International Harp Competition in Szeged, Hungary

29/11/2025

🎉Now that almost a week has passed since the final notes of the 7th International Harp Competition in Szeged faded, we are delighted to look back and once again honour the outstanding achievements of our U14, U19, and U25 participants. It is with great joy and pride that we share the results of this year’s edition. Each of you displayed remarkable dedication, artistry, and courage on stage, making last week in Szeged truly unforgettable.

🎉A warm congratulations to all the prize winners:

🌟Category U14

🥇First Prize: Evelin Greblo (Slovenia)
🥈Second Prize: Pei Xi Saoirse Pu (Ireland)
🥉Third Prize ex-aequo: Dan Kim (Korea) & Barbora Sedlonova (Czech Republic)

🎶Sebők György Special Prize ex-aeqo for the best performance of Ákos Zarándy’s “Leaves”, offered by Florence Sitruk:
Bíró Boglárka (Hungary) and Lili Zsófia Dobrocsi (Hungary)

🌟Category U19

🥇First Prize: Valentine Correani (France)
🥈Second Prize: Kalina Nowaczek (Poland)
🥉Third Prize ex-aequo: Naomi Drew (UK) & András István Horváth (Hungary)

🎶 Sebők György Special Prize for the best performance of Márton Levente Horváth’s “Versets for an Imaginary Vesper”, offered by Florence Sitruk:
Kalina Nowaczek (Poland)

🌟Category U25

🥇First Prize: Letizia Lazzerini (Italy)
🥈Second Prize: Heather Brooks (UK)
🥉Third Prize: Pauline Elkaim (France)

🎶Special Prize from Fondazione Gualtiero Marchesi (ex-aequo):
Gao Yizhu (China) and Martin Sadilek (Czech Republic)

🎉To all participants: thank you for your courage, dedication and passion that brought you to Szeged. Every performance you gave had your personal story in the background and was filled with heart. We hope you carried home valuable experiences, inspiration, and beautiful memories. Keep playing, keep growing, and keep believing in your artistry! We also extend our sincere gratitude to all pedagogues and parents for their invaluable support.

🤗A heartfelt thank you as well to our wonderful jury for their care, dedication and tireless work throughout the competition. Thank you for the guidance, feedback and comments to the contestants.

🎶Our sincere gratitude goes to the members of the Szeged Symphony Orchestra - Péter Zoltán (clarinet) and Krisztina Lanczkor-Kocsis (flute) - as well as to the Elara String Quartet - Kata Szöllősi, Villő Kovács (violin), Emese Bohus (viola), and Sándor Bálint (cello) - for performing alongside the three U25 finalists in Ravel’s Introduction et Allegro.

🥰Our heartfelt thanks go to all the VOLUNTEERS whose dedication and hard work supported us throughout the past week.

✨We are especially grateful to our main sponsor, Camac Harps, for the unwavering commitment to the competition since its beginning and for standing by us for the seventh consecutive edition. 🪉✨

☺️We also extend our appreciation to the Reök Palace for graciously hosting the competition for the fourth time.

Thank you to Alexander Rider for his humour, constant support, cheerful energy, and for the photos 📷

Wishing everyone peace, love, and fulfilment of you harp dreams: Anastasia, Natalia, Dmitrij ✨❤️🪉✨

20/11/2025

20/11/2025

The results for the first round of the U19 section of the 7th International Harp Competition in Szeged, Hungary have been announced!

The following players will advance to the second stage:

-András István Horváth
-Maryna Martianova
-Kalina Novaczek
-Jakub Sadilek
-Danejra Vajda
-Silva Vračar
-Linda Čižková
-Valentine Correani
-Sophie Costa
-Naomi Drew

Congratulations to all our wonderful contestants today; the level of playing has been truly impressive, and everyone, whether they advanced or not, should be justly proud. Tomorrow brings the second stage of the U25 section of the contest, so exciting times ahead!

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20/11/2025

Yesterday, at the 7th Szeged International Harp Competition in Szeged, Hungary! The following players in the U25 category advanced to the second stage:

-Letizia Lazzerini
-Nicole Pedroni
-Martin Sadilek
-Minja Stojanović
-Estelle Vilet
-Heather Brooks
-Bethany Caswell
-Pauline Elkaim
-Yizhu Gao
-Anqi Jin

The jury also expressed its admiration to Maximilan Treller and Aleksanda Radovanović who performed their own original compositions.

Congratulations to all our outstanding contestants; it was an inspirational day of music-making. Stay tuned for the results of today's U19 rounds!

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19/11/2025

15/11/2025

♦️ A Szegedi Nemzetközi Hárfaversenyt idén november 19–23. között rendezik meg a Reök-palotában. A rangos nemzetközi esemény immár hetedik alkalommal várja a fiatal tehetségeket: 17 ország 57 versenyzője méri össze tudását három korcsoportban (25, 19 és 14 év alattiak). A résztvevők Angliából, Belgiumból, Csehországból, Dél-Koreából, Franciaországból, Írországból, Kínából, Lengyelországból, Magyarországról, Németországból, Olaszországból, Oroszországból, Szerbiából, Szlovéniából, Szingapúrból, Törökországból és Ukrajnából érkeznek. 🎶🙂

➡️ https://papageno.hu/blogok/jm-blog/2025/11/indul-a-nemzetkozi-harfaverseny-szegeden/

28/10/2025

14/09/2025

📅 Application deadline: September 15th! ⏰🎵🏃‍♀️🎶

12/09/2025

As we continue introducing the set pieces for this year’s competition, please checkout this video with Ákos Zarándy, the composer of the set piece in category U14. "Leaves" is an improvisation-like work with a touch of minimalism and a hint of oriental colour, inviting young harpists to explore tone, expression, and imagination, leaving space for interpretation and gently guiding them through its aesthetic. It’s suitable for both lever and pedal harp, so everyone in the U14 category can fully dive into it. Contestants will perform this piece along with their own selected repertoire. We’re really looking forward to hearing how each of you brings your own voice to this music!

If you have any questions about how to purchase the piece or the application process, please visit our website and feel free to reach out via e-mail. Application deadline: September 15th

05/09/2025

As we prepare each edition of the competition, we always aim to strike a balance between freely chosen repertoire — where competitors can showcase their personality, interests and talents — and set pieces, which highlight the richness of Hungarian music through original compositions or transcriptions. For the U19 category the set piece is “Versets for an Imaginary Vespers” by organist and composer Márton Levente Horváth. This beautiful work consists of seven short movements, each with its own character and mood. The first movement is kind of ouverture, the second is an hommage to György Kurtág, the third a playful but also intense scherzo, the fourth little pieces echoes of Spanish baroque composer Correa de Araújo, the fifth is a choral, the sixth is a minimalist-inspired repetitive piece, the seventh, concluding movement is a postludium. Contestants will need to choose at least one movement to perform alongside their own chosen repertoire in the first stage of the competition. We can’t wait to hear your interpretations and discover how each of you brings these movements to life!

Please, don't hesitate to contact us via e-mail, if you have any questions. 📅 Application deadline: September 15th!

01/09/2025

Application deadline for 7th International Harp Competition is September 15th. For more info about the program, jury, prizes and application procedure, please check out the website!

The seventh edition of the International Harp Competition in Szeged, Hungary, will be held from November 19 to November 23, 2025.

Are you considering applying? The deadline is quickly approaching—September 15, 2025.

Detailed information about the rules, prizes, programmes, and deadlines can be found on the competition’s official webpage. You will also find the entry form and instructions for uploading your video for the preliminary round.

https://www.camac-harps.com/en/szeged-competition/

Don’t miss this chance to participate and experience this wonderful competition, which is always so carefully and lovingly organised.

photo ©Szegedify/Szilvia Molnár

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