Spanish trombonist Roberto de la Guia won the first prize of the Michel Becquet International Trombone Competition on the 16th of April!
De le Guia is now the principal trombonist of the Wupperthal Symphony orchestra in Germany. He comes from Minya in Spain, and started his studies at the Castilla-de-la-Mancha conservatory. After winning a scholarship at the Alicante brass festival, he continued his studies in Freiburg with prof. Fabrice Millicher. Later, he returned to Spain to play 2 years with the Spanish Military Band, before returning to Germany to join the Karajan Academy of the Berlin Philharmonic. De la Guia won 3rd prize in the prestigeus ARD solo competition in 2022.
Academists come out on top
The 2nd prize of the competition went to Tim Ouewejan from the Netherlands. He studied at the Amsterdam Conservatory, and currently serves as the principal trombonist of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic. Ouewjan was previosly an academinst with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. Víctor Álvarez Alegría from Spain won the 3rd prize. He is currently an academist at the Karajan Academy of the Berlin Philarmonic with Jesper Busk Sørensen as his main teacher.
As part of the program, the finalists played “Fragments” by Georges Sadeler. This concertino for
trombone and wind band was written especially for this competition!
Before the event, the jury pre-selected 62 trombonists to take part in the live first round. Following 2 the
first 2 days of competition, 13 advanced to the semi final.
In addition to being a competition, this event was also a brass festival! The chamber groups Octotrip, Trio Turbulence, Spanish Brass and Belgian Brass all played concerts.
The competition facebook page.
Web page
-Eyvind Sommerfelt
Online news coordinator