SHE LIVES BUDAPEST PRIZE

Composition Competition

RESULTS

We are finally pleased to announce the winners of the SHE LIVES Budapest Prize!

We are really excited about the success of this first edition of the contest!

We received 145 works from 36 countries from the four corners of the world: Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Colombia, Korea, Croatia, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, Greece, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Mexico, Norway, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Czech Republic, Romania, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Ukraine, UK, Hungary, and USA.

Among these works the jury, chaired by the composer László Tihanyi (HUNGARY) and made of the composer Alessio Elia (ITALY) and the pianist Krisztina Fejes (HUNGARY), has decreed, at its unquestionable judgment, the following result:

1. Prize	DANIELE GASPARINI (1975) – ITALY “Tres recuerdos del cielo” Average mark: 8,83 / 10 wins 1000 Euros professional studio recording portfolio on the SHE LIVES website
2. Prize	JOÃO PEDRO OLIVEIRA (1959) – PORTUGAL / USA “Mosaic” Average mark: 8,33 / 10 wins 500 Euros professional studio recording portfolio on the SHE LIVES website
3. Prize ex aequo	MICHAEL BARRETT (1987) – USA / GERMANY “Listen to this alone” Average mark: 7,83 / 10 wins professional studio recording portfolio on the SHE LIVES website
3. Prize ex aequo	ANDRIUS MASLEKOVAS (1985) – LITHUANIA “Splinters of Broken Silence” Average mark: 7,83 / 10 wins professional studio recording portfolio on the SHE LIVES website
One-year consultations	FANNY LIBERT (2000) – BELGIUM “onaipos”

The winning works will be recorded by the international acclaimed pianist Krisztina Fejes in the Budapest studios with the sound engineer Kálmán Melha of the Liszt Academy of Music and will be addressed to the major Italian and Hungarian radios specialized in art music (RAI Radio 3, Radio Vaticana, Radio Cemat, Bartók Radio, Radio Klassik). The recording will also be published on our YouTube channel and advertised on all our social platforms.

The one-year consultations will be held by the composer Alessio Elia, starting from January 2021.

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BIOGRAPHIES

DANIELE GASPARINI (1975)

started his studies in composition under Aurelio Samorì’s guidance very young, graduating at the age of twenty in composition and in orchestral conducting at Conservatorio Rossini in Pesaro. He improved himself at Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, under Azio Corghi’s guidance. He attended also Franco Donatoni’s and Fabio Vacchi’s courses.
After he won the Masterprize (third prize) in 1998, his works got awards at several important international competitions including: Premio Internazionale Valentino Bucchi (2000), Premio Internazionale 2 Agosto (2002), Premio Reina Sofia (2004), Premio Internazionale Guido d’Arezzo (2006), the Netherlands National Radio Groot Omroepkoor Prijs (2007), Concours Pablo Casals (2009), Premio Monodramma 2013, Barto Prize (2014), Karol Szymanowski Composition Prize (2015 and 2018).
His compositions have been performed by renowned players such as the London Symphony Orchestra under Daniel Harding’s conducting, the Orquesta Sinfónica de Radiotelevisión Española under Adrian Leaper, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra under Ulf Schirmer, the Polish National Radio Orchestra under Christopher Lyndon-Gee and José Maria Florêncio, the Croatian National Radio-Television Symphony Orchestra under Ari Rasilainen the BBC Orchestras, the Netherlands National Radio Choir under Simon Halsey, Salvatore Accardo, Tzimon Barto, the Trio di Parma, the Ensemble Calliopée, etc. and broadcast in more than forty countries all over the world.
Recently he has collaborated with the writer Raul Montanari author of the libretto for the monodrama “Incubi e amore” and the text for “Trans Europe Express”, a melologue for actor, piano and wind orchestra.
After his classical studies he took a degree in Philosophy at Università degli Studi Carlo Bo in Urbino. Always interested in the relations among music, literature and figurative arts, he regularly gives lectures on such themes.
He teaches Theory of Harmony and Analysis at the Conservatorio di Musica Alfredo Casella in L’Aquila. Official website

JOÃO PEDRO OLIVEIRA (1959) holds the Corwin Endowed Chair in Composition for the University of
California at Santa Barbara. He studied organ and harpsichord performance, composition and architecture in Lisbon. He completed a PhD in Music at the University of New York at Stony Brook. His music includes opera, orchestral compositions, chamber music, electroacoustic music and experimental video. He has received over 50 international prizes and awards for his works, including three Prizes at Bourges Electroacoustic Music Competition, the prestigious Magisterium Prize and Giga-Hertz Special Award, 1st Prize in Metamorphoses competition, 1st Prize in Yamaha-Visiones Sonoras Competition, 1st Prize in Musica Nova competition, 1st Prize in Earplay Competition. His music is regularly played all over the world, recorded in over 50 CDs and is published by Doblinger, Babelscores, Suvini Zerboni, Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music, Mostly Marimba Editions,
Honey Rock Publications. He taught at Aveiro University (Portugal) and Federal University of Minas Gerais (Brazil) and was invited professor at several other universities. His publications include several articles in journals and a book on 20th century music theory. Official website

Photo credit: Gabrieu Algusto

MICHAEL BARRETT (1987) was born in the Washington D.C. in the USA. After a musical childhood during which he played various instruments and in various ensembles, he began his compositional career at the Baldwin-Wallace College Conservatory of Music in Cleveland, Ohio. Here, he received various awards, including being recognized as the school’s most outstanding composer 3 years consecutively by winning their Lee Goldstiein Composition award.
After his studies in the USA, he moved to Mannheim, Germany, where he began his Studies with Sidney Corbett. During this time, he worked with many projects and opera houses throughout Germany, writing works of all instrumentations and scope, including an Orchestral work premiered by the Sinfonieorchester TonArt, based in Heidelberg.
Today, his primary compositional work consists of pieces for classical and solo guitar, of which several are published. He is currently working on a piece for guitar orchestra, which is slated to be premiered in Germany and through South America next year. Official website

ANDRIUS MASLEKOVAS (1985) a Lithuanian composer and researcher, who studied composition at Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre, as well as Norwegian Music Academy. He defended his doctoral thesis on the subject of sound quality in 2016. As a composer, Andrius is dedicated to acoustic music and eagerly explores peculiarities of acoustic instruments.
His music was performed by numerous Lithuanian orchestras, choirs, ensembles and soloists, such as Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra, “Future Symphony” orchestra, St. Christopher’s Chamber Orchestra, State Choir “Vilnius”, Vilnius municipal choir “Jauna Muzika”, “Synaesthesis”, “ContemporACCO”, trio “ClaViola”, Kaunas Piano Trio, “Twenty Fingers Duo” and a.m.o. His compositions gained a certain degree of critical acclaim: “Calligraphies of the last Rays” for clarinet, viola and piano was included in an annual promotional CD of Lithuanian new music “Zoom 11” (2015), “SARASWATI MANTRA” for mixed choir was awarded the second prize in choral composition contest “VOX JUVENTUTIS” 2008, “Incantation of the Freezing Haze” for flute solo was awarded a special prize in a composition contest for wind instruments held by Lithuanian Composers’ Union (2014), “Waters-reflections-haiku” for small symphony orchestra was awarded the third price in Future Symphony competition (2020). Soundcloud

FANNY LIBERT (2000) was born in Brussels. She started to play the piano and composing at an early age. Her interests include folk music (mainly from the Balkan area) and harpsichord, with also a strong interest in ancient music.
She attended several improvisation workshops, among them the ones with Michel Massot and Joêlle Léandres.
She is now studying piano with Boyan Vodenitcharov in Brussels, and composition with Claude Ledoux in Mons.