The International Classical Music Awards (ICMA) are the successors of the MIDEM Classical Awards respectively the Cannes Classical Awards. Unlike in some other music competitions the ICMA jury consists exclusively of professional music critics for classical music. Editors from international print media, radio stations and online services provide their professional expertise and evaluate the submitted recordings. At present the jury includes critics from Crescendo (Belgium), Fono Forum (Germany), Gramofon (Hungary), IMZ (Austria), MDR-Figaro (Germany), Musica (Italy), Musik & Theater (Switzerland), Orpheus Radio (Russia), Pizzicato (Luxembourg), Resmusica.com (France), Scherzo (Spain) and Viva Classica (Finland).

We are particularly happy about these nominations since they document the knowledgeable appreciation of our productions through the jury members!

The productions which were nominated are:

aud. 92.575 Hideyo Harada: F. Schubert: Wanderer Fantasy & Piano Sonata No. 21

aud. 92.545 Mandelring Quartet: L. Janáček: Complete String Quartets

aud. 21.411 Mandelring Quartet: D. Shostakovich: The Complete String Quartets

aud. 23.422 Solomon plays Beethoven, Schumann, Bach, Chopin & Brahms

aud. 21.407 Ferenc Fricsay conducts Béla Bartok – The early RIAS recordings

aud. 95.590 Christian Ferras plays Beethoven and Berg Violin Concertos

aud. 21.408 Edition Otto Klemperer

The winners of the ICMA 2012 will be announced on February 20th 2012. The Award Ceremony will be held on May 15th in Nantes/ France, the following Gala Concert will be conducted by John Axelrod and broadcast live by France Musique.

The ICMA were awarded for the first time in April 2011 in Tampere/ Finland during an Award Ceremony followed by a festive Gala Concert with ICMA winners. Musicians and label representatives from all over the world followed the invitation of the Jury and the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra with his music director Hannu Lintu. 1.600 people attended the event in the Tampere Hall which was broadcast live by the Finnish Radio, and which could be also heard in the program of Germany's MDR Figaro, Saarländischer Rundfunk, Luxembourg's Radio 100,7, the Russian Orpheus Radio and many other partners of the European Broadcast Union's worldwide network. Among the participating artists were the ICMA winners Menahem Pressler, Esa Pekka Salonen, David Kadouch, Philip Edward Fisher and Lena Neudauer.

More information about the ICMA can be found here.