On the occasion of publishing brochures of the above event, Japan Chamber Music Foundation, its organizer, held a press conference in Osaka last month. The triennial event, to be held May 20-28, 2008, at Izumi Hall in Osaka, Japan shines the spotlight on young, promising chamber music performers who struggle to see their achievements internationally recognised.

The Competition is modeled on traditional lines, with a jury made up of professional musicians. It has two sections. One is for String Quartet and another is for Piano Trio. “Among many forms of chamber music, we placed the String Quartet in the First Section, as it is rightly considered the centerpiece of chamber music.” said Ryutaro Iwabuchi, Artistic Director. “And we have again decided to place Piano Trio in the Second Section.” The repertoire for the string quartets includes Beethoven's String Quartet op. 18, Berg's Lyric Suite, and Bartok's String Quartet No. 3 Sz85. The piano trio section requires pieces by Mozart, Shostakovich and Schubert.

The 10-member competition jury is headed by Iwabuchi and also includes violinists Zakhar Bron and Oleh Krysa, cellist Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi and Alain Meunier, and pianist Pascal Rogé.

By contrast, the Festa is a freestyle competition for ensembles consisting of two to six performers. It imposes no age limit on participants nor specifies any repertoire. Ensembles can perform any kind of ‘traditional or ethnic music from any region of the world’, according to Festa’s head judge Yoshihiko Kusakabe. He highlighted “This is a legacy of the first Honorary Artistic Director, Yehudi Menuhin, who encouraged us to develop a new type of competition.”

The Festa’s jury comprises 100 members of the audience, who give their evaluations with minimal guidance from the organizers. “Participants in the Festa, therefore, can learn the extent to which their performing styles are valued by their audience,” explains Kusakabe. “This knowledge, I believe, will help them establish their future performance style.”

The Foundation will provide round-trip air tickets and accommodation to participants from overseas. “Accordingly participants can come to Osaka without any concern of these expenses.” said Yasuo Yoshie, Administrative Director.

Applicants for the competition must be between the ages of 16 and 35 at the time of the event. The competition's first prize winners will receive 3 million yen. Runners-up will receive 1.5 million yen, and the third prize is worth 1 million yen.

The winners of the Festa's Menuhin Gold Prize will receive 2 million yen. The winners of the silver prize will receive 1 million yen, and the bronze 600,000 yen.

The first-place winners in each section and Festa will be invited to perform in a series of concerts to be held across Japan to encourage young, talented musicians and increase the number of chamber music lovers in Japan.

At the end of the conference Yoshie emphasized “We hope that the event will offer all participants an opportunity to compete with other musicians from around the world and to improve their personal capacity”.