Francisco Coll, double prize-winner at the International Classical Music Awards (ICMA).

The Jury of the International Classical Music Awards (ICMA) announced yesterday the winners of the 26 awards for the 2022 edition. “Our international and independent Jury has selected the winners from a nomination list comprising 377 productions and a wide range of artists and labels. Our winners are the expression of the highest artistry, and the list of awards shows that our jury is not content with a superficial evaluation of the music industry but performs a comprehensive and in-depth analysis. The winner list comprises many renowned as well as lesser-known and young musicians and no less than 17 labels!”, said Remy Franck, editor of the Luxembourg online classical music magazine Pizzicato and chairman of the jury.

The young Spanish composer Francisco Coll García (Valencia, 1985), was the winner in two different categories: the ICMA Orchestra Award, and the prize for the best recording of contemporary music. Coll, who had already won the ICMA Composer Prize in the 2019 edition, has become, as the text that can be read in the ICMA communiqué states, “one of the great realities of contemporary European musical creation”.

” His works, characterized by overflowing imagination and structural richness, as well as by an unquestionable and very attractive technical virtuosity, are commissioned by some of the most important international soloists, ensembles and orchestras. Moreover, his ability to communicate with a wide audience seems to guarantee a bright future for this only disciple of Thomas Adès”, all of which is the reason why “he receives this year the Orchestra Award granted by the Luxembourg Philharmonic”.

The recording for which he has also been awarded the prize for the best recording of contemporary music is the album Orchestral Works, published by Pentatone, in which the Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by its chief conductor, the also Spanish Gustavo Gimeno (Valencia, 1976), presents a monograph by Coll made up of five pieces composed between 2005 and 2019, “from his studies with Thomas Adès to his current flourishing”: Violin Concerto, written, like Four Iberian Miniatures, for the Moldavian violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja; the “grotesque symphony” Mural, Hidd’n Blue op. 6 and Aqua Cinereus op. 1, in which, according to the ICMA, “the composer reveals himself as a symphonist and master of orchestral writing”.

The winners will receive their ICMA trophies during the annual award ceremony at the Philharmonie in Luxembourg on 21 April. The evening will also include a concert featuring some of the winners and the Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Adam Fischer. The concert will be broadcast live on the Luxembourg public radio station 100.7 and subsequently on the stations of the European Broadcasting Union’s worldwide network.

© Photograph downloaded from the website of Francisco Coll’s publisher, Faber Music.