The 5th Beijing International Music Competition in the flute category was launched on October 11 in Beijing, featuring 52 international flute contestants from 20 countries.
Eleven international flutists including Paul Meisen, the first prize winner at the Munich ARD International Competition, Peter-Lukas Graf, the Lifetime Achievement Award winner honored by The USA National Flute Association, and Jeanne Baxtresser, solo flutist of the New York Philharmonic have been invited to be the competition judges.
Starting in 2006, the competition including flute, clarinet, cello, and string quartet categories, has now become the only serial-contest member of the World Federation of International Music Competitions (WFIMC)—a Geneva-based organization under UNESCO that aims to discover the most promising young talents in classical music through public competition—in China.
The event is co-hosted by China’s International Culture Association and the Beijing International Culture Association.
It has attracted 227 competitors from 38 countries this year. After sending recordings of their stage performances to Germany for evaluation by the judges, 52 players remained.
Among the 52, 10 are from China, three of which are from the Chinese mainland.
Peng Yun, born in 1991, is a contestant from the Central Conservatory of Music of China in the mainland.
“The other two from the mainland were educated in Germany,” Peng said.
Regularly, Peng gets up at around seven in the morning and starts to practice the flute after a simple meal. Not until half past ten at night would she return to her dorm. That’s when the practice rooms close.
The Chinese students impressed Professor Andrea Lieberknecht, one of the competition judges and a flute teacher at the University for Music and Performing Arts in Munich.
“I have one Chinese student in my class. He has fantastic skills,” she said.
It is estimated there are 30 million piano students and 10 million violin students in China.
The first three rounds of the competition will be held from the October 12 to 18 and the final will fall on October 20.
By Dong Lin
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