Broadcast in several European countries (Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Poland – the Visegrad Four – and selected guest countries), this television format reaches hundreds of millions of viewers worldwide. In Hungary, it is broadcast by Duna TV on Friday evenings from 29 December.
This year’s international show has added new judges and mentors. Maestro Plácido Domingo, opera singer, Erika Miklósa, opera singer, András Keller, violinist, conductor, music director of Concerto Budapest, HAUSER, cellist, Plácido Domingo Jr., singer, composer, DIMASH, singer, Pablo Sáinz Villegas, classical guitarist, Gabriela Rachidi, cultural director and Harvey Goldsmith, music promoter.
This year, the contestants will be mentored by pianist Gergely Bogányi, opera singer Tamás Bátor, oboist Clara Dent Bogányi, singer Elina Nechayeva, guitarist Petar Culic, pianist Peter Valentovic and musicologist András Batta.
This year’s international broadcast will also feature a Hungarian presenter, alongside polish Ida Nowakowska, Misi Boros, who has gone from Virtuosos discoverer to internationally renowned artist, and will also try his hand at presenting for the first time this year, partnering Anna Bátor in a backstage chat with the contestants.
This year, three new judges will join the show. First of all, Plácido Domingo Junior, who has helped the Virtuosos programme as a mentor and composer of the Virtuosos theme song, and who will now have the chance to try his hand at judging. Plácido Domingo Jr. has been involved in the show as a composer and mentor for the fourth year running, and this year he will be on the jury.
Also new to the jury is internationally renowned Kazakh singer Dimash Qudaibergen.
Kazakh superstar Dimash Qudaibergen is widely viewed as one of the world’s greatest vocalists. A classically trained yet genre-defying singer and composer, he fills arenas world-wide with his global audience of devoted fans, his most recent show drawing nearly 30,000 people from 68 countries. He is an active humanitarian who endorses multiple charities and particularly supports children in the arts.
The third new international jury member is András Keller, Kossuth Prize-winning violinist-conductor and music director of Concerto Budapest, who, as producer Mariann Peller pointed out, has supported the programme with his help and professional advice.
Attila Kotán, Chancellor of the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music and Károly Mátrai, CEO of the MVM Group, the main sponsor of Virtuosos, were also present at the Virtuosos V4+ press conference:
“In addition to economic relations, the MVM Group attaches great importance to cultural development in strengthening its regional role, and music is a language that everyone understands and that binds us together. The Virtuosos is a prime example of this connection through the power of music to bridge borders and bring together talent from different countries in the region. This is why we support the Virtuosos, as we believe that embracing artistic talent and creativity not only plays a role in cultural enrichment, but also helps the region as a whole to thrive and bring communities closer together.”
This year, there will be more surprises and innovations in the 2023 Virtuosos format, which will be filmed in December and broadcast on Duna Television on Friday evenings for five weeks from 29 December, with the final on 19 January, followed by a gala show featuring the Virtuosos winners.
At the press conference, it was announced that this year, in addition to talented young people from the V4 countries, young people who have fled Ukraine and were forced to leave their homeland because of the war will be invited to take part, in a show of support for peace.
It was also announced that in 2024 there will be two concerts in the Great Hall of the Liszt Academy, where audiences will be able to meet new discoveries from the past and present: on 7 January with Concerto Budapest Symphony Orchestra and on 1 March with the Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra.
