Like last time, another student of the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory won the award: Anton Yashkin from Russia won the 1st Prize of the 9th International FRANZ LISZT Piano Competition Weimar – Bayreuth, endowed with 12,000 Euro. In the fourth, final round, the 20-year-old performed on Friday evening, November 9, 2018 in the sold-out Weimarhalle fulminant Franz Liszt’s “Totentanz” with an orchestra of members of the Staatskapelle Weimar and teachers and students of the University of Music FRANZ LISZT Weimar. The line was headed by Ekhart Wycik.

Endowed with 8,000 euros 2nd prize, donated in large part by the NEW LISZT FOUNDATION, the 21-year-old Italian Ruben Micieli earned. The 3rd prize of 5,000 euros, donated by the Rotary Club Bayreuth – Hermitage, won the 23-year-old Greek Grigoris Ioannou. The 9th International FRANZ LISZT Piano Competition Weimar – Bayreuth was organized by the University of Music FRANZ LISZT Weimar in cooperation with the City of Bayreuth. The competition was largely financed by the Free State of Thuringia and the City of Bayreuth. Valuable support was provided by the Upper Franconia Foundation, the NEUE LISZT STIFTUNG and the piano manufacturer Steingraeber & Söhne Bayreuth.

In addition to the first prize, Anton Yashkin also won the Audience Prize, endowed with 1,000 euros, donated by the Grand Hotel Russischer Hof. The second prizewinner Ruben Micieli was additionally awarded the special prize of € 1,000 for the best interpretation of the Franz Liszt Sonata in B minor. Another special prize of 1,000 euros for a particularly gifted participant (prize winners excluded), donated by the NEW LISZT FOUNDATION, went to Tamta Magradze (Georgia).

Maria Khokhlova (Russia) won a piano recital in the Steingraeber Rococo Hall during the Bayreuth Festival season 2019 with a concert fee of 1,500 euros, donated by the piano manufacturer Steingraeber & Söhne. In addition, a special prize of 500 euros for the best interpretation of a work by Claude Debussy, donated by the Ming Cheng Institute (Leipzig / Halle), was awarded to Yoshito Kitabata (Japan).

The scholarship for the most talented Eastern European participant (winner excluded) for one semester at the University of Music FRANZ LISZT Weimar, donated by Dr. med. Rainer Braunschweig (Hamburg), received Victoria Baskakova from Russia.

The winners of the 9th International FRANZ LISZT Piano Competition will be on Saturday, 10th November at 20:00 o’clock once again in the Evangelische Gemeindehaus in Bayreuth to experience: There they interpret in a prize-winner concert solo works from their competition program. A recording of the final concert in Weimar will be broadcast on 23rd November at 20:05 on Deutschlandfunk Kultur and on 11 December at 20:05 on MDR Kultur.

A total of 42 participants were nominated for this year’s competition following a preselection. While the first round was held in the Wagnersaal of the Musikschule Bayreuth (31.10-3.11.), The participants changed for the second (5./6.11.) And the third round (7.11.) To the Princely House of the Weimar Musikhochschule. Judges included Jolf-Gerhard Otto, Rolf-Dieter Arens (Germany), Aquiles delle Vigne (Belgium), Wolfgang Döberlein (Germany), Carsten Dürer (Germany), Gabriel Kwok (Hong Kong), Muza Rubackyte (Germany) Lithuania), Natalia Trull (Russia), Makoto Ueno (Japan) and Michael Wladkowski (France).

The 10th International FRANZ LISZT Piano Competition Weimar – Bayreuth will take place in Bayreuth and Weimar in 2021.

Further information: www.hfm-weimar.de/liszt

The winners:

Anton Yashkin (Russia), 1st prize
As with the last Liszt competition in 2015, a student of the State Conservatory Peter I. Tchaikovsky from Moscow reached the final again with Anton Yashkin. Born in 1998, Russe first attended the Central Music School of the conservatory as a junior student before taking up regular studies there two years ago. In addition to playing the piano, which has captivated him since he was five years old, he is also passionate about chess and technology. In 2017, Anton Yashkin participated in piano competitions in Spain and Latvia and won the 2nd prize at the Jazep Vitola Competition in Riga. He gained his first orchestral experience with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra and the National Baltic Orchestra.

Ruben Micieli (Italy), 2nd prize
He loves the piano, “because you can use it to portray an entire orchestra”: Ruben Micieli has been faithful to his instrument since the age of five, debuted as a 13-year-old with solo recitals, has already won many first prizes – and is pleased that he It has now made it to the final in its first “really big” competition. Born in 1997 in Ragusa (Italy), he has been studying under the tutelage of Prof. Giovanni Cultrera at the Istituto Superiore di Studi Musicali Vincenzo Bellini in Catania since 2006, currently in the Master’s degree. Ruben Micieli has played solo and orchestral concerts throughout Europe, including the Salle Cortot in Paris and the Teatro La Fenice in Venice. Most recently, in February, he won first prize at the Coimbra World Piano Competition in Portugal.

Grigoris Ioannou (Greece), 3rd prize
The B minor Sonata and Piano Concertos are his favorite works by Franz Liszt. It was all the better for Grigoris Ioannou to perform both in the semifinals and in the final. Born in Greece in 1995, the young pianist is no longer a stranger in his native country: he was recently celebrated for his interpretation of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 20 KV 466 with the Athens State Orchestra. Concerts and recitals also took him to France, Great Britain, Russia, Hungary and many other European countries. He is a graduate of the Royal College of Music in London and is currently studying at the Academia Internacional de Musica in Coimbra (Portugal).