Aidan Mikdad Nominated For Best Newcomer Award

The nominations for the 2023 Edison Klassiek Awards have been announced and we are thrilled to share news of nominations for Aidan Mikdad, Véronique Gens, Vox Luminis and Justin Taylor & Théotime Langlois de Swarte.

Pianist Aidan Mikdad has been nominated in the National Newcomer category for his Linn recording of Scriabin and Ravel, released as part of the Royal Academy of Music Bicentenary Series. The jury wrote: "Aidan Mikdad lives up to his reputation as one of the Netherlands’ greatest talents ... Mikdad immediately shows himself to be a courageous and single-minded musician who throws himself heart and soul into these pieces."

La voix humaine has earned Véronique Gens a nomination in the Opera category for her tour-de-force performance of Poulenc’s devastating solo opera, released to wide-spread acclaim on Alpha Classics. The jury stated: “French soprano Véronique Gens and conductor Alexandre Bloch turn it into compelling drama with the Orchestre National de Lille … the outside world momentarily ceases to exist due to the theatrical power of Gens’s voice.”

Lionel Meunier’s unique presentation of a Deutsches Requiem, which collates the settings by Lutheran Baroque composers that inspired Brahms’s masterpiece, has merited a nomination for Vox Luminis in the Choir category. The jury remarked that this Ricercar recording: “resulted in extraordinary discoveries, which together form not only a beautiful anthology, but also an impressive ‘new’ requiem. The Vox Luminis singers excel both in solos and in harmony.”

Violinist Théotime Langlois de Swarte and harpsichordist Justin Taylor are nominated in the Chamber category for their duo album on Alpha Classics, Les frères Francoeur, a tribute to the great eighteenth-century dynasty of musicians, violinists and composers. The jury commented: “Early music sparkles like modern improvisation. Sitting still is impossible with the infectious playing of two musical souls, who challenge each other and throw themselves confidently into the adventure.”