BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 20. The winners of the IV International Composers' Competition were announced on September 18 - the Day of National Music of Azerbaijan by the President of the National Music & Global Culture Society, Honored Artist of Azerbaijan, laureate of international competitions, PhD, Professor Nargiz Aliyarova.
This event marks the first and only international composer competition in Azerbaijan's musical history.
"This year's competition is dedicated to Azerbaijani folk songs. The project's goal is to raise awareness about the ownership of certain songs that have been subject to plagiarism and to promote them widely," Nargiz Aliyarova told Trend Life.
The winners of the competition were: Kian Rawai (USA) - 1st place, Jeyhun Allahverdiyev (Azerbaijan) - 2nd place, and Juanjo Villaroya Grau (Spain) - 3rd place. The winners will receive competition diplomas, as well as cash prizes - 2,000 US dollars for 1st place, 1,000 US dollars for 2nd place and 500 US dollars for 3rd place. The following people won the competition diplomas: Cosimo Bombardieri (Italy), Sina Jafarikia (Iran), Michael Tan (Canada), Ben Yee-Paulson (USA), Rufat Khalilov (Azerbaijan), Jared Destro (USA), Bracha Bdil (Israel).
The jury of the competition comprised of Melinda Wagner, Head of the Composition Department at the Juilliard School in New York (chair of the jury), Secretary of the Union of Composers of Azerbaijan, Honored Artist Jalal Abbasov, Associate Professor of Music Composition at the University of North Texas Sunji Gong. This year, representatives from 22 countries from four continents took part in the competition. The premiere of the works of the prize-winning composers will take place within the framework of the Uzeyir Hajibeyli International Music Festival on September 28 at 17.00 (GMT+4) in the Chamber and Organ Music Hall (Kirkha) in Baku. Tickets can be purchased at the city box offices.
"We thank the Ministry of Culture of Azerbaijan for the opportunity to present the laureates' works at the festival, and we express special gratitude to the State Committee of Azerbaijan for Work with Diaspora for supporting the project," Aliyarova added.
A gala concert will also be held in New York at Lincoln Center in the Bruno Walter Auditorium on November 8, 2024. The best works will be compiled into a collection, registered with the U.S. Library of Congress, and published in New York.
Two collections of works by the laureates of the I and II composers' competitions on the melodies of Uzeyir Hajibeyli and Fikret Amirov have already been published in New York. More than 50 participants from 35 countries took part in the first International Composers' Competition in 2021, 35 participants from 23 countries in the second in 2022, and 54 participants from 22 countries in the third in 2023. In different years, participants representing Azerbaijan, Great Britain, the US, Germany, Austria, Spain, Poland, China, Colombia, Georgia, and Ukraine became winners of the competitions.
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