When World War II ended, many countries had been deprived of culture, and particularly of music, for several years. Rebuilding musical life from the rubble was not easy, but the process quickly gained momentum due to an incredible need for art, after years of cultural starvation. Music Competitions had existed before the war, of course: the Naumburg in New York was founded in 1926; the Chopin in Warsaw in 1927; the Queen Elisabeth in Brussels in 1937; the Geneva Competition in 1939. But in the 50s, competitions were proliferating at an amazing rate, and some kind of order was urgently needed to mark the difference between serious competitions and those for the tourist industry or those secretly organized by impresarios eager to find new prodigies. Thus, the Swiss Composer and director of the Geneva Conservatory, Henri Gagnebin, along with his friend André-Francois Marescotti, drew up the plans for the World Federation of International Music Competitions. The first meetings seemed more like a club than a committee, and delegates exchanged their views and experiences from around one single table. But soon, a protocol was established and plans for expansion were made.
HISTORY
“To be truly international, a competition must be open to competitors from all countries, within the prescribed age limit; juries must include more foreigners than nationals, to avoid biased pressure; two competitions in the same branch, residing in the same town or its environs, cannot be part of the federation: one or the other, to cut short local rivalries.” Henri Gagnebin (Duchene-Thégarid: “Une certaine idée de la musique”, 2014)
The first constituent General Assembly of the Federation took place on February 17th, 1957 and was attended by 13 founding member competitions: Bolzano (Busoni), Brussels (Queen Elisabeth), Budapest (Liszt), Geneva, Genoa (Paganini), Liège, Munich (ARD), Naples (Casella), Paris (Long-Thibaud), Poznan (Wieniawski), Prague (Prague Spring), Vercelli (Viotti), and Warsaw (Chopin). Later on, everything was laid out in a set of simple but concise statutes covering but one page. Annual meetings, usually on the weekend after Easter, were alternatingly held in Geneva and a foreign city, each hosted by a different member competition. Once established, the Federation began to grow rapidly. From 13 members in 1957, it expanded to 35 members in 1970, 54 members in 1980, and 83 members in
The World Federation in 1958
The Federation and its history
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