Yannick Nzet-Sguin and Marc-Andr Hamelin have won top prizes at the 2014 Echo Klassik awards.
Nzet-Sguin was named conductor of the year for his 2013 Deutsche Grammophon recording of works by Stravinsky and Stokowski with the Philadelphia Orchestra. One of Canada's busiest conductors, he's currently holding down the top jobs with Montreal's Orchestre Mtropolitain and the Rotterdam Philharmonic, in addition to his principal conductor gig in Philadelphia.
Hamelin won the award for instrumentalist of the year (piano) for his album on Hyperion Records of late solo piano music by Ferrucio Busoni. The album demonstrates Hamelin's long-standing devotion to music by lesser-known composers, as well as his tendency to focus on extremely challenging works.
The awards were announced today and will be presented at an awards ceremony at Munich's Philharmonic Hall on Sunday, Oct. 26.
Echo Klassik awards were established in 1992 by the Deutsche Phono-Akademie to mark achievement in the field of recorded music at both national and international level. The full list of this year's winners is available here.
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