The 3rd Edition of the Joaquín Rodrigo International Competition closed in Madrid on June 1, 2006, with an exciting final round in the Auditorio 400 of the Reina Sofía Museum, for which three finalists were selected in each discipline, guitar and voice.

The competition was inaugurated May 24th at the headquarters of the Spanish Author’s Society, the art-deco Longoria Palace, where the thirty young musicians who were preselected gathered for registration. There were twenty different nationalities represented among the 17 guitarists and 13 singers participating in the event.

The jury for guitar was composed of the guitarists Ernesto Bitetti, Carlos Bonell, Ricardo Gallén, Hubert Käppel, and Nikita Koshkin. For the discipline of voice, the jury members were Manuel Cid, Josef Hussek, Ana Higueras, Alicia Nafé and Patricia Rozario. Presiding both jurys was the orchestra conductor Miguel Ángel Gómez Martínez, and the vice president was Thomas Daniel Schlee, composer and director of the Carinthia Festival in Austria.

The first round and semi-finals took place over a period of five days at the splendid Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando’s Sala Guitarte. There were eight semifinalists for guitar : G. Krawiec (Poland), N. Rodionova (Russia), S. Montes (Chile), C. Pérez González (Chile), A. Montesinos (Spain), G. Chiche (France), A. Parfinovich (Russia) and I. Zamfirescu (Rumania) ; and six semifinalists for voice : A. García Tellería (Venezuela), F. González Moreno (Venezuela), G. Ólafsdôttir (Iceland), S. Casas (Spain), H. Cardeña (Spain) and E. González Díaz (Spain).

And the winners were : First Prize Guitar, Carlos Pérez González (Chile, 1976), prizewinner in a long list of international competitions, with a brilliant performance of Concierto de Aranjuez. Thanks to this award, apart from the cash prize of 12,000 Euros, the winner will tour in Spain and abroad, giving concerts and recitals in the coming months.

Carlos Perez expressed his excitement vividly in the following message sent a few days after his return to Chile : « I want to say how grateful and happy I am for receiving the Joaquín Rodrigo Prize. I worked with great concentration for this event, and am thrilled to think what incredible support this will be for my artistic development. »

In the discipline of guitar, the other prizewinners were Anabel Montesinos Aragón (Reus, Spain, 1984) Second Prize of 6,000 Euros plus recitals in Spain, performing Concierto de Aranjuez, and the Russian Andrey Parfinovich (1983) Third Prize of 3,000 Euros, with the Fantasía para un gentilhombre.

In the final round for voice, the First Prize was not awarded, and the Second Prize (6,000 Euros plus recitals in Spain) went to Gudrun Ólafsdôttir, from Iceland, now living in Spain, for her performance of Cántico de la esposa and Tríptic de Mossèn Cinto. She was also the recipient of the Prize for Best Performer of Joaquín Rodrigo’s Music, common to both disciplines in the contest. Fabiola González Moreno (1973) from Venezuela, received the Third Prize for voice (3,000 Euros) on her performance of Rodrigo’s Rosaliana and Cuatro madrigales amatorios.

A great ovation was accorded to the premiere of Toccata, the unpublished work for guitar solo written by Rodrigo in 1933 and recently discovered in the Sainz de la Maza Archive. Toccata was performed, while the Jury was deliberating on the awarding of prizes, by Marcin Dylla of Poland, winner of the 1st Edition of the Joaquín Rodrigo International Competition in 2002.

The Victoria and Joaquín Rodrigo Foundation, organizers of this Competition, has promoted a DVD recording of the final round, which will be issued on the commercial label ‘Sello Autor’.

Another outstanding event, which took place within the framework of the Competition, was the presentation of the book « Joaquín Rodrigo. A life in music. Travelling to Aranjuez », the first biography of Rodrigo in English, written by the musicologist and guitarist Graham Wade. In this book, Wade analyzes the close relationship between Rodrigo’s life and his creative production.

The organizers and the composer’s family would like to express with these lines their gratitude to all the contestants in this Competition, which in spite of its youth, has already brought to light some of the greatest promises in the world of music. The high level of the participants was a common denominator, and judging by the warm messages that are arriving, they all felt like winners. One of the preselected guitarists wrote :

« I would like to underline the high degree of respect the Organization showed to all the contestants and the opportunities they gave us to become better acquainted with the life and the works of Maestro Rodrigo.