BOCA RATON — The second Elmar Oliveira International Violin Competition will take place Jan. 12-26, 2020, at Lynn University, its founder said in a press conference Feb. 12.
The celebrated American composer Christopher Theofanidis has been commissioned to compose a work for solo violin to be played by contestants in the competition. He is a member of the Yale University music faculty and music director of the Aspen Festival.
Oliveira, an eminent American violinist who won the 1978 Tchaikovsky Competition, summarized the events of the inaugural competition held in January 2017, for which 81 violinists from more than 15 countries applied. The competition is open to violinists aged 16 to 32.
The American violinist Sirena Huang, winner of 2017’s First Prize, was in the audience and briefly described the effect that winning has had on her concert career, including more than 40 engagements over the next three years. In addition, the winners receive management support, which is one of the distinguishing features of the Oliveira Competition, or EOIVC.
Because an audience of 1.5 million viewed 2017’s final round via a variety of media, Oliveira said he expected that submissions, which will open in March 2019, and close the following September, will be many times greater than in 2017. The competition jury in 2020 will be increased to nine from last year’s seven. Its chairman will be David Cerone, president of the Cleveland Institute of Music from 1985 to 2008, who has also held professorships at Oberlin and the Curtis Institute of Music. A panel separate from the judges will screen all submissions, which, Oliveira said, will likely yield about 20 quarter-finalists for the 2020 event.
The monetary prizes for the 2020 competition will be $30,000 for the first-prize winner, $15,000 for the second-prize winner and $10,000 for the third. However, Oliveira stressed that the EOIVC hopes to do more than award prizes.
“In some competitions, you win a prize and go, but we hope to help develop future careers,” he said. Oliveira stressed the need for increased community support of this international competition, only the second of its kind in the U.S. Because the contestants bear their own travel expenses to come to Boca Raton, the EOIVC endeavors to find hosts for as many competitors as possible, to defray some of their expenses.
“This is one of the biggest cultural events taking place in South Florida,” said Oliveira, who hoped that “after I’m gone, this competition will continue to discover and nurture talented violinists.”
PGA Arts Center closes; cancels season
PALM BEACH GARDENS — The PGA Arts Center in Palm Beach Gardens has closed its doors after about a year of trying to break into the Palm Beach County theatrical market.
“We are sorry to say that we are canceling our current season of shows due to a lack of funding,” says a notice posted on the arts center’s website. The message thanked patrons for their interest and said refunds would be issued for tickets already purchased for the shows being canceled: Old Jews Telling Jokes, the Calamari Sisters in Beat Until Stiff and Raunchy Little Musical.
A spokeswoman for the owners said they would have no further comment. A press release issued in January 2017 said “veteran producers Philip Roger Roy and Dana Matthow have taken a multi-year lease on the (former) PGA Cinemas, located at 4076 PGA Blvd. in Palm Beach Gardens, and are in the process of converting two of the building’s six auditoriums to accommodate live productions.”
A number of shows were presented in the former cinema building, starting with WaistWatchers, the Musical and Brad Zimmerman’s My Son the Waiter: A Jewish Tragedy. The owners initially reported “enthusiastic audience response and excellent ticket sales.”
Reviewers from the Palm Beach ArtsPaper who attended several shows, among them, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee in June, Funny Old Broads in July, the Kosher Cheerleader in August, Irving Berlin Salutes America in December and Avi Hoffman’s Too Jewish?, which concluded Jan. 21, said audience attendance was minimal.
The notice posted online said Hoffman’s performance was “our final show.”
Modern + Contemporary art fair makes seven-figure sales
WEST PALM BEACH — Galleries who took part in the second edition of Palm Beach Modern + Contemporary, a fair presented by Art Miami and hosted by the city of West Palm Beach, reported “significant six- and seven-figure sales of investment-quality, blue-chip contemporary and postwar works,” Art Miami said.
More than 19,000 attendees attended the fair, which was held Jan. 11-15 at the Palm Beach Convention Center, and featured more than 65 galleries. One of the highest-selling paintings from the fair was French artist Pierre Soulages’s Peinture, which was placed by London’s Archeus/Post-Modern gallery for about $1 million.
The same gallery placed British artist Damien Hirst’s Beautiful Melancholy Painting for $300,000; Undetermined Line, by France’s Bernar Venet, for more than $100,000; and a set of colored paintings by the Chinese artist and dissident Ai WeiWei for an undisclosed sum.
The Coral Gables-based Cuban art gallery Cernuda Arte placed Manuel Mendive’s River Waters for $100,000, and New York’s David Benrimon Fine Art placed the late American artist Sol LeWitt’s Wavy Lines for a six-figure sum.
“Palm Beach Modern + Contemporary is the most important fair to take place in Palm Beach County during the season,” said fair founder and owner Nick Korniloff. “The fair brings a world-class, internationally respected group of art dealers and their artists to one of the most culturally savvy and discerning collecting audiences in the world.”
Korniloff said the fair looks forward to returning in 2019.
Briefs compiled by ArtsPaper staff