Classeek and ICMA to Support New Double Bass Concerto

Bassist Marc-André Teruel will give the premiere of a new double bass concerto by Ivan Boumans

Earlier this week, the International Classical Music Awards (ICMA) announced a collaboration with Classeek, the Switzerland-based organization that joins a passion for the classical music world and the desire to provide global technological solutions to artists and musicians. The resulting ICMA Classeek Award was created to honor young and highly promising talents. The winner of the first-ever ICMA Classeek Award went to double-bassist Marc-André Teruel.

Recently, Classeek and ICMA have brought together two award winners to create a new commissioning project. The endeavor will culminate in the writing of a new concerto for double bass and orchestra by composer Ivan Boumans, which will be given its premiere by bassist Marc-André Teruel.

The work is slated for premiere in either the second part of the 2024/25 season or the first part of the 2025/26 season, and will be largely crowdfunded. You can make a donation towards the commissioning fee here.

Hailing originally from Madrid, composer Ivan Boumans began his musical life on the piano and the clarinet. He studied harmony, fugue, and composition at the Paris Conservatoire, and since then has amassed a catalog of more than 170 compositions.

Bassist Marc-André Teruel was born in Vienna in 2002. He is the recipient of Switzerland's Rahn Musikpreis and the Anton Bruckner Prize of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra. He has also won prizes at the Karl Ditters von Dittersdorf Competition in Slovakia and the Angelika-Prokopp Summer Academy of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.

"Too often the double bass is considered as an accompanying instrument," Boumans said. "However, it is an instrument that offers many more possibilities than one might think. The project of composing a concerto for double bass is not only a composer's challenge but also the opportunity to highlight an instrument that is not known at its fair value."

"My biggest goal in life has always been to push beyond boundaries and to do something that has never been done before," said Teruel. "As a performer, I find it my duty to work with composers of today in order to help create the history of music and show to the world how this underestimated instrument is able to sound."