The V International Paulo Cello Competition

The 5th International Paulo Cello Competition was held on 16-27 April, 2013 in Helsinki and four other cities in Finland. The 24 cellists taking part in this year’s competition were selected in a qualifying round held in autumn 2012. A record number of cellists applied: 113 from 27 countries (77 applicants in 2007).

One of the special features of the Paulo competition is the number of concertos in the repertoire. Thanks to the fine collaborating orchestras, the contestants had a chance to be the soloist with no fewer than three orchestras: the Joensuu City Orchestra, the Jyväskylä Sinfonia or the Kuopio Symphony Orchestra in round 2, and the Tapiola Sinfonietta and the Helsinki Philharmonic in the finals. And they had all the great cello concertos to choose from.

Another inherent feature of our competition is the recital in the first public round. The contestants chose their own repertoire for this, thus allowing them to demonstrate their personal preferences, their technical skills and their artistic creativity in planning a concert programme. The recital also included a new compulsory solo work, by Krzysztof Penderecki. Called Preludio, it was only completed in March 2013 and received its world premiere performance in the competition.

The 5th competition was open to cellists of all nationalities aged 16–30.

The Jury

Arto Noras (President, Finland), Lluís Claret (Spain), Frans Helmerson (Sweden), Maria Kliegel (Germany), Ivan Monighetti (Switzerland/Russia), Philippe Muller (France), Hai-Ye Ni (USA, rounds 1 and 2), Martti Rousi (Finland), Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi (Japan)

The Shadow Jury

The President of the Jury and Artistic Director of the competition, Prof. Arto Noras invited a novel feature of the Paulo: a shadow jury unique in a top international competition. It offered five young cello students a chance to learn how to adjudicate and to work alongside the experienced jury of an international event. The very first Paulo shadow jury were Heikki Takkula (chairman), Klaus Mäkelä, Sirja Nironen, Lauri Rantamoijanen and Sara Viluksela.

Prizes

Kian Soltani, Austria (15 000 €)
Pablo Ferrández Castro, Spain (9 000 €) and
Aurélien Pascal, France (9 000 €)
Alexander Ramm, Russia/Lithuania (5 000 €)
Norbert Anger, Germany (2 000 €) and
Janina Ruh, Saksa (2 000 €)

Two special prizes were also awarded:

Lukas Stasevskij
(Finland, for the best performance of Preludio by Krzysztof Penderecki, 1 000 €)
Jonathan Roozeman
(Finland/Netherlands, for being the most prominent young talent, 1 000 €)

Shadow Jury Diploma: Kian Soltani