Schumann Chamber Music Prize Frankfurt

Three or four equal in­stru­ments and voices - three or four so­loists and pas­sio­na­te mu­si­ci­ans. No one sets the pace, the lea­dership chan­ges in the mo­ment, it is an ac­cep­tan­ce, con­ti­nua­ti­on and un­der­li­ning, lea­ding on and gi­ving back. Every voice, every in­stru­ment is the same. And yet the voices and in­stru­ments mer­ge into a roun­ded and yet li­vely and stir­ring sound. Mo­del me­lo­dy li­nes, har­mo­nies, struc­tures and rhythms vi­vid­ly. De­spi­te all the in­stru­ment-spe­ci­fic nu­an­ces, they find a com­mon ap­proach to the mu­si­cal text and a com­mon in­ter­pre­ta­ti­on. That is cham­ber mu­sic. It is dia­log at every mo­ment, am­bi­guous.

The mu­si­ci­ans se­arch for each other with glan­ces, en­cou­ra­ge each other with mo­ve­ment, trace the com­mon breath. A gre­at who­le that re­qui­res a ma­xi­mum of trust, open­ness in ac­tion, dar­ing, self-con­fi­dence in the true sen­se and a sen­se of com­mu­ni­ty in or­der to suc­ceed.
And this is what the vi­si­tors of the new­ly laun­ched Schu­mann Cham­ber Mu­sic Pri­ze can ex­pe­ri­ence
Frank­furt on March 29 and 30 at the HfMDK and on March 30 at the Alte Oper Frank­furt.
Fif­te­en young en­sem­bles will tra­vel from all over the world. They had sent in vi­de­os in ad­van­ce, which were re­view­ed by the jury. They were selec­ted and in­vi­ted to Frank­furt. We are loo­king for­ward to them!

Two days of pia­no cham­ber mu­sic in the Gre­at Hall of the HfMDK, then the fi­na­le in the Mo­zart Hall of the Alte Oper Frank­furt - as part of the cham­ber mu­sic se­ries of the Frank­furt Mu­se­um So­cie­ty. A spe­cial kind of plea­su­re - es­pe­ci­al­ly in times that ques­ti­on the trust in hu­ma­ni­ty, the ide­als of free­dom, equa­li­ty and bro­ther­hood. Cham­ber mu­sic is not a wel­co­me dis­trac­tion. No, it al­lows us to ex­pe­ri­ence what con­sti­tu­tes being hu­man in the best sen­se: re­spect, trust, spi­rit, me­a­ning.

The ve­nues for the cham­ber mu­sic com­pe­ti­ti­on are the Frank­furt Uni­ver­si­ty of Mu­sic and Per­forming Arts and the Alte Oper Frank­furt.
The Schu­mann Cham­ber Mu­sic Pri­ze Frank­furt is or­ga­ni­zed by the Frank­furt Uni­ver­si­ty of Mu­sic and Per­forming Arts and sub­stan­ti­al­ly sup­por­ted by the Dr. Mar­sch­ner Foun­da­ti­on. Part­ners are the Frank­fur­ter Mu­se­ums-Ge­sell­schaft, the Alte Oper Frank­furt, the Ro­bert Schu­mann-Ge­sell­schaft Frank­furt and the Fes­te­burg­kon­zer­te.

The jury will de­ter­mi­ne the fi­nal pri­ze-win­ning en­sem­bles in three jud­ging rounds.

The jury of the In­ter­na­tio­nal Schu­mann Cham­ber Mu­sic Pri­ze Frank­furt con­sists of:

• Krzy­sztof Chor­zel­ski, Pro­fes­sor of Vio­la and Cham­ber Mu­sic at the Ba­ren­bo­im-Said Aca­de­my in Ber­lin and vio­list of the Bel­cea Quar­tet
• Eri­ka Geld­set­zer (chair), lec­tu­rer for vio­lin at the Ber­lin Uni­ver­si­ty of the Arts and vio­li­nist of the Fau­ré Quar­tett
• An­ge­li­ka Merk­le, pro­fes­sor of pia­no cham­ber mu­sic at the HfMDK, ar­tis­tic di­rec­tor of the In­ter­na­tio­nal Schu­mann Cham­ber Mu­sic Pri­ze Frank­furt and the Fes­te­burg Con­certs Frank­furt
• Na­ta­lia Pris­he­pen­ko, pro­fes­sor for vio­lin at the Hoch­schu­le für Mu­sik Carl Ma­ria von We­ber Dres­den
• Mi­cha­el San­der­ling, Pro­fes­sor of Vio­lon­cel­lo at the HfMDK and Princi­pal Con­duc­tor of the Lu­cer­ne Sym­pho­ny Or­ches­tra
• Mi­cha­el Uhde, Pro­fes­sor of Pia­no and Cham­ber Mu­sic at the Karls­ru­he Uni­ver­si­ty of Mu­sic

The re­spec­tive pro­grams and or­der of the en­sem­bles will be pu­blished only at the be­gin­ning of the pu­blic com­pe­ti­ti­on (on March 29, 2022) via this web­site and through no­ti­ces.

All en­sem­bles co­m­ing to Frank­furt will re­cei­ve me­dia ex­po­sure through live streams and ra­dio re­cord­ings. Pri­ze mo­ney to­ta­ling 18,000 eu­ros and fol­low-up con­certs await the win­ners. The Ro­bert Schu­mann So­cie­ty Frank­furt am Mai will also award a spe­cial pri­ze for the most im­pres­si­ve in­ter­pre­ta­ti­on of a work by Ro­bert Schu­mann or his com­pa­n­ions.
Pri­ze mo­ney
- 1st pri­ze: 8,000 eu­ros
- 2nd pri­ze: 6,000 eu­ros
- 3rd pri­ze: 4,000 eu­ros
- Spe­cial pri­ze of the Schu­mann So­cie­ty: 2.000 Euro
An au­di­ence award will also be pre­sen­ted du­ring the fi­nal round at the Alte Oper.

Coa­ching and con­sul­ting 'Paths to the fu­ture
Af­ter the com­pe­ti­ti­on, the three en­sem­bles in the fi­nal round will also be gi­ven the op­por­tu­ni­ty for an in­di­vi­du­al work­shop day. Here, the mu­si­ci­ans will hone their in­di­vi­du­al en­sem­ble pro­fi­le tog­e­ther with pro­fes­sio­nals from both the HfMDK and ex­ter­nal con­sul­tants.