International Classical Music Awards Names 2025 Finalists

The finalists have been selected from almost 400 nominations across 16 categories

The International Classical Music Awards (ICMA) recognizes outstanding artists worldwide and is open to all classical audio and/or video productions commercially released with an international distribution. 

With the nominations held in three rounds, the jury has now selected the releases competing in the finals for the 2025 edition. 

The initial list totalling 374 nominations is now down to three releases in each of the 16 categories — including Early Music, Baroque Music, Opera, Chamber Music, Concertos, Contemporary Music, Premiere Recordings, and more. 

Finalists in the Concerto category are Amihai Grosz for his rendition of the Walton Viola Concerto with the Berlin Philharmonic and Sir Simon Rattle; Janine Jansen for her rendition of the Sibelius and Prokofiev Violin Concertos with the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra and Klaus Mäkelä; and Vilde Frang for her Elgar Violin Concerto with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin and Robin Ticciati. 

In the Chamber Music category, nominees include Quatuor Danel for their rendition of the Shostakovich String Quartets; Christian Tetzlaff, Barbara Buntrock, Tanja Tetzlaff, and Lars Vogt for their work on Brahms Piano Quartets Nos. 2 and 3; and Augustin Hadelich and Orion Weiss for their album, “American Road Trip.”

Solo Instrument category nominees include Mario Brunello for his album “Weinberg: Cello sonatas,” pianist Can Cakmur for works on his album “Schubert + Krenek,” and Lucas Debargue for his release, “Fauré: Complete Music for Solo Piano.”

All 48 finalists for the 2025 ICMA can be viewed here. 

The international jury comprises Serhan Bali, Pierre-Jean Tribot, Frauke Adrians, Anastassia Boutsko, Martin Hoffmeister, Nicola Catto, Andrea Meuli, John Allison, David Szoldos, Rémy Franck, Jakub Puchalski, Luc Boentges, Ursula Magnes, Cristina Comandasu, Maciej Chizynski, Harri Kuusisaari, Juan Lucas, Sanda Vojkovic, and Franz Patay (video productions only). 

Results of the 2025 awards will be published on January 14, 2025. The winners will receive their award trophies at the Tonhalle in Düsseldorf on March 19, 2025.

(PC: Marco Borggreve)