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Competitions play an important role in the life of a musician whether one likes it or not. There are more and more music competitions all over the world, delivering a vast array of winners and losers every year. Many young talents take part with much expectation and high hopes. Some are rewarded, many are disappointed. It becomes more and more difficult to assess the situation and to evaluate the significance of the prize, the award-winner or the relevance of a particular competition.
| Co-founders | Martha Argerich and Gustav Alink |
| Patronage | Martha Argerich |
| Director | Gustav Alink |
| Board members |
Ton Koopman (1999-2009) |
| Recommendation Committee |
Mr. A.A.M. (Dries) van Agt Drs. R.F.M. (Ruud) Lubbers Dr. A.H.G. (Alexander) Rinnooy Kan Prof. Dr. Ir. J.J.C. (Joris) Voorhoeve Richard Carpenter |
| Int'l Advisory Board | Agustin Anievas Vladimir Ashkenazy Aldo Ciccolini Arnaldo Cohen Ton Koopman Alexei Lubimov Eugene Moguilevsky Paul C. Pollei Pnina Salzman † Eliso Virsaladze |
| Webmaster |
Kristian Løvhaug (2001-2004) |
(This overview is still to be completed.)
|
Martha Argerich is the world's foremost concert pianist, admired by millions of music lovers. She shows great interest in music competitions and inspires promising young musicians. |
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Gustav Alink is a leading authority on piano competitions. His books have gained international recognition. He travels the world, often being invited as a special guest or official observer. Martha Argerich calls Gustav Alink "Mr. Competition". In November 1999, Miss Argerich and Gustav Alink founded the Alink-Argerich Foundation. |
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Ton Koopman: from the start of the Alink-Argerich Foundation, the well-known Dutch harpsichordist, organ player and choir conductor Ton Koopman accepted to be a member of the Executive Board. |
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Akemi Yamamoto is a pianist who completed her music studies in Nagoya and who has settled in Holland since 2001. |
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Christoph Toepell has been a teacher in Dortmund (Germany) for many years. He and his wife have shown great affection for young musicians, trying to help them in many ways. |
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Stanislaw Zielinski has wide experience in provicing Artists Services to pianists all over the world. Born in Poland, he has lived and worked in different world capitals (Toronto, New York, Paris), and almost constantly travels the world. He is frequently in contact with hundreds of pianists and organisers, and has amazing cummunicative skills. |
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Mr. A.A.M. (Dries) van Agt is the former Prime Minister of the Netherlands who served on this post between 1977 and 1982. Until then he was Minister of Justice (1971-1977) and afterwards he was representative of the European Communities, in Tokyo and in Washington. |
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Drs. R.F.M. (Ruud) Lubbers is the former Prime Minister of the Netherlands who held this post between 1982 and 1994. Until then he had been Minister of Economy (1973-1977). Mr. Lubbers was the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). He also dedicated much of his time to environmental problems and global sustainability. Together with Maurice Strong and Mikhail Gorbachov, he helped create and promote the Earth Chapter. |
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Dr. A.H.G. (Alexander) Rinnooy Kan has been crown member and chairman of the Dutch Social Economic Council (SER), since August 2006. In 1983 he was appointed as director of the Econometric Institute of the Erasmus University Rotterdam of which he became rector magnificus in 1986. In between he was guest professor at University of California, Berkeley and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), among others. |
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Prof. Dr.Ir. J.J.C. (Joris) Voorhoeve was Minister of Defence in the Dutch government between 1994 and 1998. He has served on many committees, and is still a member of the State Advisory Board for the Netherlands. He enjoys classical music and has played several instruments. |
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Richard Carpenter is the magnificent pianist/composer of the group "The Carpenters" which toured the world in the 1970s. Together with his sister Karen (who had a beautiful, pure voice, but who most regretfully passed away at the early age of 32), their songs and performances stood out and became world-famous for their fine harmonies, great lyrics and wonderful instrumentation. |
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Agustin Anievas received great fame as a pianist, especially after becoming laureate in the international piano competitions in Rio de Janeiro, Brussels and Bolzano. |
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Vladimir Ashkenazy is a highly reputed concert pianist and conductor. |
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Aldo Ciccolini is a world-renowned concert pianist, born in 1925. |
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Arnaldo Cohen is a great concert pianist from Brazil, who won the Busoni Competition in 1972. He is currently teaching at Bloomington. |
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Alexei Lubimov is a fine musician, who sees himself not always in the first place as a pianist. He also has a great reputation as harpsichordist and is an expert in Baroque Music. |
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Eugene Moguilevsky is the Russian pianist from St. Petersburg who won the Queen Elisabeth Competition in 1964. He lives with his family near Brussels, where he also teaches at the Royal Conservatory and Music, and from where he continues to give concerts in many different countries. He is also frequently a member of the jury of the Queen Elisabeth Competition and other international competitions. |
|
Paul C. Pollei
is the infatiguable Founder and Director of the Gina Bachauer
Competition in Salt Lake City. |
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Pnina Salzman was the concert pianist from Israel who had an international career that encompasses several decades. |
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Eliso Virsaladze is the leading concert pianist from Georgia who also shows great activity in Chamber Music. |
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Kristian Løvhaug is a Bass-Baritone singer from Norway. He has studied both in Norway and in the Netherlands. For several years, he has been the webmaster of AAF's web site. |
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John Ciocoiu is a student at Delft University in The Netherlands. He is currently developing an upgrade of the AAF website. |
The Alink-Argerich Foundation is there to give information, assistance and advice to musicians and competition organisers. The Foundation maintains a unique collection of competition related material such as application brochures with the rules and conditions of music competitions and competition programme books.
Music students can contact the Alink-Argerich Foundation with questions they have about music competitions or related matters, either for information, personal advice or complaints. They may also receive assistance filling out applications, or help with practical matters that arise in connection with their participation in competitions and travelling to different parts of the world (communication problems, etc.).
Competition organisers may require the assistance of the Alink-Argerich Foundation when they plan and prepare their event, establishing the most appropriate dates, generating international publicity, acquiring the attention of the press, searching for suitable jurors, recruiting contestants, verification of applications, defining adjudication procedures.
Music institutes, libraries, firms and governments may rely on the Alink-Argerich Foundation to obtain better insight, statistics, historical overviews or recommendations, finding the answers to specific questions by approaching AAF for dedicated analysis and proper evaluation.
Impresarios will want to call upon the Alink-Argerich Foundation for help in tracing and making contact with particular musicians. Journalists and people in the media, as well as critics and researchers can ask for more background information and opinions on certain competitions or prizewinners and jurors.
The prime objective of the Alink-Argerich Foundation is to be of service to all. Everyone may benefit from the knowledge and experience that this Foundation has to offer, so that classical music and its performers receive the appropriate appreciation and that the pure joy of music and relaxation that making music can bring, be pursued and be experienced more intensely.
The Alink-Argerich Foundation came forth from the dedicated worldwide research on piano competitions that Gustav Alink has done for more than 20 years.
In all those years, there has never been a sponsor to support these activities. Time and a considerable amount of money was invested in this personal enterprise. Many people believed that the research was part of a doctoral study with the objective to write a thesis. Although the entire research could be called scientific, there was no university behind it.
The Alink-Argerich Foundation considers it important that all young musicians who wish to make use of the services and who wish to receive information from AAF, should feel free to contact AAF.
However, to maintain this unique position and to keep all information up-to-date, financial support is needed, every year, in order to offer good quality information, while striving at the highest degree of completeness. Competition organisers do co-operate, but some of them are too busy, have different priorities, or simply lack the means or personnel to react promptly. Therefore, AAF must remain alert and active.
The amount of competition materials that AAF is dealing with, is unsurpassed: it cannot be matched by any other organisation. To maintain this position, and to continue to operate smoothly, a solid financial backing is needed.
The optimal solution would be
that the Alink-Argerich Foundation is supported by one or two
main sponsors.
However, at the time of writing, this is not the case. No
government nor company has been generous enough to help out.
In order to cover its expenses, AAF has proposed an annual contribution for musicians and competitions that wish to support AAF and that can thus be affiliated to AAF. It can be considered a contribution to the time and efforts invested by AAF. AAF is grateful for each acknowledgment of its usefulness and purposes, and will gladly interpret it as a kind salute that all efforts be continued.
Meanwhile, any suggestion
concerning another organisation or company who wishes to sponsor
AAF
or to co-operate with AAF, is welcomed.
To read more about the annual fee, you may click here ("Join") to go to the page where you will also find all information about how to apply, or you may first want to go to the section where the main services are described.
Keywords to describe the intent of the Alink-Argerich Foundation are: reliability, quality, sincerity, and respect. The Foundation is an active organisation, operating and monitoring activity on a worldwide scale. With its activities and goals, the Foundation seeks to improve and support the circumstances in which true talent can emerge and quality can be acknowledged.
The Alink-Argerich Foundation has its official seat in The Hague, the Netherlands.
An official branch to the Alink-Argerich Foundation has been established
at Yamaha Artists Services Europe (YASE) in
Paris.
There, you may
also contact AAF in the Japanese language.
Addresses
| Central mail address for AAF |
| P.O. Box 85600 NL-2508 CH DEN HAAG The Netherlands |
| Address of AAF branch |
| C.E.A.A. - Pianos
Yamaha 5, rue Scribe F-75009 PARIS France |
Telephone numbers
The Netherlands: (+31) 70 - 3634760
(N.B.: due to almost continuous
travelling, there may be no person to answer your call
personally.
In that case, you are kindly asked to either leave a message or
to contact AAF in one of the other ways described here. All messages will be
frequently checked.)
France (branch to AAF): (+33) 1 - 47233352
Fax numbers
The Netherlands: (+31)
70 - 3652513
France: (+33) 1 - 47239379
mail@alink-argerich.org (English, French, German, Dutch, Italian, Swedish, Hungarian)
If you would want to write in another language, you may do so, but you may not expect that AAF will also answer you in the same language. So, in that case, please indicate which other language you can understand.
Web site
Webmaster: Kristian Løvhaug
Email: you.have@mail.com
Registration
The Foundation has been registered at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry for Haaglanden in the Netherlands, under registration number KvK 27183935
Bank connections
ABN-Amro Bank ~ Account Nr.
555000583
IBAN: NL50 ABNA 0555
0005 83 – BIC (Swift code): ABNANL2A
Javastraat 1 ~ The Hague
The Netherlands
Postbank ~ Giro Account 8407450
IBAN: NL03 PSTB 0008
4074 80 – BIC (Swift code): PSTBNL21
Amsterdam ~ The Netherlands
Barclays Bank ~ Account Nr. 60862703, branch
code 20-48-42
IBAN: GB21 BARC 2048
4260 8627 03 – BIC (Swift code): BARCGB22
United Kingdom
Wells Fargo Bank ~ Account
Nr. 051.13483.28
Swift code: WFBIUS6S
Salt Lake City ~ U.S.A.