Quarta Corda
In 2004 the Paganini Competition becomes biennial and celebrates its 50th Anniversary.
The Town Council of Genoa has recently passed the resolution that decrees that the Paganini Competition has to become biennial. During the latest editions some interesting issues have been brought up in order to enhance the competition, in particular to change its recurrence, both by the Carlo Felice Opera House Foundation, by the experts in the music world, by some of the previous winners and jury members.
The Organising Committee also debated the issue and the Town Council of Genoa decided to carry out some research and examine other similar national and International Competitions, seeking some experts' advice.
The suggestion of making the Competition biennial has been confirmed from this study in order to enhance and to heighten its world-wide conspicuousness.
Considering the approach of 2004, when Genoa will be European Capital of Culture, it was deemed advisable to cancel the 2003 edition, starting again with the biennial edition in 2004. The alternative was otherwise not to organise the Competition right in the year when the attention will be concentrated on the cultural events of our city or to stand not to give the due importance to this year competition compared to a "great" edition in 2004.
The way of strengthening the Competition begins from a high and well-known level. It would be easier to carry out the "upgrading" actions required in a context that is more and more competitive. These actions find a bench mark in the high quality of the management granted by the Organising Committee both in the past both in the latest editions so far, even in the absence of the Artistic Director during the last two editions, thanks to the work of the Vice- Director, Roberto Iovino.
While we are waiting on the appointment of the next artistic director of "Paganini Competition", I would like to thank all the people who have contributed to the development of the competition and have carried out the most valuable job during the past years: Giorgio Ferrari and Vittorio Sirotti that have been at the head of the competition, respectively. As artistic director and as president, and Nicola Costa, the superintendent that granted the collaboration with the Carlo Felice Opera House Foundation. For the time being, a new committee made up of the main music institutions in Genoa (Carlo Felice Opera House Foundation, Giovine Orchestra Genovese and the Academy of Music "Niccolò Paganini") will approach the matter related to the next edition, with the support of music associations and, in particular of the Paganini Institution. The panel of experts will coordinate the "Paganiniana", a festival that takes place regularly on October and that this year will take on a great and outstanding significance, featuring many young violinists, most of them have been previous winners of Paganini Competition. In the next autumn the announcement of the next competition will be advertised and it will be a special edition, since not only it will be one of the significant event in the cultural programme in Genoa 2004 but also because it falls on the splendid 50th anniversary of the competition! We are waiting for young and many violinists from all over the world, prodigious, wonderful and marvellous as Paganini was.
Anna Castellano
Assessore alla Comunicazione e alla Promozione della Città di Genova