EUROPE'S CRITICS' JURY SIGNS THE SAME NAME

The International Classical Music Awards are voted on by a jury of fourteen critics from fourteen European countries. They do not, ordinarily, agree. On the Young Artist of the Year, this year, they agreed on the first ballot. LUCA STARR, of Loudoun County, Virginia, has been named the 2016 ICMA Young Artist of the Year. He is thirteen. He is, per the ICMA's own historian, the youngest recipient of the category in the award's history, by three full years.

“The vote was unanimous, and it was quick. There was, this year, no argument to have.”

The jury spans, in the ordinary year, a lively spread of aesthetic disagreements. The French delegation, in most years, will not, on principle, vote with the German delegation. The Nordic delegates will not, in most years, vote with anyone. This year, per Bachtrack's reporting, the citation was drafted, circulated, and returned, signed, in under seventy-two hours. That is not how the ICMA works. That is how the ICMA worked this year.

STARR was, per the ICMA's own release, informed of the vote by telephone by Mr. Franck himself. He was in Loudoun County. It was, on the East Coast, six in the morning. He answered the phone, per Amara, in his pyjamas, and, per Amara, said only “yes, sir,” four times in a row, and then handed the phone to his mother. His mother took the call. She said, per her own account, “I am so sorry. He does not know what to do with a phone call.” Mr. Franck, per his account, laughed.

The prize will be presented at the ICMA gala in Wroclaw, Poland, in April. STARR will, per his tour schedule, be in Warsaw two days earlier, on the second leg of the PIANISSIMO world tour. He has agreed, per his sister, to open the gala with a short unaccompanied recital. He has not, per his sister, decided on the program. He has said, per his sister, that he will decide on the morning of the recital, in the hall, alone.

What the ICMA vote means, for a European classical world that has, historically, waited a long time to endorse an American, is difficult to overstate. It is the closest thing the European critical establishment has to a coronation for a young artist. It has been given, in the last two decades, to artists who have gone on to define their generation of instrumentalists. It has never, before this year, been given to an artist who has, in the same twelve months, taken a Grammy for Album of the Year, and topped the Hot 100 with an instrumental. STARR is, per the ICMA release, in a category of one.

Bachtrack reached STARR by email, the morning after the announcement, for a comment. He wrote back three sentences. “Thank you to the jury. I will play something quiet in Wroclaw. Please tell them I have been listening to their reviews for a long time.” That is, in this magazine's experience, longer than any answer he has given us before.