Four girls won the “Goldene Note” classical music award for young talents

Four girls from Vienna and South Tyrol won the “Golden Note” award for young talents this year. Nine young musicians competed for prizes for string, keyboard and wind instruments at the final show for ORF, and an audience award was also awarded. They were accompanied by the Vienna Big Island Orchestra under the direction of Martin Gellner. The pre-recorded epilogue, moderated by Alphonse Haider and Leona Koenig, was broadcast on ORF 2 on Saturday at 8:15 p.m.

The jury, composed of violinist Lydia Beich, baritone Clemens Unteriner and Rebecca Horner, principal dancer of the Vienna State Ballet, finally decided that she would be the full winner. For example, “Golden Note” in the keyboard instrument category went to twelve-year-old Sunny Ritter from Vienna, who took the lead with Mozart’s Sonata No. 11 in A major, “Rondo Alla Turca”, KV 331. During winning performances , members of the jury supported the winners, and state opera soloist Horner performed with Ritter.

In the Stringed Instruments category, 13-year-old Mariam Abou-Zahra from Vienna won the Cybiltans award from the ballet “Jayani” by Aram Chatchatorgan, and in the Woodwind category, 13-year-old Chantal Ramona Feith from Bolzano from South Tyrol won. For her performance of “Concertino Cecil Chamenadis, Op. .107” on the flute. The ten-year-old girl, and therefore the youngest of the finalists – pianist Sona Tamura from Vienna – rejoiced with the song Clair de Lune by Claude Debussy and took home the audience award. This can be voted on in advance by online voting.

“I am sure we will hear a lot about these talents and I am happy to support them on their way,” said competition initiator and moderator Koenig. The winners are also supported by the offer: as a prize, they receive age-appropriate master classes in collaboration with the members of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. The Audience Award winner receives a free semester at the University of Music and Arts Vienna (MUK). In addition, young musicians give various shows – for example, they participate in the ORF program “Stars & Talents by Leona König”.

In addition to choosing the winners, the show wanted to put a sign of solidarity and peace, according to the broadcast: juror Lydia Baych, coming from St. Petersburg, performed the translation with 15-year-old Ukrainian violinist Valeria Mutura from Kharkiv. Oblivion by Astor Piazzola.

(Service: “Goldene Note”: Final on Saturday, May 21 at 8:15 p.m. on ORF 2, you can stream and video-on-demand at)