Competition 2024

The European Piano Competition Bremen will take place for the 18th time from February 6th to 13th, 2024. It is open to pianists aged from 16 to 30 years from Europe, the Commonwealth of Independent States, Georgia, Ukraine, Turkey and Israel.

It was originally founded in 1987 as the Bremen Piano Competition and quickly developed into a renowned international competition of the highest standards and quality. The competition aims to support talented pianists headed for an international career. Besides looking for artistic excellence and outstanding musical personalities, it seeks to develop and foster the communication between the contestants and the audience. The participants may showcase their conceptual skills in the semi-final round in a freely chosen recital programme, which is also to be verbally presented to the audience. Moreover, the competition aims to feature contemporary music and works by female composers.

Elements of audience development for all age groups, including children, are an integral part of the competition. In addition, a concert focusing on works from the contestants’ respective home countries underlines the important idea of European cultural exchange. These projects do not only serve to make classical piano music more accessible to everybody but also enhance communication between the local audience and the contestants.

Furthermore, the European Piano Competition Bremen is a cultural encounter between various nations, the audience and artists, fostering an atmosphere of openness, understanding and communication transcending any borders or barriers.

The quarter- and semi-final rounds take place in the wonderful acoustics of the ‘Bremer Sendesaal’; the imposing concert hall ‘Die Glocke’ is the location of the orchestra finale, accompanied by the renowned Bremen Philharmonic Orchestra.

We sincerely thank all sponsors, partners and prize donors who supported the competition 2024:

Die Sparkasse Bremen (Gut für Bremen Stiftung der Sparkasse in Bremen)
Landesmusikrat Bremen e.V.
Sendesaal Bremen
Glocke Veranstaltungs-GmbH
Bremer Philharmoniker GmbH
Deutsches Jugendherbergswerk
Radio Bremen
Familie Saacke
Familie Osmers
Heinz Peter und Annelotte Koch-Stiftung
Waldemar Koch Stiftung
Karin und Uwe Hollweg-Stiftung
Archiv Frau und Musik

Schedule

Information will follow soon.

Jury 2024

Konstanze Eickhorst – Chair (Germany)

Konstanze Eickhorst

The pianist Konstanze Eickhorst is not a musician who is easily pigeonholed: she is a soloist, a chamber musician and a teacher. “These are the three pillars on which my musical life is built,” she said in a recently broadcast interview. Konstanze Eickhorst was a pupil of Karl-Heinz Kämmerling in Hanover and Vlado Perlemuter in Paris. Joachim Kaiser has praised her not only for her “immaculate command of piano technique”, but also for the “intensity of expression” that is her particular hallmark. The jury at the renowned Clara Haskil Competition thought so too, as did the jury of the Géza Anda Competition, at both of which she won first prize. She has also won prizes at the Toronto Bach Competition (in memoriam Glenn Gould) and at Belgium’s Concours Reine Elisabeth. Konstanze Eickhorst appears at many leading international festivals, including Lucerne, Montreux, Salzburg, Ravinia (Chicago) and Berlin. She has also performed with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Toronto Symphony, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Tonhalle Orchestra of Zurich and others, with conductors such as Christoph Eschenbach, Andrew Davis, Peter Schneider, Manfred Honeck and Ingo Metzmacher. She has been privileged to work in a solo capacity with Sándor Végh and Ferdinand Leitner. She is a member of the Linos Ensemble, which performs in combinations ranging from duo to nonet in concert halls throughout the world and has numerous awards and CD recordings to its credit. Her strong interest in merging music and literature led to close collaboration with the late actor Karl Michael Vogler. Since 2010 she has performed with the actor Johanna Gastdorf. Alongside her activities as a solo pianist, Konstanze Eickhorst sees it as her mission to transmit the fruit of her experience to the younger generation of pianists. She was one of the youngest professors in the story of German music-academies when, in 1989, she embarked on her successful teaching career at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hanover. In 1998 the Musikhochschule Lübeck invited her to join its staff. She now conducts masterclasses for soloists and ensembles, and is frequently on the panel of judges at competitions in Germany and abroad.