Czech-born German pianist Robert Bily (*1997, class of Pavel Gililov) has been playing the piano since the age of 6. From 2014 he studied at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy Leipzig with Jaques Ammon, currently with Pavel Gililov at the Mozarteum University. "This internal university competition was a very nice experience for me, for which I am grateful - competitions are on the one hand rarely held across disciplines, and on the other hand, since Corona, mostly online. It was great that it could take place in the presence of the audience, and in the Solitär as well," Bily sums up sums up Bily, who recently made it to the fourth round of the Worldvision Music Contest in the Vienna Konzerthaus, in which over 3,000 participants from all over the world originally took part online. The eight finalists can still be voted for in April. worldvision.classic-at-home.com/ Bily has won more than 70 national and international competitions, has performed as a soloist at numerous major music festivals, including the Salzburg Festival and the Georg Friedrich Handel Festival in Halle (Saale), and has made solo and orchestral appearances in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Spain, England, Italy, Luxembourg and in the Czech Republic, including concerts in renowned halls such as the Georg-Friedrich-Händel-Halle in Halle (Saale), Die Glocke in Bremen, Laeiszhalle in Hamburg, Berlin Philharmonie and Teatro dal Verme in Milan, with orchestras such as the Bacău Mihail Jora Philharmonic Orchestra, the Saxony-Anhalt Youth Symphony Orchestra and the Staatskapelle Halle. With 16 participants from the departments of keyboard instruments, string and plucked instruments, wind and percussion instruments, and early music, the range of instruments was again impressively broad this year, extending from double bass to guitar, violin, piano and harp, and even historical instruments such as the transverse flute. In addition to Robert Bily, the up-and-coming musicians Viviane Vassileva (percussion, Martin Grubinger class), Heewon Han (flute, Paolo Taballione class), Teresa Emilia Raff (harp, Stephen Fitzpatrick class) and Yue Yu (viola, Thomas Riebl class) qualified for the finals in internal preliminary rounds on April 12 and 13, 2022. All finalists were awarded 1,000 euros. Under the artistic direction of Hannfried Lucke, Vice Rector for Arts and Professor of Organ at the Mozarteum University, The Sir Ian Stoutzker Prize 2019 was offered for the first time and is aimed at students from artistic instrumental and vocal classes at the Mozarteum University in annual rotation. The format and the high endowment create an outstanding profile for a highly internal competition at a music university in the German-speaking world and thus set corresponding expectations. It honors a student personality who excels in the competition and who knows how to convince with musical creative power, poetry and unique charisma. The sponsor of the highly endowed award is the British businessman and philanthropist Sir Ian Stoutzker, who founded the Live Music Now organization together with Yehudi Menuhin in 1977. In addition to Hannfried Lucke, the top-class jury was made up of university councillor Eleanor Hope, Maestro Ion Marin, Professor of Conducting, Pauliina Tukiainen, Professor of Song Composition, and sound engineer Professor Moritz Bergfeld, who heads the Sound and Music Production course at Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences' Department of Media. In December 2022, The Sir Ian Stoutzker Prize will be awarded in the vocal category.
