Soeren Sieg Music Video Competition 2020

We were overwhelmed! There were 39 entries from 18 countries and four continents: from Australia, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, Chile, Brazil, Argentina, Spain, England, France, Holland, Belgium, Austria, the Czech Republic, Switzerland, Italy and Germany. Now the jury has decided!

1st prize: The first prize of 2000 € and a composition is awarded to the video "LULWANDA - Night of Memories", played and recorded by the Trio Atria: Davíd Cisternas (violin), Inés Pina Pérez (recorder) and Lukas Kuhn (Vibraphone), animated by the Brazilian-Japanese animation artist Nae Matakas.
Music, recording and visualization could not get better. Stunningly beautiful!
https://youtu.be/iRBqzC3NtYs

2nd prize: The second prize was shared!

b) The Trio Brunswick (Clara Bielert, Cornelia Struß and Sina Tammena) staged "Canarie" as a trip to the Harz Mountains.
The jury was enthusiastic about the Trio Brunswick's performance and the funny and surprising visual implementations for the various variations. Everything fits together perfectly: the players, the landscape, the movements, the images, the music. Great fun!
The Trio Brunswick: "In our music video we decided to illustrate a story about the music. The video shows a trip to the Harz mountains. The places we visited represent the different associations with each variation. The trip began at the main station. After a hike we arrived at the waterfall. Then we went up a mountain with a gondola to enjoy the view and the scenery. We ended the day on a playground."
https://youtu.be/OoMFy73UFBM

b) The trio InVento (Christine Sedlmeier, Christina Leimgruber, and Eva Brandstätter) filmed the "Wedding in Djaboué" from my African Suite No. 1. The video, which was filmed without a single cut (!), creates a magical atmosphere with the simple but effective means of a shadow theater. It leads us directly into an imaginary Africa. The joyful character is perfectly represented in the playing of the recorders as well as in the playing with the lovingly created little animals. Their funny movements made us laugh very often.
Trio InVento: "The title inspired us to show an unusual wedding: In our video" Sun over Africa "we worked with a shadow theater. We cut out all the characters ourselves. Inspired by the different feelings of the piece, we tell the love story between two elephants that has a happy ending: an elephant wedding! "
https://youtu.be/VVHEhrg7DTU

3rd prize: Angela Rossel - VALSE TRISTE.
Angela Rossel not only plays the Valse triste beautifully on the violin (all three voices - originally it is a recorder piece), she has also found very personal, emotional and atmospheric images for this music. She mixes real life sounds into the music, like the departure of a train, steps in a stairwell and the slamming of a door.
Angela Rossel: "Valse triste immediately touched me with its longing, simplicity but also sophistication. When I played the music, pictures emerged in my head - moments wrapped in melancholy, sunken dreams of far and near and the inexorable turning of life. Valse triste ...... - "
https://youtu.be/CEfyMFchT1E

The following videos were also included in the top 12 entries (the order does not represent any evaluation!):

Recording Generations: Variations on a Russian Birthday Song
The jury was enthusiastic about the abundance of ideas in this video, and how wonderfully the ensemble under the direction of Annette Berryman managed to translate the birthday mood of the piece into funny, surprising and stirring images. Annette Berryman: "It is raining, but a crocodile is happy on his birthday because it is only once a year. In times of corona, precautions, quarantine and fears in everyday life, our video shows that you can feel the positive sides of life much more intensely. Music especially can take away fear and give us more harmony."
https://youtu.be/LCTROt5GuSA

REC Tsubetsu: Usiogope
The recorder orchestra REC Tsubetsu from Hokkaido, Japan filmed this piece with great attention to detail: Decorated flutes, a heartwarming opening sequence, fascinating images from Hokkaido. The expanded arrangement includes Great Bass and Contrabass recorders and a smooth percussion. This video perfectly conveys the piece's message: Do not be afraid !
https://youtu.be/05lV2Bitf3o

Air Benders: Jours d'amour.
The jury was enthusiastic about the virtuoso playing of this very difficult piece - and about the idea of ​​showing how the members of the trio from three continents found each other. The "sentimental" childhood photos go perfectly with the "Suite Sentimentale", just as the cut goes perfectly with the music.
Adriano da Silva Trarbach explains: "With the first movement of the Suite Sentimentale, Jours d` amour, we think of our childhood and the love we experienced back then. Our video emerged from this idea, in which we recreate our childhood and youth Capture pictures from our homeland. Later we will all be in the beautiful city of Hamburg."
https://youtu.be/jITpjDRytqs

Flauto Vivo: Canarie.
The jury was enthusiastic about the contrast between the concert-like scenes in the Dutch mill and the love story between two recorders. Flauto Vivo: "Our interpretation relates on the one hand to courtship in the Canary and on the other hand to the Dutch song on which the composition is based. That is why we chose the most Dutch scenery we could find in Hamburg as the location and also hired two Dutch, very expressive actors who supported us in our interpretation. We hope you have as much fun as we did with this Dutch love story ;-)"
https://youtu.be/khYOE60heBs

Foi flutes: Jangu wano.
In the view of the Jury the young ensemble did a tremendous job in "bringing Africa to Austria": adding drums and singing (both very typical for the spontaneous music sessions in Subsaharan Africa), dancing together, jumping into a swimming pool, running down a hill. The video transports pure joy of life. The lyrics in Austrian dialect say:
"Kumm her, o kumm her, jetzt amoi! I geh nu ned hoam, geh nu ned hoam."
A totally refreshing and extraordinary video!
https://youtu.be/64BTamCAlsY

Ensemble Zauberklang: Ka go sale moso.
A wonderful video shot on the idyllic Wörthersee. "We (Marie, Susanne and Kathrin) are 14, 13 and 17 years old and have been making music together for 5 years. The video competition was a great opportunity for us to play this rousing piece ourselves. In our video we tried to show the title of the piece and to connect nature (with its flora and fauna) with the music."
https://youtu.be/wGA4_7DXbAU

Ensemble Klangfarbe: Kinyongo
"Kinyongo" means melancholy, wistfulness, nostalgia. The group captures this mood perfectly in this video. The love for music is touchingly combined with a love for home: Mainz-Gonsenheim.
"We were excited to to meet again in person and in the outdoors in May and June. Exploring various locations, we eventually settled on our local borough, situated on the outskirts of the city of Mainz and bordering on the rolling hills of Rhine-Hesse. We feel that this setting most aptly conveys the wistfulness and longing at the heart of "Kinyongo," which we shared so deeply during the lockdown. At the end of the video, the sight of the vast skies above our hometown embodies the message of hope and inspiration relayed by Sören Sieg's motto "The sky is the limit."
https://youtu.be/gH9cewt9V54

Trio Amira: Borakalano
Perhaps the most unusual video in the competition! Borakalano means "marketplace", and a marketplace also appears in this video, but not as one would have expected ...
In terms of originality and imagination, this video was among the very best: pictures that you won't forget, a whole short film. In addition, an avant-garde beginning that should not be revealed yet.
Filmmaker Jassin Makoul: "A group of dreamers create something out of a dream that someone else has dreamed. In a time when everything seems to go backwards, creativity is the last revolution that helps us to move forward internally."
https://youtu.be/90PzJ-nmMLQ

iFlautisti: Hivyo ndivyo (That's it!)
They Jury was enthusiastic about the stunning musical performance and the sound quality of this video. The pictures are sweet, and especially the train sequence is wonderful.
I Flautisti: "We love music, our passion for recorder quartet and our personal relationship grows and last since more than 10 years, even across long distances and pauses between our concerts and shows.
After this Corona Pandemic we will re-unite. One can feel, that the tree, seeded long time ago is now grown to a beautiful, huge and solid plant and yes we will continue. Time will come to enjoy life again, have party and meet friends – with music of course. “That’s it!” Think positive but stay negative! Dare to dream and with some effort it finally becomes reality."

I would like to thank my fellow jurors Claire Walka (left) and Ebba-Maria Künning-Zeijl (right) for their commitment, their expertise and their willingness to express their opinions.
It was my first time on a jury; Such decisions can never be "fair".
We would like to thank everyone once again who have put so much love and passion into their films.
In the end, may everyone emerge happy and inspired from the competition!