IBLA International Competition
IBLA International Competition is a Sicilian music competition. Praise. The IBLA Awards have been officially commended by New York City Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, New York State Governor George E. Pataki, United States Senator Alfonse M. D'Amato, Empire State Development Chairman Charles Gargano and IBLA winners have received critical acclaim by such writers as Pulitzer Prize winning music critic Martin Bernheimer on MSNBC Living's Young Artists Series. Participants. Each summer hundreds of pianists, singers, composers and instrumentalists representing Italy, France, Germany, England, Spain, Portugal, Ireland, Austria, Switzerland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, Greece, Turkey , Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, Slovenia, Serbia, Albania, the Czech Republic, Belarus, Estonia, Lithuania, Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, the Republic of Georgia, Uzbekistan, Siberia, India, Pakistan, Vietnam, Singapore, Philippines, Indonesia, Australia, China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Israel, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Ghana, South Africa, Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela, Peru, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Canada and the United States come to the IBLA Grand Prize International Music Competitions, which take place in Ragusa Ibla, Sicily, with hopes of being selected for the IBLA International Roster. While in Sicily, through the co-operation of the Mayors of Chiaramonte, Comiso, Ispica , Pozzallo, Santa Croce, Camerina and Vittoria, outstanding musicians are given the opportunity to perform in open-air concerts for the citizens of each of these communities. In the words of journalist, music critic and IBLA jury member Gordon Sparber, "... the sunbaked island of Sicily, the largest and historically richest in the Mediterranean, is the scene of the IBLA Grand Prize, a music competition held in a hall buried among the clusters of 17th - 18th - century stone buildings that crowd the little threads of streets. The rocky town ... lies just a few miles from where the Ionian and Mediterranean meet at  Sicily's southernmost tip. Hearing piano-playing in this kind of setting is amazing. It is, I imagine, like opening an ornate and ancient casket only to find it is stocked with glittering gems." Honors. The 2001 IBLA Awards at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall were in memory of Lucia Evangelista, beloved wife of Jerome Hines, who was in her own right a great and noted soprano in the international community of operatic music. The jury. The IBLA International Jury is the largest and most diverse among international competitions and comprises representatives from the most important music institutions worldwide  such as: Winners. Since the first edition of the IBLA Grand Prize on the occasion of the Christopher Columbus Festival 1492-1992 celebrating the 500th anniversary of the discovery of America, the IBLA Foundation has been dedicated to discovering new talent from around the world. Winners are assisted in establishing concert careers by facilitating their access to performance venues and professional contacts. Throughout the years the IBLA Grand Prize winners have received the opportunity to be presented in such prestigious venues as Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, Tokyo Opera City Concert Hall, Tchaikovsky Bolshoi Hall in Moscow, Carnegie Recital  Hall and to perform for the President of Italy, Oscar Luigi Scalfaro at the Great Hall of the University of Rome, for world-renowned Metropolitan Opera sopranos Licia Albanese and Anna Moffo at Steinway Hall and at the United Nations' Dag Hammarskjöld Auditorium. With the support of Baroness Mariuccia Zerilli-Marimò, IBLA Winners have also performed at New York University's Casa Italiana Zerilli Marimò for Metropolitan Opera soprano and Lucine Amara, for pianists Jerome Lowenthal of the Juilliard School, Ursula Opens from Northwestern University and for Mario Delliponti of the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in Milano. With the support of  the Honorable Senator Yvette Swan, Minister of Cultural Affairs, IBLA winners have been presented in Bermuda on the occasion of the Life Time Achievement Awards. IBLA Winners have also been presented in performance/seminar at McGill University in Montreal and at the Queen's University in Kingston, Canada as well as at the Juilliard School, the University of Washington in Seattle, the North Carolina School of the Arts and the University of Arkansas. In cooperation with the YAMAHA Corporation of America, IBLA Foundation offers a Master Class Series which enables winners to refine their performances through the experience of such  masters as Fernando Laires and Nelita True of the Eastman School of Music and Jerome Lowenthal of the Juilliard School. The IBLA Foundation with the cooperation of the Office of the Mayor, the Sister Cities Commission, Chamber of Commerce and the Public Library System of Little Rock, Arkansas, offers an annual tour of public concerts and community outreach programs which allows IBLA Winners to perform for and interact with hundreds of local students and families by sharing their professional experience and artistic talents. Through the support of the late pianist Angel Chen, Executive Director of Angelok Records, the IBLA Jordania  Prize has offered annually a Moscow debut and CD recording at the Tchaikowsky Bolshoi Hall with the Russian Federal Orchestra conducted by Maestro Vaktang Jordania. Academic scholarships have been offered to IBLA Winners by the North Carolina School of the Arts, the University of Iowa, the University of Northern Iowa, Elon College in North Carolina, the University of SouthWestern Louisiana, the DIT Music College in Dublin and the Scicli International Music Academy in Sicily. With the support of Chancellor Alexander Ewing from the North Carolina School of the Arts, the IBLA Foundation has also presented modern dance performances in Italy  as well as in the USA through the Human Dance Company and the works of choreographer Michael Yasenak. "Complex movements of human bodies symbolized the ambiguities of spiritual experience ... flesh and spirit carried on an especially intense conversation ... compelling ... their mystical fervor was combined with rational confusion ... mystery and ecstasy ... attested to Mr. Yasenak's powers of choreographic invention" IBLA winners have received worldwide critical acclaim with praises.