By Jessica Petrocchi
All the IBLA grand prize winners on stage at Carnegie Hall. Photo submitted by Salvatore Moltisanti.
Elon had the honor of hosting the 2012 IBLA grand prize recipients in Whitley Auditorium last Monday. Elon University was the second to last stop on the world tour, which ended last Thursday evening.
Dr. Victoria Fisher Faw, a music professor at Elon University, and Dr. Salvatore Moltisanti, IBLA foundation president, presented IBLA’s International Grand Prize Competition Winners in concert.
“We plan for this to be an annual event,” Fischer Faw said. The performers loved the auditorium and the piano and told Fischer Faw it was one of their favorite venues throughout their world tour.
They went straight from Elon to perform at Carnegie Hall.
The performances featured chamber musicians, piano, cello and accordion.
The 2013 IBLA music competition will be held July 9- July 19. The IBLA Foundation, which organizes the competition annually, is in New York City. But the actual event takes place in Ragua-Ibla, Italy, in the Southeastern corner of Sicily.
While Elon is a seemingly random small town to host such amazing talent, the relationship between IBLA and North Carolina goes way back.
“We have cultivated with North Carolina for quite some time and we have an old friend of ours there: Dr. Fisher Faw,” Salvatore Moltisanti, IBLA Foundation president said, “We actually know each other…23 or 24 years ago Dr. Fischer was the winner of a competition in Virginia and the following year I was the winner of the same competition and she was a jury member at the time when I competed. We’ve known each other as pianists since then.”
A photo of Salvatore Moltisanti, founder and president of the IBLA Foundation
Fischer Faw fondly remembers her success in that competition.
“In 1980, I won first place at the international Bartok Kabalevsky competition at Radford University,” Fischer Faw said, “Included in the prize was to come back the next year… I had the honor to judge the finals of next year’s competition with the famous Bartok.”
It was around 1992, that Moltisanti started the IBLA Foundation.
“Here I am, a judge of the competition,” Fischer Faw said, “The winner then was Salvatore Moltisanti…that’s how we met and he invited me then to serve on the jury of IBLA and I did that for several years. Then I didn’t for a long time and last year I did again for the first time in quite a few years. And so I invited the members to come to Elon as part of their tour.“
Moltisanti had no even graduated when the IBLA foundation began to form.
“At the time I was student at the North Carolina School of the Arts,” Moltisanti said, “and when I was a student as part of my school project I started this foundation which is the IBLA foundation.”
So the IBLA Foundation has always had close ties to North Carolina and the surrounding areas.
“There are several sponsors around,” Fischer Faw said, “On this tour they play everything from churches to universities.”
The location of the actual competition event sparked the foundation’s name. IBLA is the name of the UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE ancient Baroque quarters of Ragusa – Ibla. Ragusa and Ibla are two sister cities built on two 300 meters hills. Ibla is the ancient city and Ragusa is the more modern one. The Monti Iblei that surrounds the area takes the name from the ancient Ibla. The Mediterranean coastline is very close by.
Photo of the snow cover Ragusa Ibla from the IBLA foundation website.
The IBLA foundation is a volunteer organization. The donations they receive go directly toward careers of the talents musicians who compete.
The winners of the annual event perform around the world. World-class performers came from all over the world including countries in Europe and Asia and the United States.
The IBLA Foundation prize winners that will perform include accordionist Tomasz Ostaszewski, soprano Audrey Ann Southard Rumsey from the United States, pianist Laehyung Woo from South Korea and the piano duo of Yuka Munehisa from Japan and Samuel Fried from Switzerland.
The music ranges from Bach, Verdi, Puccini, Liszt, Chopin, Ginastera, Prokofiev, Bartok, Oskar Merikanto to other classical masters, as well as works written or improvised by the pianist/composers on the program.
According to Moltisanti, there is “classical music and contemporary music. A wide range.”
Pianists, singers, instrumentalists and composers, are all invited to perform in the annual music competition. Winners are presented the following year in such venues as Carnegie Hall in New York, Tokyo Opera City Hall and other prestigious venues in Canada, Europe and the United States.
“We gather together, musicians coming from all over the world,” Moltisanti said, “and they play every day and there is a jury panel.”
The IBLA Grand Prize 2013 international jury and advisory board come from all around the world. The panel is mostly made up of music school faculty and directors from places like Italy, Serbia, The Netherlands, South Korea, Poland, Syria and many more.
The competition does have separate age brackets to ensure fair decisions. Competitors ages seven to 23 are split up event between groups A, B, C and D. Anyone 24 and over is considered an adult.
Competitors have a lot of freedom is choosing what music they will perform for the jury.
“This is not a school jury therefore you do not have to show that you know a variety of style or a variety of languages (singers),” their website says, “or that you are in general a good student. You are expected to perform music you feel you perform at its best. The program should represent your musicianship, your taste, your passion, your expertise, your identity in the music world or what you wish to be known for. Very creative programs are encouraged.”
Participants are not notified until the night before as to what time they will perform for the jury.
Winners do not receive any cash awards. They are invited to perform at prestigious locations around the world. The winners are not ranked in the traditional first, second, third, etc. They are divided into top winners and special aware or mention recipients.
Top winners get invited to most events while the special aware or mention recipients may get an invite to the events based on the discretion of the IBLA Foundation board of trustees. Top winners usually are able to travel while performing with all expenses paid.
Reporting by Jessica Petrocchi 