukovec (Slovenia)

Lorenzo Donati (Italy)

Florian Helgath (Germany)

Marta Jakubiec (Poland)

Esko Kallio (Finland)

Steffen Schreyer (Germany)

Sebastian Vrhovnik (Slovenia)

Takuya Yokoyama (Japan)

Viacheslav Zaharov (Belarus)

Michael Zaugg (Switzerland)

For the Special Section for treble choir conductors, the jury selected 5 candidates:

Maja Cilenšek (Slovenia)

Lorenzo Donati (Italy)

Luigi Leo (Italy)

Krastin Nastev (Bulgaria)

Viacheslav Zaharov (Belarus)

On Tuesday 9th, Wednesday 10th and Thursday 11th, the jury examined the 10 competitors who directed the three choirs taking part in the third edition of the competition – the Ensemble Orlando Friburgo from Fribourg (Switzerland), in the Renaissance- Baroque repertoire, the Coro Polifonico di Ruda, from Ruda (Italy) in the Romantic repertoire, and the Grex Vocalis from Oslo (Norway) in the Modern and Contemporary Repertoire.

At the end of the three days, the jury selected 4 finalists: Lorenzo Donati, Steffen Schreyer, Takuya Yokoyama e Michael Zaugg.

The final took place on the 13th of October in the choir room of the Teatro Comunale of Bologna. After the test the Jury assigned the 1st prize of 7,000 euros and the silver cup of the President of the Italian Republic to Lorenzo Donati (Italy) and the 2nd prize ex-aequo to Steffen Schreyer (Germany) and Takuya Yokoyama (Japan). The jury decided not to assign the 3rd prize and to add the sum to the 2nd prize. Therefore, the winners received 2,750 euros each.

On the 12th of October, after the opening ceremony of the "Laboratorio Musicale Mariele Ventre" at the Museo Internazionale e Biblioteca della Musica di Bologna, the first edition of the special section for treble choir conductors took place in the Sala Eventi of the museum. The single prize offered by Aczon s.p.a. was assigned ex-aequo to Lorenzo Donati (Italia) and Maja Cilenšek (Slovenia).

Fondazione Mariele Ventre - Largo Mariele Ventre, 3 - 40125 Bologna, Italia - tel.: 051 4299009 - cell.: 334 9137316 - e-mail: fondazione@marieleventre.it - Codice Fiscale: 91156460379 - P. IVA: 01925091207