Trio Tenorizans wins international EAR-ly Competition 2026
6 October 2026
Trio Tenorizans, formed by three alumni of the Royal Conservatoire The Hague, has won the EAR-ly Competition 2026. The final of this international competition for young early music ensembles took place in Helsinki on Saturday 3 October.
The trio consists of Wladyslaw Lech on historical clarinet, Agata Sorotokin on fortepiano and Antonio Pellegrino on historical cello. They receive a prize of SEK 30,000 and an invitation to perform at one or more festivals affiliated with NORDEM – Nordic Early Music.
A salon in nineteenth-century Vienna
According to the jury, Trio Tenorizans stood out with a strong artistic concept. The ensemble invited the audience into a salon in nineteenth-century Vienna, combining music with humour, poetry and surprises.
‘One of the ensembles stood out. They presented a clear concept: an invitation to a salon in nineteenth-century Vienna. With humour, poetry and surprises, they drew us into their story. The consistently high artistic level across the ensemble, together with their ability to bring out the full richness of the music, led the jury to award Trio Tenorizans first prize in the EAR-ly Competition 2026,’ says Veerle Declerck, chair of the jury.
The international jury consisted of Kati Debretzeni from Great Britain, Veerle Declerck from Belgium and Saale Fischer from Estonia. Alongside their performances in the final, the ensembles took part in masterclasses and received individual feedback from the jury members.
International competition for young ensembles
EAR-ly is NORDEM’s biennial competition for young early music ensembles from the Nordic and Baltic countries. This year, the competition was also open to ensembles from across Europe.
This year’s competition was organised in collaboration with Aria Borealis and Helsinki Early Music Festival. The tenth edition of EAR-ly is provisionally scheduled to take place in Copenhagen in autumn 2028.
