Fritz Gerber Award 2021
This year's Fritz Gerber Award goes to clarinettist Daniela Braun, violinist Anastasiia Subrakova and saxophonist Luis Homedes López. The award includes a scholarship for participation in the Lucerne Festival Academy worth CHF 10,000 and additional prize money of CHF 10,000.
The violinist Anastasiia Subrakova, born in 1994 in Akaban, Russia, first studied her instrument at the St. Petersburg Conservatory with Ilya Ioff. She then completed a Bachelor's degree at the HEMU - Haute Ecole de Musique et Conservatoire de Lausanne with Sergiu Schwartz and a Master's degree in Music Performance with Svetlana Makarova. From 2018 to 2020, Subrakova studied for a Master's degree in Solo Performance with Ilya Gringolts at the Zurich University of the Arts. In 2019, she won second prize at the Kiwani Competition.
The Spanish saxophonist Luis Homedes López, born in Madrid in 1994, was taught in Madrid by Angel Luis de la Rosa, among others. From 2014, he studied with Marcus Weiss at the Basel University of Music, where he not only completed his Bachelor's degree, but also his Master's degree in Musical Performance. In 2019 he was a scholarship holder of the Rahn Kulturfonds. He took part in the Darmstadt Summer Courses and the Kurtág-Ligeti Workshop in Budapest and is currently specializing in contemporary music in a further master's degree.
Daniela Braun, also born in Switzerland in 1994, studied clarinet with Paolo Beltramini at the Lucerne School of Music and completed a master's degree in music education, also in Lucerne, in 2018. She is currently studying for a master's degree with Björn Nyman at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo. From 2016 to 2018, she was a member of the contemporary ensemble HELIX at Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts and attended masterclasses with Yehuda Gilad and the Zermatt Festival Academy, among others.
The "Fritz Gerber Award" is open to the public and also accepts recommendations from universities and well-known personalities from the world of art. This year's jury consisted of Michael Haefliger, Director of the Lucerne Festival, composer and conductor Heinz Holliger and Felix Heri, Director of Lucerne Festival Contemporary.