The Ruhr Piano Festival Prize 2020

Evgeny Kissin

Each year, the Ruhr Piano Festival Prize honors an artist whose life achievement is closely connected with the Festival. Compensation consists in a scholarship granted by the prize-winner to a young pianist of his/her choice, who is invited to play a début recital at the Festival the following year.

Evgeny Kissin is acclaimed all over the world as one of the great pianists of our time. For over three decades he has been making the most outstanding international concert halls his home. Kissin, a modest and reticent artist, impresses audiences with formidable technique and rare musical depth. He performed his début at the Ruhr Piano Festival in 2004 with a programme centered on Chopin. In 2014 he returned with sonatas by Schubert and Scriabin, and in 2016 he gave a trio recital with Julian Rachlin and Mischa Maisky.

Then, in 2018, he performed the Festival’s New Year Concert with the Emerson String Quartet, before giving an acclaimed solo recital with Beethoven sonatas in 2019. Full of gratitude and delight in view of the intense musical moments he has offered us, we have chosen to acknowledge Evgeny Kissin’s sublime artistry by awarding him the Ruhr Piano Festival Prize on the occasion of his appearance this year at the Festival. We are already looking forward to his return for our New Year Concert in 2021!

THE HITHERTO 24 PRIZEWINNERS THE PRIZEWINNERS SELECTED THE FOLLOWING PIANISTS FOR A RUHR PIANO FESTIVAL SCHOOLARSHIP:
Bella Davidovich 1998 Peter Józsa
Daniel Barenboim 1999 Saleem Abboud Ashkar
Dmitri Bashkirov 2000 Denis Lossev
Graham Johnson 2001 Joseph Breinl
Leon Fleisher 2002 Nicholas Angelich
Pierre-Laurent Aimard 2003 Tamara Stefanovich
Alfred Brendel 2004 Tim Horton
Pierre Boulez 2005 David Fray
Chick Corea 2006 Gwilym Simcock
Martha Argerich 2007 Mauricio Vallina
Maurizio Pollini 2008
András Schiff 2009 Juho Pohjonen
Grigory Sokolov 2010 Alexander Mogilevsky
Elisabeth Leonskaja 2011 Juan Pérez Floristán
Radu Lupu 2012 Martín García
Marc-André Hamelin 2013 Charlie Albright
Krystian Zimerman 2014
Hélène Grimaud 2015 Aidan Mikdad
Arcardi Volodos 2016 Lucas Jussen
Philip Glass gemeinsam mit
Dennis Russell Davies & Maki
Namekawa		 2017 Sergei Redkin
Elena Bashkirova 2018 Giuseppe Guarrera
Michel Camilo 2019 A Bu
Evgeny Kissin 2020 N.N.

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