York Early Music International Young Artists Competition finalists announced

York Early Music International Young Artists Competition has today revealed the finalists who have been chosen to take part in the 2024 competition. The biennial competition will take place at the National Centre for Early Music in York providing the finale to this year’s York Early Music Festival which is set to run from 6 to 13 July.

The competition will see eight artists ensembles perform in front of a live audience and an international panel of performers and promoters including AMUZ/Alamire directo, Bart Demuyt; lutenist Elizabeth Kenny; Linn Records engineer and producer Philip Hobbs; Vox Luminis director Lionel Meunier, and clarinettist and University of York lecturer Emily Worthington.

Following recitals by finalists on 11 and 12 July – highlights of which will be broadcast on BBC Radio 3’s Early Music Show – the final round will take place on 13 July, with winners announced directly after the concert. It will feature performances by the following finalists:

• Rubens Rosa, a medieval music ensemble based in Basel, Switzerland, co-directed by Aliénor Wolteche and Matthieu Romanens and performing repertoire ranging from 13th-century accompanied monody to late-medieval vocal and instrumental polyphony.
• [hanse]Pfeyfferey, a Germany-based Renaissance wind band that specializes in improvised and rediscovered music from the period around 1500.
• Ayres Extemporae, a Belgium-based ensemble featuring Moldovan-Spanish violinist Xenia Gogu, Spanish cellist Víctor García García, playing on a five-string cello piccolo, and Portuguese cellist Teresa Madeira.
• BREZZA, a group created in Switzerland’s Schola Cantorum Basiliensis specialising in the historicist interpretation of 17th and 18th centuries in the core instrumentation of traverso, viola da gamba, and harpsichord.
• Apollo’s Cabinet, a UK-based ensemble using ‘acting, dancing, poetry and silliness’ to bring historical performance to modern audiences.
• Pseudony, a group composed of Gabriel Smallwood, Maya Webne-Behrman, Stephen Moran, and Liane Sadler, all graduates of the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis offering interpretations of music from the 17th and 18th centuries.
• Trio Pellegrino, which formed after playing in a larger ensemble at the 2023 La Risonanza Early Music Festival in Bertinoro, Italy and currently concentrating on Classical and early Romantic repertoire.
• Friedrichs Nebelmeer Ensemble, a woodwind quintet created in 2022 and comprised of Pablo Gigosos (flute), Mei Kamikawa (oboe), Claudia Reyes (clarinet), Andrés Sánchez (horn), and Angel Alvarez (bassoon).

Finalists will compete for a main prize including a professional CD recording contract from Linn Records; a cheque for £1,000 and opportunities to work with BBC Radio 3 and the National Centre for Early Music. As well as other prizes supported by the competition’s sponsors