For the nine nominees for the International German Pianist Award, things will get serious in a few days: On October 18 and 19, these candidates, who were selected by a jury from 140 applicants from all over the world on the basis of videos sent in, will present their solo programs in the Frankfurt Literaturhaus in three rounds of further decision.

As soon as this has been decided, the winner will travel to Baden-Baden on the same day for orchestral rehearsals with the local Philharmonic Orchestra in order to be able to present the result at the “Grand Prix Final Concert” on October 20 in the Alte Oper.

Guido Holze

Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

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The prize money for the winner in the amount of 20,000 euros and the audience award endowed with 3000 euros are only part of the funding for the Frankfurt-based International Piano Forum, which is now holding the competition for the tenth time after the pandemic-related cancellation last year.

The initiative, which was founded as an association in 2008 and annually acquires up to 400,000 euros in private funding, supports all nominees in the long term, for example by arranging performances and CD productions.

Maryam Maleki, the full-time volunteer initiator and president of the International Piano Forum, is now looking at the concentrated program with particular excitement after the disappointment caused by the two cancellations in the previous year had been so great.

"An enormous administrative burden"

After all, the competition originally scheduled for March 2020 could not be held on the catch-up date in December. After a lot of work, it was only about "damage limitation", reports Maryam Maleki. 1500 tickets had already been sold, most of which had to be reimbursed: “That was an enormous administrative burden.” The President, who was enthusiastic about the fact that two piano evenings with sponsors of the Piano Forum could be streamed live in April 2020, is delighted the music and the promotion of young talents give the strongest motivation.

On her initiative, one of the nominees from the previous year will now take part in the competition: Jung Eun Séverine Kim, born in Seoul in 1994, is one of four young Korean stars who can be heard in Frankfurt alongside two Russians, a Chinese, a Swiss and an Austrian will be. The excellent German-speaking artist cannot say for herself why there are so many outstanding musical talents in Korea and why K-Pop has long been successful in addition to K-Pop: “Many children in Korea play instruments, and there are very good early intervention in academies, ”she says.

In addition to the regular school, which was “a kind of music gymnasium”, she attended the Korean National Institute for the Gifted in Arts in her hometown as a young student, where she was trained in music theory and music theory as well as instrumental lessons - “similar to one German university ". Her mother and father were not at all musically active as teachers and journalists and did not push them in this direction, as Kim describes. Only her older sister has already played the piano, and that's what she wanted. She soon practiced voluntarily for several hours every day: “The piano was my childhood best friend,” she says with a beaming smile.

When she was 17 years old, her Korean piano teacher recommended that she study with Professor Bernd Goetzke at the Hanover University of Music, which is considered a pianist stronghold, where she is currently still enrolled in the concert exam course.

As a minor and without any knowledge of German, she came to Germany for the first time with her mother in order to be able to go looking for an apartment with her, among other things.

Already performed worldwide

Equipped with scholarships and prizes, she gave concerts around the world even before the pandemic and last summer also initiated something that - like the native Persian Maryam Maleki - has made her a volunteer cultural organizer in Germany: with her German partner, who is also As a pianist, she launched the “Celler Summer Concerts” festival with seven very well-attended events.

The competition for the International German Pianist Prize will be held on October 18 and 19 in the Frankfurt Literaturhaus.

The final concert in the Alte Oper begins on October 20th at 7 p.m.

More information at www.

ipf-frankfurt.com, cards at 069/1340400

.