KUG competition “Franz Schubert and Modern Music” postponed to 2022

The Executive Committee announces the postponement of the 11^th International Competition “Franz Schubert and Modern Music” from 2021 to 2022. One of the reasons is the impossibility to offer exchange between participants and jurors due to Covid-19 regulations. That’s why it was decided by the end of September to hold the competition a year later, while holding on to the same conditions.

The University of Music and Performing Arts Graz regrets to inform that the 11^th International Chamber Music Competition “Franz Schubert and Modern Music”, scheduled to take place from February 6-15, 2021, has to be postponed. This decision was made by the Executive Committee of the Competition – Rector Georg Schulz (chair), Joseph Breinl & Chia Chou – on September 29, 2020, reasoned as follows:

“We, the members of the Executive Committee of the Competition ‘Franz Schubert and Modern Music’, have come to the conclusion that holding the competition in February 2021 would not allow us to incorporate some fundamental and characteristic aspects of this competition. These include the dialogue between participants and jurors and exchange of constructive feedback, the intensive collaboration between participants and the associated feeling of togetherness in chamber music, which plays a central role in this competition. We are aware that the required level of performance is very high and want to avoid participants experiencing an unequal playing field compared to previous editions of the competition. This particularly refers to the intensive preparation work with ensemble partners and teachers, which has not been possible to the same extent for all musicians in the past few months.”

It is planned to hold the  11^th International Competition “Franz Schubert and Modern Music” in February 2022 – exactly one year later – under hopefully normal conditions in terms of preparation work and travelling. The repertoire requirements as well as the age limit (February 15, 1985), however, remain unchanged. Therefore, all interested musicians who considered participating in February 2021 will also be eligible to participate one year later. Registration for the postponed competition will open from April 2021 onwards.

The exact registration period and dates of the competition will be announced on the website soon: https://schubert.kug.ac.at/en/. Participants who have already signed up for the competition will remain registered in 2022. They can also send a request to cancel their participation. In this case, the registration fee will be refunded.

The application phase for the 2022 competition will start on April 1, 2021.

For any questions, please contact franz.schubert@kug.ac.at.