The José Iturbi International Music Competition is a music competition named after the Spanish piano

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José Iturbi José Iturbi Báguena (Valencia, 28 November 1895 Los Angeles, 28 June 1980) was a conductor, pianist, harpsichordist and actor from Valencia, Spain. He also appeared in several Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer musical films including ''Thousands Cheer'' (1 ...

. It was established by the José Iturbi Foundation in 2007 and takes place at the

University of California Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the Cal ...

.Westphal, Matthew (25 June 2007)
"First Annual José Iturbi International Music Competition Concludes at UCLA With Two Top Prizes of $50,000"
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Playbill ''Playbill'' is an American monthly magazine for Audience, theatergoers. Although there is a subscription issue available for home delivery, most copies of ''Playbill'' are printed for particular productions and distributed at the door as the ...

''. Retrieved 6 February 2012. The competition has two tracks: one for pianists and the other for opera singers. The competition is open to pianists and singers of all nationalities between the ages of 17 and 35. The competition's co-founder, Donelle Dadidgan, is the founder of the Hollywood Museum and the goddaughter of

.Villarreal, Yvonne (19 June 2009)
"A classic sense of excitement at the José Iturbi International Music Competition"
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Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

''. Retrieved 6 February 2012. Initially held annually from 2007 to 2010, the next competition was scheduled in 2013.

Prizes

Cash prizes are awarded to the winners, with $50,000 going to the First Prize winners in the piano and voice competitions. The competition also awards the "Spanish Prize", the "American Prize", and the "People's Choice Award".

Judges

The competition has separate judges for the piano and voice sections. The following were the judges for the 2010 competition:José Iturbi International Music Competition (2010)
Judges
Retrieved 6 February 2010. ;Piano Concert pianists Daniel Pollack (Chairman) and

Ilana Vered Ilana Vered (; born December 6, 1943, in Tel Aviv, Israel) is a concert pianist and professor of piano. Biography From age 13 to 15 Vered attended the Paris Conservatoire, which awarded her first prize in piano upon her graduation; among her teac ...

, conductors

Jorge Mester Jorge Mester (born April 10, 1935, Mexico City) is a Mexican conductor of Hungarian ancestry. He has served as the artistic director for the Orquesta Filarmónica de Boca del Río, Veracruz, since it was founded in 2014. Biography He studied condu ...

and

Lalo Schifrin Boris Claudio "Lalo" Schifrin (born June 21, 1932) is an Argentine-American pianist, composer, arranger, and conductor. He is best known for his large body of film and TV scores since the 1950s, incorporating jazz and Music of Latin America, Lati ...

, and ''

'' music critic Mark Swed ;Voice Former Director of

Columbia Artists Management Columbia Artists Management (CAMI) was an international talent management agency. On August 29, 2020, the agency announced plans to shut down amid a disturbance in business caused by the " prolonged pandemic environment". History Based in New Yor ...

vocal division Matthew Epstein (Chairman) and opera singers David Daniels,

Marilyn Horne Marilyn Berneice Horne (born January 16, 1934) is an American mezzo-soprano opera singer. She specialized in roles requiring beauty of tone, excellent breath support, and the ability to execute difficult coloratura passages. She is a recipient ...

Carol Vaness Carol Theresa Vaness (born July 27, 1952) is an American lirico-spinto soprano and university professor. Early life and education Vaness was born in San Diego and graduated with her bachelor's degree from California State Polytechnic Universit ...

, and

Peter Kazaras Peter Kazaras is an American stage director, artistic director and opera singer (tenor) from New York City. Career Kazaras holds an undergraduate degree in government. Before his career in opera, he worked in a law firm. He served as Artistic D ...

Past First Prize winners

Piano

*2007 Rufus Choi *2008 Maria Kim *2009 Dmitri Levkovich *2010 Stanislav Khristenko

Voice

*2007 Karen Slack,

soprano A soprano () is a type of classical singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hertz, Hz to A5 in Choir, choral ...

*2008

Angela Meade Angela Meade (born 1977) is an American operatic soprano. Life and career Meade has won more than 50 vocal competitions, including the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions (2007) and the Grand Prize at the Montreal International Music ...

, soprano *2009 Leah Crocetto, soprano *2010

Sasha Cooke Sasha Cooke (born ) is an American mezzo-soprano. Cooke was born in Riverside, California, and grew up in College Station, Texas, where her parents are professors of Russian at Texas A&M University. She earned a bachelor's degree from Rice Univers ...

, mezzo-soprano

References

External links

Official Website
Piano competitions Opera competitions Music competitions in Spain {{Music-event-stub