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Russian flutist Demin wins int’l flute and clarinet competition in South Africa

Along with the main award the 20-year-old Russian musician has won three special prizes

© ITAR-TASS/Aleksandr Nechayev

PRETORIA, February 16, /ITAR-TASS/. Russian flutist Matvey Demin has won first international flute and clarinet competition in South Africa, organised by the University of South Africa (UNISA), on Saturday evening.

Along with the main award the 20-year-old Russian musician has won three special prizes for best performance of the prescribed South African work, best performance of an accompanied sonata and best recital. The laureate will receive a monetary prize of 222,5 thousand South African rands ($20 thousand).

“I am happy. I did not expect to receive so many prizes. But most important is upcoming concerts,” Demin, who has graduated from the High Music School in Munich and has already received an invitation to play in the Tonhalle Orchestra in Zurich, told Itar-Tass.

A concert tour of South Africa will be also organized for the winner. Meanwhile, member of the competition jury from Venezuela Valdemar Rodriguez, who is the director of the Simon Bolivar Conservatoire of Music, invited Demin to give guest performances in this Latin American country. World-renowned Venezuelan conductor Gustavo Dudamel will direct the orchestra.

Graduate of Russia’s Gnesin Academy of Music, assistant principal flutist of the Moscow State Symphony Orchestra Alexey Morozov qualified for the competition finals and was awarded with a fifth prize of 80 thousand rands ($7 thousand).

South Korean clarinettist Sang Yoon Kim has triumphed in the clarinet competition. He will go on concert tours of South Africa and Venezuela together with Demin. Conductor of the Perm Tchaikovsky Opera and Ballet House and clarinettist Valentin Uryupin was presented with a second prize of 170 thousand rands ($15 thousand).

The University of South Africa holds musical contests every year. The age of performers should not exceed 30 years. Seven Russian musicians participated in the 1st UNISA international flute and clarinet competition this year among 24 competitors from Spain, Italy, Germany, China, South Korea, Switzerland, Poland, the United States and the Republic of South Africa.

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