göttingen händel competition
The jury of the göttingen händel competition, the competition for young early music ensembles presented by the Göttingen International Handel Festival, has awarded the €5,000 prize of the Göttinger Händel-Gesellschaft e.V. jointly to two ensembles. The Vienna-based Duo Lucescuro shares the prize with the ensemble Les Arcanes Baroques from The Hague. Both ensembles will therefore perform at the Prizewinners’ Concert in Göttingen’s St. Albani Church on Thursday, May 21, 2026, at 5 pm.
The special prize “Music and Space”, endowed with €2,000 and including performances at the Prizewinners’ Concert “Music and Space” on May 20, 2026, at 7 pm in St. Petri Church in Landolfshausen and on September 13, 2026, at the Cologne Philharmonie, was also awarded to Les Arcanes Baroques. Duo Lucescuro received the Audience Prize as well as an appearance at the Handel Festival lunch concert on May 20, 2026, at 12:30 pm in St. Johannis Church.
The Bärenreiter Urtext Prize, consisting of music vouchers awarded by Bärenreiter Verlag, was shared by the Furore Ensemble and Les Arcanes Baroques. The special prize of a guest performance at Early Music Vancouver in 2027 went to the Barque Ensemble.
In his award speech, Jochen Schäfsmeier, Director of the Göttingen International Handel Festival and chair of the jury, highlighted the exceptionally high level of this year’s competition. The jury had not reached its decision easily, and each of the seven participating ensembles deserved to be heard in concert.
The competition’s international character was reflected not only in the broad field of participants, featuring musicians from Germany, Italy, Poland, South Korea, the United States, Taiwan, Russia, France, Ireland, Cuba, Spain, Hungary, Japan, and Ukraine, but also in the composition of the jury itself. In addition to Jochen Schäfsmeier, this year’s jury included Theresa De Luca (concert planning at the Cologne Philharmonie), Christiane Irrgang (music editor at NDR Kultur), Alexander Weimann (Artistic Director of the Pacific Baroque Orchestra, Vancouver), Dr. Marie Luise Maintz (Bärenreiter Verlag), and Michael Schäfer of the Göttinger Tageblatt.
Duo Lucescuro consists of recorder player Britta Kähny and harpsichordist Chun-Shih Lin. The two 22-year-old musicians are currently studying in Vienna. Les Arcanes Baroques is based in The Hague. The ensemble consists of Kira Dove and Benjamin Lenzmeier (violin/viola), Andreu Gènova (violoncello), and Elias Tulchynsky (basso continuo and violin).
