INTERNATIONAL YOUNG ARTISTS AND WINNERS
„on these three CDs I am thrilled to present seven highly gifted young pianists who gave their début performances at the Ruhr Piano Festival 2019 – promising artists from whom we can expect and are sure to hear much more in the future. The most recent volumes of our Ruhr Piano Festival Boxed Edition mainly featured work of the 18th and 19th centuries, in accordance with each Festival edition’s chosen themes; this year, however, we can feature Baroque und Early Classical repertoire on almost two entire CDs. On CD 3 we then plunge headlong into the Romantic 19th century with major challenging works by Brahms and Liszt. ……“ (Excerpt from the forword by Franz Xaver Ohnesorg, Director)
“In 2019 the Ruhr Piano Festival once more ensured that a great number of inspiring piano recitals could take place in the region. Once musical highlight chased the other, practically from day to day, from May to June 2019. Over 50,000 music lovers attended 61 concerts on 34 podiums in 23 cities: the numbers speak for themselves. ……The choice of repertoire and interpreters directed our attention towards the biographies of performers and composers, revealing connections across generations and among human beings stemming from the most of divers cultural and national backgrounds. …We can create true marvels togerther, provided that our continent remains close-knits – knowing neither borders nor frontiers, especially not in our minds……“ (Excerpt from the foreword of the patron of the festival – Dr. Rolf Martin Schmitz, CEO of the RWE AG)
ELISABETH BRAUß
Born in 1995, Elisabeth Brauß studied in the classes of Elena Levit, Matti Raekallio, and Bernd Goetzke at the Hannover University of Music, Theatre and Media. She has given performances at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, in the Tonhalle Zurich, in the Barbican Centre in London, at
the Konzerthaus Berlin, at the Heidelberg Spring Festival, at Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, and at the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival. As a soloist, she has performed with orchestras such as Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, and the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen. In addition to first prizes at the International Steinway Competition in Hamburg and at the International Grotrian Steinweg Piano Competition in Braunschweig, she was also awarded the Lower Saxony Prätorus Music Prize in 2012. She went on to win first prize at the TONALi Grand Prix in Hamburg in 2012, first prize in the “Sound and Explanation” competition in Frankfurt in 2015, and the KlavierOlymp in Bad Kissingen in 2016. In 2019 she gave her first performance at the Ruhr Piano Festival.
GIUSEPPE GUARRERA
Born in Sicily, Giuseppe Guarrera has been studying in the class of Nelson Goerner at the Berlin Barenboim-Said Academy since 2018, after having previously studied in Italy and at the Hanns Eisler University of Music in Berlin. Appearances with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Vasily Petrenko, with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of London, the Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal, and the Orchestra of La Fenice (Venice) under Dmitri Kitaenko have been some of the highlights of his career. For the inaugural concert of the new Pierre Boulez Auditorium in Berlin, Giuseppe Guarrera premièred a new piano concerto by Benjamin Attahir with the Pierre Boulez Ensemble conducted by Daniel Barenboim. Guarrera has also performed in Brussels, in Paris, at the Sony Auditorium in Madrid, at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice, at the Verdi Theatre in Trieste and at the Bologna Festival. During his studies, Guarrera won a series of distinctions including 2nd Prize at the James Mottram Competition in Manchester (2015) and 1st Prize at the Concorso Nazionale Premio in Venice (2010). He has actively participated in masterclasses given by masters of their craft including Daniel Barenboim, Ferenc Rados, Sergei Babayan, and Michel Beroff; he also worked as the assistant of Eberhard Feltz at Hanns Eisler University and as the assistant of Nelson Goerner at the Barenboim-Said Academy. In 2018, Elena Bashkirova selected him as that year’s Festival Scholarship holder, which led to his début at the Festival in 2019.
GIUSEPPE GUARRERA
Born in Sicily, Giuseppe Guarrera has been studying in the class of Nelson Goerner at the Berlin Barenboim-Said Academy since 2018, after having previously studied in Italy and at the Hanns Eisler University of Music in Berlin. Appearances with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Vasily Petrenko, with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of London, the Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal, and the Orchestra of La Fenice (Venice) under Dmitri Kitaenko have been some of the highlights of his career. For the inaugural concert of the new Pierre Boulez Auditorium in Berlin, Giuseppe Guarrera premièred a new piano concerto by Benjamin Attahir with the Pierre Boulez Ensemble conducted by Daniel Barenboim. Guarrera has also performed in Brussels, in Paris, at the Sony Auditorium in Madrid, at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice, at the Verdi Theatre in Trieste and at the Bologna Festival. During his studies, Guarrera won a series of distinctions including 2nd Prize at the James Mottram Competition in Manchester (2015) and 1st Prize at the Concorso Nazionale Premio in Venice (2010). He has actively participated in masterclasses given by masters of their craft including Daniel Barenboim, Ferenc Rados, Sergei Babayan, and Michel Beroff; he also worked as the assistant of Eberhard Feltz at Hanns Eisler University and as the assistant of Nelson Goerner at the Barenboim-Said Academy. In 2018, Elena Bashkirova selected him as that year’s Festival Scholarship holder, which led to his début at the Festival in 2019.