The lareates of this year’s Dr. Hermann Büttner piano contest performed on June 14, 2024, in the Velte Saal of the University of Music in Karlsruhe.

The winner of the promotional prize Matteo Gobbini performed works by Rachmaninow and Kapustin. As winner of the second prize Tomonori Murakami played from the Goyescas by Granados the ballad “Love and Death” which he had also performed in the contest audition.

JiHun Hong, winner of the first prize, performed the programme from the second round of this year’s contest: the piano quintet f minor op. 34 by Johannes Brahms. The string quartet consisted of Adrian Kratzert and Leo Esselson (violin), Henriette Brunner (viola) and Konstatin Pointner (cello); it was this quartet which had also played in the second round of the auditions together with als participants that had reached the second round.

The Badische Neueste Nachrichten covered the concert. Find the article here (source: Badischen Neueste Nachichten / bnn.de).

Here displayed are some photo impressions of the concert:

The Dr. Hermann Büttner piano contest celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2023. For this reason, a grand concert was performed on June 28, 2023, in the Rihm-Forum of the University of Music in Karlsruhe.

The concert was opened with an outstanding vocal performance by Yukari Fukuri (soprano) and Yuan Ma (piano).

Followong that, this year’s laureates of the contest for piano and violin took stage. The first prize was gained by the duo of Adrian Kratzert (violin) and WooRim Lee (piano), the second prize was awarded to the duo of Yung-Ning Chang (violin) and Zhongzhi Sun (piano).

Additionally, some of the laureates of the piano contest 2022 for piano solo performed: Soojung-Daria Kim, JiHun Hong, Matteo Weber and Robert Toshiki Esau.

Here displayed are some impressions in photography from the anniversary concert (all pictures by Christiane Haumann-Frietsch, Baden-Baden, kindly permitted).

The Dr. Hermann Büttner piano contest has been carried out on June 3 and 4, 2023. The auditions took place from 10:00h on in the Velte-Saal of Schloss Gottesau. This year, the contest has been summoned for the performance of piano with violin.

Find the description for this year’s contest on the website of the University of Music here (German).

The Dr. Hermann Büttner piano contest 2022 was carried out on May 21 and 22, 2022, as contest for piano solo. Within a programme free to be chosen two Etudes werde required in a first round, one of which by Frédéric Chopin, and a work by Johannes Brahms and a work from the Vienna classic by either Joseph Haydn, Wolfang Amadeus Mozart or Ludwig van Beethoven in a second round.

Four equally funded main prizes of 2.500 € each ware rewarded to Soojung Daria Kim and Matteo Weber (class of professor Spiedel) and Ji Hun Hong and Toshiki Esau (class of Professor Domingos).

Additionaly, two promotional prizes of 1.000 € each ware rewarded to Mingjie Guo and Yesol Suh.

The laureates performed the programme of the laureate’s concert on Mai 30, 2022, in the Velte-Saal of the Karlsruhe University of Music.

Read the press release (German) on the contestst 2022 here.

On November 6 and 7, 2021, after a pause due to the pandamic in 2020, the Dr. Hermann Büttner piano contest could be held again. This year’s contest was announced as contest für piano quartets. Works from three epochs were required with one movement from one of the quartets by Mozart as well mandatory as one work from th 20th century in the first rount of the contest and a work from the epoch of romanticism in the second round.

There were two promotional prizes of 2.000 € rewarded: one to the quartet comprising Katharina Kreutz (piano), Alexander Kozarov (violin), Silja Hofmann (viola) and Meri Yamahita (cello); another promitional prize of 2.000 € was rewarded to a quartet in which Yejin Ahn (piano), Jina Kim (violin), Jihye Lee (viola) and Ahram Woo (cello) had performed.

Furthermore, two equally ranking second prizes of 6.000 € each have been awarded to a quartet with WooRim Lee (piano), Natsumi Nakamura (violin), Jihye Lee (viola) and Yumin Lee (cello) as well as to another quartet comprising Hyunhee Hwang (piano), Leo Esselson (violin), Hansol Lee (viola) and Gwangkyun Moon (cello).

The laureates performed parts of their programme during the laureate’s concert on November 9, 2021, in the Velte-Saal of the Karlsruhe University of Music.

Read the press relaease (German) related to the piano contest 2021 here.

 

The Adler Büttner Foundation has achieved to produce a double CD including recordings of 19 young pianists and chamber musicians that have won prizes at the Dr. Hermann Büttner piano contest over the past ten years. A first CD comprises pieces of piano solo while a second CD compiles chamber music with rather seldom heard pieces of great composers as well as some not so well known composers starting from Johann Sebastian Bach into the present times. The recordings have been professionally produced in February 2020 in the studio of the SWR broadcasting service in Kaiserslautern; they go along with a comprehensive booklet (both in German and English language) that gives detailed background information on the performing artists.

The Adler Büttner Stiftung is ready to provide single copies of the double CD at request – and would highly appreciate kind donations as a contribution to the production costs.

In 2019 the Dr. Hermann Büttner piano contest has carried out as contest for trio with piano.

Prizes have been awarded to in total three trios. A promotional prize of 1.800 € has been awarded to the trio comprising Olivier Girardin (flute), Sofia Orgas (violoncello) and Yejin Ahn (piano). A second prize in the amount of 3.000 € has been granted to the “0. limits trio” consisting of Hua Shao (violin), Wei-Luen Lee (violoncello) and Mingjie Guo (piano).

The “Trio May” with Yoerae Kim (violin), Andreas Schmalhofer (violoncello) and Mijeok Gwon (piano) has won the first prize and an amount of 6.000 €.

The laureates have performed in their laureate’s concert on November 7, 2019, in the Velte-Saal.

Find the press release of the University of Music on the contest here (German only).

On November 17 and 18, 2018 auditions were held for the Dr. Hermann Büttner piano contest. The contest was held for piano solo works. Pieces by Debussy, Chopin and Vienna Classics were mandatory. The following contestants were awarded:

• promotional prizes of 500 EUR each to Hyunhee Hwang and Katharina Kreutz,
• second prizes of equal ranking (1.500 EUR each) to Sion Choi, Rie Kibayashi and WooRim Lee and
• as a first prize a one year scholarship of 3.600 EUR to Uram Kim.

The laureates’ concert was performed on November 23, 2018 in the Velte-Saal of Schloss Gottesaue.

Find the press release of the Karlsruhe University of Music here.

The foundation took the opportunity to celebrate the twenty years of existence of the Dr. Hermann Büttner piano contest through a grand concert evening on May 24, 2018, at the Wolfgang-Rihm-Forum of the University of Music in Karlsruhe. First laureates of the past contests performed four piano concerts:

• Johann Sebastian Bach, concert for three pianos C major BWV 1064 – Fil Liotis, Mihee Kim and Sion Choi, piano
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, concert for two pianos E flat major KV 365 – Frank Dupree and Jee Eun Franziska Lee, piano
• Robert Schumann, piano concert a minor op. 54 – Gloria Campaner, piano
• Sergei W. Rachmaninow, Rhapsody on a theme by Paganini op. 43 – Regina Chernychko, piano

The pianists were accomponied by the Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz, conducted by Frank Dupree.