And the winner is...

After two rounds of concentrated competition on Friday three musicians were ready for the finals at this year's soloist competition. Ingrid Søfteland Neset, flute, Elisabeth Holmegaard NIelsen, piano and Niklas Walentin Jensen, violin.

The finals took place on Monday as part of the chamber music series Masters on Mondays and here an almost full hall could confirm the judges' words. The level was high. Very high and three significant soloists were left.

'From the first round a very high level was met from the participants of the competition and the elimination race has been very difficult this year' says vice president Tim Frederiksen who was part of the jury together with president Bertel Krarup, and the professors Max Artved and Niklas Sivelöv.
This was confirmed by Bertel Krarup who after a short voting was ready to elect the winner:
'Unfortunately it is the same in all competitions, there is one winner. But we have here three soloists who have all proved that they master the task.

Spontaneous Applause

One, did however, make an impact. Niklas Walentin played with an enormous surplus energy Tjajskovskij's Violin Concerto in D-major, which already after the first movement made the audience burst into spontaneous applause.

In this way the programme for the summer concert has been decided. On Saturday 22 June 2013 we can look forward to Tjajkovskij's Violin Concerto in D-major with Niklas Walentin as soloist and the RDAM Symphony Orchestra. After the interval Mahler's great 1st Symphony will be played. It will all be conducted by the Norwegian conductor Rolf Gupta.

Photo: Bertel Krarup with the three finalists - from left Elisabeth Holmegaard Nielsen, Ingrid Søfeland Neset and Niklas Walentin Jensen.