After a break during the pandemic, the Carl Nielsen International Competition returned earlier this month, held as usual in Odense, Denmark. In previous years, the competition’s three categories (clarinet, flute and violin – the three instrument’s Nielsen wrote concertos for) took place on a rotational basis, but this time all three competitions took place simultaneously.

24 candidates for each instrument were selected by a pre-jury panel and invited to attend the live competition. In the clarinet category, 27-year-old Ukrainian clarinettist Oleg Shebeta-Dragan (pictured above) ultimately took home the top prize. His healthy prize package includes €12,000 prize money and a recording deal with Orchid Classics and the Odense Symphony Orchestra valued at €13,000.

A multiple competition winner already, Oleg has occupied principal clarinet chairs in the National Presidential Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine and the I Culture Orchestra in Poland. He studied at the National Music Academy of Ukraine with Roman Vovk and at the Musikhochschule Lübeck with Reiner Wehle and Jens Thoben.

If you’d like to judge for yourself whether the jury got its decision right, you can still watch the livestreams of the semi-final (movements from Brahms and Aho Clarinet Quintets) and the grand final (1st movement of Mozart Concerto and complete Nielsen Concerto). Or if you’re short on time, you can watch a three-minute clip of winner Oleg performing the last movement of the Nielsen Concerto in the grand final.