Winners of the 2012 International Classical Music Awards announced

On 20 February 2012, the winners of the prestigious International Classical Music Awards (ICMA) have been announced. From 250 nominees, the jury narrowed down the list to 14 winners.

Following its GRAMMY^® wins last February 12, it is with pride that Naxos adds another laurel to its name by winning the Contemporary Music category for the recording of Krzysztof Penderecki’s Viola Concerto/Cello Concerto No 2 performed by the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra and conducted by Antoni Wit besting 15 other entries.

Distributed labels Accentus Music and Arthaus Musik dominated the DVD categories by winning the DVD Performance and DVD Documentaries respectively for their production of Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No 9 and Carlos Kleiber – Traces to Nowhere.

Special awards were handed out as well to pay respect to exceptional musicians and producers. Among the recipients were the Finnish label Ondine for Label of the Year award, composer Krzysztof Penderecki for Lifetime Achievement award and Ward Marston for Special Achievement award.

Naxos congratulates Krzysztof Penderecki, Ward Marston and Ondine as part of the Naxos family. Ondine, specialising in contemporary Finnish music recordings with major Finnish and international artists, joined Naxos in 2009 whereas Ward Marston is recognised as producer and audio restoration producer in numerous Naxos Historical recordings.

Ondine was founded in 1985 in Helsinki, Finland, where the company is still based and today offers an extremely eclectic catalogue of both contemporary Finnish music, as well as recordings with major Finnish and international artists. The label has also had a long and fruitful association with the Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara, having recorded the premières of many of his works and garnering many awards along the way. See Ondine catalogue

PENDERECKI Viola Concerto, Cello Concerto No 2 Zhislin • Vassiljeva • Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra • Wit Naxos 8.572211 See Naxos catalogue

MAHLER Symphony No 9 (NTSC) Lucerne Festival Orchestra • Abbado Accentus Music ACC-20214 See Accentus Music catalogue

Carlos Kleiber – Traces to Nowhere (NTSC) A film by Eric Schulz Arthaus Musik 101553 See Arthaus Musik catalogue

The winners will receive the ICMA trophies during the annual awarding ceremony, taking place this year in Nantes, France, on May 15. This evening will also include a Gala Concert at La Cité, with the participation of ICMA winners and the Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire conducted by its music director John Axelrod. The concert will be broadcast by France Musique and numerous other radio stations of the European Broadcasting Union’s worldwide network.

The International Classical Music Awards are the preeminent awards for classical music on an international level. The jury consists of professional music critics of the most important magazines, online services and radio stations: Andante (Turkey), Crescendo (Belgium), Fono Forum (Germany), Gramofon (Hungary), IMZ (Austria), MDR-Figaro (Germany), Musica (Italy), Musik & Theater (Switzerland), Orpheus Radio (Russia), Pizzicato (Luxembourg), Radio 100,7 (Luxembourg), Resmusica.com (France), Scherzo (Spain) and Viva Classica (Finland).

For a complete list of this year’s nominees and winners, visit http://icma-info.com. Congratulations to everyone involved!