News

A pianist’s life is quite solitary normally, and often they meet one another as competitors. The Géza Anda-Foundation is launching a new series of events where laureates of various of our competitions and other friends of the Foundation unite to make music together. The first concert is a “Schubertiade” with Anton Gerzenberg, Marek Kozák and Ilya Shmuklerplaying piano music for two, four and six hands by Schubert, but also Mozart, Chopin, Dvořák, Brahms, Rachmaninoff, Schumann, Czerny and Bach/Rachmaninoff at the Widder Saal in Zurich, Augustinergasse 27, 14 May 2025 at 7.30 p.m.

This is a collaboration with our partners Widder Hotel and The Living Circle.

For tickets, please pay CHF 39 to the Twint account at the link below.

Our new CD and first collaboration with label Prospero Classical contains unreleased radio broadcasts from the 1963 Lucerne and 1974 Salzburg Festivals. Géza Anda plays with the Philharmonia Orchestra (Brahms 1) and the Vienna Philharmonic (Mozart 18), respectively, conducted on both occasions by Karl Böhm. After breaking listener’s records since its publication, it has just won an ICMA Award in the category “Historical Recordings”. The award ceremony takes places on 19 March at Tonhalle Düsseldorf. 

Ilya Shmukler (1st prize), Daumants Liepiņš and Dmitry Yudin (shared 2nd prize) are the winners of the 16th Concours Géza Anda! A shower of further awards was bestowed upon them and other excellent participants in this year’s edition: Wataru Hisasue, Laura Mota Pello, Valentin Malinin, Konstantin Khachikyan, Hyuk Lee and Aristo Sham.

Six Swiss music universities in Geneva, Lausanne, Berne, Basle, Zurich and Lugano, and the Rahn Kulturfonds recommended young pianists for the first Géza Anda Junior Jury. They will follow the entire competition and award prizes of their own. The Swiss group will be joined by a member of the Rubinstein Junior Jury 2023, who will also act as their speaker. Among others, this project is intended to strengthen ties between the piano departments of Swiss music universities and the Géza Anda-Foundation. Moreover, it gives students a profound insight into a decisive constituent of their profession.

From over a 160 applications with a very high standard, 42 candidates have been invited to the 16thConcours Géza Anda 2024. We are looking forward to welcoming them in Zurich on 29 May.

The entire Géza Anda Competition will be streamed live on our Youtube channel. Tickets for the Mozart-Semifinals and the Final Concert can be obtained through the box offices of Musikkollegium Winterthur and Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, respectively.

For some time now, our prizewinner Marek Kozák has been performing forgotten Czech piano concertos from the late 19^th and first half of the 20^th century, at the Prague National Theatre under Robert Jindra, among others. Now, these fascinating concertos by Kovařovic, Bořkovec and Kaprálová have been released on CD by “Supraphon”. Although written at different periods, all three concertos are characterised by Rachmaninoffesque symphonic grandeur, an energetic verve and effusively lyrical tunes. A highly recommended listen!  

The Fondation Thiébaud-Frey endows an award for a prizewinner of the 16^thConcours Géza Anda, which is worth CHF 3000 and includes a recital at the cultural centre La Prairie in Bellmund, Switzerland.  

The G. Henle Beethoven Prize will be awarded by the competition jury for the most convincing interpretation of a work by Ludwig van Beethoven during the 16th Concours Géza Anda. With this endowment, G. Henle Verlag would like to raise awareness among competition participants of the crucial role played by an authentic score in musical interpretation. G. Henle Verlag is considered the first and foremost publisher of urtext editions. To this end, the prizewinner will be given access to a large number of Henle Urtext editions – either in print, or in digital form.

A new collaboration between the Géza Anda-Foundation and the National Academy of Music « Prof. Pancho Vladigerov » in Sofia allows Mihály Berecz to prepare Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto for his debut the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam on 2^nd March. Julian Trevelyan will try out Rachmaninov’s Third Piano Concerto, which he hopes to present at the forthcoming Leeds Piano Competition. 

Our laureates will rehearse these works for three days in Sofia with the Academic Orchestra and an experienced conductor, Konstantin Ilievsky. On 14^th February, they perform them before an illustrious audience at the Music Academy. On that occasion, Julian will also conduct a piece by Pancho Vladigerov, the most eminent Bulgarian composer, who was born on 13^th March 125 years ago in Zurich.

His appointment as intendant of the Ruhr Piano Festival in 2005 was followed one year later by the chairmanship of the jury for the Concours Géza Anda 2006, at the invitation of its founder, Hortense Anda.

One of the most influential figures in international music management since the early 1980s, Franz Xaver Ohnesorg was not only an enthusiastic discoverer and promoter of artists but also a tireless ambassador for the promotion of music in many shapes and genres – particularly for “classical music”.

The greatest achievement in his life was probably the creation and rise of his Ruhr Piano Festival, where his long tenure as artistic director and intendant was to come to a crowning conclusion for him at the end of this year with the last of three charity concerts on 25th November, performed by great artist friends such as Martha Argerich and Anne-Sophie Mutter for the handover to the new director of the festival, Katrin Zagrosek.

Among his wide interests, he always pursued piano music and pianists with a special passion. Therefore, it was only natural that he should let himself be persuaded to chair the jury for the 16th Concours Géza Anda 2024 out of his longstanding appreciation and relationship with his friends in Zurich.

The news of his sudden death took us completely by surprise. Our deepest thoughts are now with his family.

The winner of the 15th Concours Géza Anda, Anton Gerzenberg, will play Felix Mendelssohn’s First Piano Concerto in place of András Schiff in Winterthur on 17th and 18th January. The Musikkollegium Winterthur will be playing, conducted by Estonian conductor Anu Tali. In 2022, Anton had already stepped in at very short notice with this virtuoso concerto in Zurich’s Tonhalle, conducted by Paavo Järvi.

The Musikkollegium Winterthur is one of the oldest orchestras in Switzerland with a splendid past. Composers such as Hindemith, Honegger, Schönberg, R. Strauss, Stravinsky and Webern wrote written pieces for the orchestra, which prides itself of having worked with great musicians such as Hermann Scherchen, Franz Welser-Möst, Heinrich Schiff, Thomas Zehetmair and currently Roberto González-Monjas as chief conductors. The Mozart-Semifinal of the 16th Concours Géza Anda 2024 on 5 and 6 June this year will be conducted by Mikhail Pletnev.

The 16th Concours Géza Anda takes place between 30 May and 8 June in Zurich and Winterthur.

The winner of the Liszt-Bartók Prize of the 15th Concours Géza Anda, Mihály Berecz, wins the Kissinger KlavierOlymp 2023 with a magnificently performed recital and a brilliant appearance during the final concert. As a prize, a concert performance with orchestra awaits Mihály at the renowned German festival Kissinger Sommer next year.

After the final concert on 8th October, the Kissingen jury of experts from various fields in the music industry announced: “The 26-year-old pianist from Hungary combines musicality, stylistic determination and joyful performance in the highest degree. He convinced the jury with his technical ability, wit, timing and the structural awareness of his interpretations.”

The Kissinger KlavierOlymp’s final concert was recorded by Bayerischer Rundfunk and will be broadcast on 21st October at 15:05 on BR-Klassik and on 27th October at 20:03 on Deutschlandfunk Kultur.

On 2nd June, Syrian violinist Bilal Alnemr and Czech pianist Marek Kozák played music by Smetana, Ysaÿe and Grieg for a good-humoured adult audience at the “Razzia” in Zurich, while on 3rd June, during a family concert titled “Tchaikovsky and his Nutcracker”, children’s eyes shone brightly – and not only because of the unexpected Christmas cookies, which were handed out to them.

“In Touch with Talent” has been run jointly by the Géza Anda-Foundation and the Orpheum-Foundation for many years. Both foundations are dedicated to the promotion of young musicians.

In the run-up to the 16th Concours Géza Anda 2024, a morning event was also held for host families, during which Marek Kozák played an interesting Rachmaninoff programme. We are still looking for host parents for the next Concours; you can find more information here.

The next Concours Géza Anda will be carried out between 30^th May und 8^th June 2024 in Zurich and Winterthur. It is open to participants from all countries who are born after 30^th May 1992. Details will be published on this website in Spring.

In 2021, Giorgi was awarded the Hortense Anda-Bührle Special Prize at the 15th Concours Géza Anda. The Géza Anda-Foundation recommended him to the Kissinger KlavierOlymp, where he won two prizes and was introduced to Sonia Simmenauer, who invited him to join her new project zukunfts.music and to become an artist of the Classeek Ambassador Programme.

Last week, one of Giorgi’s dreams came true, when he won as many as nine prizes at the Rubinstein-Competition in Tel Aviv, including the competition’s Silver Medal, the Chamber Music Prize, an Israeli Piece Prize, the Junior Jury Prize and five Audience Favourite Prizes from Tel Aviv and other regions in the country.

At the same time, Giorgi’s first solo CD, “Meeting My Shadow” is due to appear with label ALPHA very soon.

20 years ago, Alexei Volodin won the First Prize at the IX Concours Géza Anda in front of a renowned jury in the Great Hall of the Tonhalle Zurich. Since then, he has pursued an illustrious worldwide career. On 1 February 2023, he returns to the place of his victory with a rare recital, dedicated to Chopin. A beautiful opportunity to reminisce and rediscover this fantastic pianist.

Those who discovered his pianistic talents live at one of his 5 performances in Winterthur last week – and even more those who did not have a chance to be present – Julian’s new CD with two of the greatest Mozart Concertos, K. 488 and K. 491, might be of interest. They were recorded in Vienna with RSO Wien and Christian Zacharias and have just been released by label Alpha as part of the series “Next Generation Mozart Soloists”, which is produced by our partner, Orpheum-Stiftung.

Come and listen to Giorgi Gigashvili’s recital debut with music by Scarlatti, Beethoven, Messiaen and Schumann at Tonhalle Zurich on 14th November! This season foresees several exciting debuts for Giorgi. Moreover, Lisa Batiashvili invited him to record the Franck Sonata with her for a beautiful new CD just published by Deutsche Grammophon.

Julian Trevelyan plays Bartók’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with Musikkollegium Winterthur five times between November 9th and 11th. 11th November is dedicated to a school’s project, whereby the students illustrate the music by means of a special app.

A huge bravo and thank you to the participants of our masterclass Mikhail Pletnev and their work with the Luzerner Sinfonieorchester! Following the concert on 8th September at Zurich’s Kleine Tonhalle, an audience poll determined that Anna Tsybuleva was to be awarded the audience prize. The Luzerner Sinfonieorchester evaluated the rehearsal process and its realisation during the concerts. After a vote amongst the musicians, the orchestra prize was also bestowed upon Anna Tsybuleva.