History

The International Competition for Blind Composers 2023 continues the tradition of the International Competition for Visually Impaired Composers, which since 1978 has been linked to the International Competition for Visually Impaired Musicians held in Mariánské Lázně and later in Prague, since 1978. In addition to the three-round performance competition, which was attended by visually impaired musicians from many countries around the world, a composers' competition used to be held in the same year. Members of the jury were prominent Czech composers such as Miroslav Kubička, Eduard Douša, Juraj Filas and others. The winning compositions were always performed at the opening concert at the opening of the Competition for Visually Impaired Musicians, some of them being also recorded.

The laureates of the competition have been, for example, the following composers:

Gleb Serafimovich Sedelnikov (Russia - USSR), Hermann Grünnert (Germany), José-Fermin Gurbindo Ruiz (Spain), Leif Martinussen (Denmark), Harvey Miller (USA), Koray Sazli (Turkey), Caglar Arsu (Turkey), Jan Budín (the Czech Republic) and others.

The last composers´ competition was held in Prague in 2011. We will be very happy to continue this tradition, and once again welcome interesting composers to our competition and get to know a lot of new music.