Paul Roczek Award

2023: ANDREAS SILES-MELLINGER
He is a versatile violinist with Bolivian, German and Argentinian cultural heritage, born on 18 September 1998 in Cochabamba, Bolivia. His musical passion led him to the Instituto Laredo at an early age, where he laid his foundations in music and art from 2008 to 2012. He is currently studying violin at the renowned Mozarteum University Salzburg under the guidance of Klara Flieder and, from October 2023, also with Rainer Schmidt. His musical journey has taken him to countries such as Hungary, Greece, Germany and Japan, where his "Peace Memorial Concert" in honour of the survivors of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima in November 2017 was highly acclaimed. Andreas was also part of the opening ceremony of the Salzburg Festival and performed as a soloist with the YM Orchestra at the Rising Stars of Classical Music. Andreas Siles-Mellinger has received worldwide recognition and acclaim for his passion and talent in music. With his unique fusion of cultural influences and musical styles, he remains a fascinating and captivating artist who pushes the boundaries of his craft with every performance.

2022: LAURA KATHERINA HANDLER
She began violin and singing lessons at the age of six and has been studying with Harald Herzl at the Mozarteum University since 2018. She has received numerous awards at national and international competitions and can look back on an extensive concert career: Performances have taken her as a soloist and chamber musician to venues including the Herkulessaal of the Munich Residenz, the Berlin Philharmonie, Shenzhen Hall and the Musikverein in Vienna. She has performed as a soloist with the Salzburg Chamber Soloists, the Novosibirsk Philharmonic Orchestra and the Taurida International Symphony Orchestra St. Petersburg, among others. Laura Katherina Handler has also performed at festivals such as the LvivMozArt Festival in Ukraine, the Keshet Eilon Festival in Israel, the Schleswig Holstein Festival, the Allegro Vivo Chamber Music Festival, the Munich Music Festival Stars & Rising Stars and the 71st Festival of Young Artists Bayreuth.

2021: LORENZ KARLS
He started playing the violin at the age of four according to the Suzuki method, since 2016 he studied at the University Mozarteum in the Pre-College and then violin with Benjamin Schmid. He has already won numerous prizes at national and international competitions. As a soloist with orchestra he performed among others at the Mozartwoche Salzburg 2018 in the great hall of the Mozarteum Foundation with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, WDR Funkhausorchester Cologne, with the Armenian State Symphony Orchestra and with the ECHO and Grammy Awards winning orchestra "Kremerata Baltica". He plays a violin newly built especially for him by master violin maker Martin Schleske (built in 2017, Landsberg am Lech).

2020: NATHAN AMARAL
He studies in the class of Ester Hoppe and won the 2020 Paul Roczek Award. After multiple postponements due to the pandemic, his prize-winner concert was made up as part of the 2022 award ceremony. He started violin lessons at the age of 12 in a social project that took children off the streets to learn music. Of the 200 or so children in the class, Nathan was the only one who went on to pursue music and pursue a career as a violinist. Amaral s a laureate of international competitions, including two-time winner of the biggest prize in Brazil, the Eleazar the Carvalho competition, the Weimar competition "the best to the key", the Vienna Classical Prize, the Cima Internatition Violin Competition, the Ruggero Ricci Violin Competition at the Mozarteum and the Waslau Burkowsky Competition.

2019: YUKIKO UNO
She studied with Rainer Schmidt at the Mozarteum University and in 2019 has already been a finalist and laureate of the legendary Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels and the Oleh Krysa International Violin Competition in Ukraine, where she was described by jury chairman Oleh Krysa as a "violinist with a sound of crystal and pure soul." Numerous other competition successes in the past testify to the great talent of the Japanese violinist, who has established herself both as a soloist with renowned orchestras and in chamber music.

2018: MUHAMMEDJAN SHARIPOV
He studies at the Mozarteum University with Harald Herzl. In 2017, the violinist, who comes from Uzbekistan, won the internal Mozarteum violin competition "Concorso Ruggiero Ricci." Sharipov has also won several awards at international competitions, including the Arthur Grumiaux Violin Competition in Belgium (3rd prize) and the "Remember Enescu" Violin Competition in Romania (1st prize).

2017: HARUNA SHINOYAMA
Graduate of the Toho Gakuen Music High School in Tokyo. She studied at the Mozarteum University in the class of Pierre Amoyal. Paul Roczek about the young Japanese: " I am very happy that the jury chose Haruna Shinoyama. Whenever I had the pleasure to hear her, my heart went out to her and I admired her charming and moving way of making music. The fact that she also won the first International Mozart Competition in 2015 in Zhuhai (China), thus widely documenting the high level of education of our department, indicates her as a worthy representative of our art ."

2016: ZIYU HE
One of the youngest soloists ever, he was invited to make his debut with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra at the Vienna Musikverein in April 2017. Ziyu He studied at the Mozarteum at the Leopold Mozart Institute for the Promotion of Giftedness with Paul Roczek (violin) and from 2014 also with Thomas Riebl (viola). Despite his youthful age, he has already achieved a number of competition successes. In 2016 he was also first prize winner - with special prize for the best interpretation of the commissioned work - at the International Mozart Competition of the Mozarteum University.

2015: LIV MIGDAL
The violinist began her artistic training as an eleven-year-old junior student with Christiane Hutcap at the Rostock University of Music and Theatre, where she received her diploma with distinction. She completed a master's degree at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg with Igor Ozim. The musician, who has won numerous prizes at international competitions and has received scholarships from many renowned foundations, has given concerts in leading concert halls worldwide, e.g. Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Taipei Concert Hall, Beethovenhalle Bonn, Herkulessaal Munich, Philharmonie Essen, Liederhalle Stuttgart, Konzerthaus Berlin.