The Etrillard Foundation supports the Concours de Genève, one of the most important international music competitions, founded in 1921. This competition aims to discover, promote, and support young talents, providing them with the necessary tools to develop an international career.
One of the distinctive features of the Concours de Genève is that it highlights different disciplines each year. In 2022, it celebrated the piano. In 2023, the 77th edition was dedicated to two disciplines: the flute and the string quartet. Composition and voice were honored in 2024. In 2025, it will be the turn of the viola and orchestral conducting to be awarded.
The Foundation’s support takes the form of awarding a Special Etrillard Foundation Prize. The prize is awarded by the official jury of the Interpretation Competition to the finalist who presented the most remarkable personal artistic project during the semi-final round in Geneva. This Special Prize thus supports the Competition’s efforts in professional training.
Presentation of the artistic project by Didier Schnorhk, Secretary General of the Concours de Genève
Furthermore, the Etrillard Foundation supports the implementation of a new program within the Concours de Genève. Prior to the interpretation competition, candidates receive training to help them develop their personal artistic projects.
Initiated in 2022, the artistic project is one of the three stages of the Concours de Genève semi-finals. First, candidates must design, with the support of two coaches, an artistic project they would be passionate about realizing should they become laureates of the Competition. Secondly, they defend their project before the Jury by answering questions from journalist Charlotte Gardner.
Starting in 2025, the Etrillard Foundation will also financially support the realization of the laureate’s personal artistic project, alongside the Concours de Genève. After receiving their prize, the laureate has two years to implement their project, whether it is a concert, a mediation tool, an album, or any other musical endeavor.
Presentation of a candidate’s artistic project, November 2025 © Anne-Laure Lechat
In 2022, the laureate of the Interpretation Prize, 18-year-old pianist Kevin Chen, also won the Special Prize. He dazzled the audience during the finals with his performance of Chopin’s Concerto No. 1 in E minor.
He has since won the 17th Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition and performs on major international stages.
In 2023, the jury selected the Elmire Quartet as the laureate of the Special Prize in the string quartet discipline. Composed of four Paris-based musicians (David Petrlik and Yoan Brakha on violin, Hortense Fourrier on viola, and Rémi Carlon on cello), the quartet has sought guidance from the greatest quartet players, such as the Hagen, Ysaÿe, Berg, Modigliani, Belcea, and Ébène Quartets.
Resident artists at the Singer-Polignac Foundation and the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel, as well as laureates of the Banque Populaire Foundation, this quartet also won the Second Interpretation Prize at the finals of the Concours de Genève 2023.
“Ludwig van Beethoven is one of the pillars of human heritage and, to us, one of the heroes of 18th and 19th-century Western society. With this project, we immerse ourselves in Beethoven’s universe. We want to touch the audience with this revolutionary music, through which the composer transcended the limits of his disability (deafness) and his condition. Thus, our complete collection of the three ‘Razumovsky’ quartets will take the form of a concert, a CD recording, an educational and social project, as well as a digital visual medium that is both artistic and pedagogical. We will create a new dramatic work to truly convey and help understand Beethoven’s music through the composer’s personality at a crucial moment in his life: the writing of the Heiligenstadt Testament.”
On the stage of the Grand Théâtre de Genève in October 2024, 28-year-old Swiss soprano Chelsea Marilyn Zurflüh won both the First Prize in the Voice Competition and the Etrillard Foundation Special Prize.
Her personal artistic project is entitled “Whispers of the Waves”. It is a sea-themed project structured in two parts: a stage concert combining singing, piano, and dance; and a children’s version of the same concert, taking the form of a fairy tale in which the young audience can actively participate.