The Italian Percussion Society organized its traditional percussion competition this year for the twenty-second time. The objective of the society is to inspire talented percussionists worldwide, offer opportunities for musicians to exchange experiences, and thereby contribute to raising the standard of education and musical knowledge.
The organizers divided this year's competition into four age groups and seven instrumental sections, so percussion soloist applicants could enter in the categories of marimba, vibraphone classics, vibraphone jazz, timpani, multi percussion, snare drum and drum set. There were competitors from all over the world participating in the competition, striving to impress the jury with the excellence of their performances of contemporary pieces.
Students specializing in percussion instruments at the Faculty of Music of the University of Debrecen also participated in the Italy PAS Competition online contest and achieved outstanding results. Levente Szabari took first place in his age group in the timpani category, while Áron Karácsony took third place in his age group in the snare drum category.
The students were prepared by Csombor Kerek, artist teacher at the Faculty of Music of the University of Debrecen, and István Szabó, professor at the Brass and Percussion Department of the Faculty of Music of the University of Debrecen. István Szabó, whose students have achieved more than thirty international successes in addition to domestic competition results over the past decades, told hirek.unideb.hu that both talented young musicians had performed excellently, giving their best in a crowd of professionally well-prepared international contestants.
- As usual, participation in this competition was voluntary. Our students are fully aware that testing themselves is an integral part of their training and professional development, because competition, the pressure to perform and the chance of gaining international experience inspire them to produce higher quality work and perform more complex pieces. A competition like this is also a great opportunity for us, teachers and instructors, because it gives us feedback on whether our professional work is up to international standards. Every country has its own style, and we examine these trends while trying to incorporate the best practices into our own training system. For our students, it is the best thing to participate in as many international and domestic competitions as possible. Basically, there is no big difference between the two, since both serve the students’ development- said István Szabó.
At the Italy PAS Competition, individual rounds were held in all of the instrumental sections at the same time, with the jury consisting of international artists in each case. Altogether, there was a total of 140 percussionists representing as many as 30 countries in the competition.
Press Center - BZ