Providing all-round support for the careers of young pianists is one of the Ruhr Piano Festival’s major concerns, and we put this into practice in several annual projects – our masterclasses, our concerts entitled “Best of the Best”, and the annual piano student marathon ExtraSchicht, to name but a few. Our CD’s produced in collaboration with FonoForum magazine are certainly one of the most important factors designed to help these young artists launch their international careers. Recordings of selected recitals are featured on cover mount CD’s in monthly editions of FonoForum, along with a major artist profile inside the magazine. Such measures manage to attain a widespread audience, awakening the curiosity of producers, managers and the music industry as a whole. Ideally, the featured artist will soon be signing an exclusive contract with a major classical music label. Volume 28 of “Edition Klavier-Festival Ruhr” is already our 6th collection of portrait CD’s with live concert recordings of young artists on the verge of a major international career. Four of the five performances featured here were début appearances at the Ruhr Piano Festival. As you see, the Festival is constantly keeping its “eyes and ears” on the lookout for new, promising talent. Thus, I am proud to present:

Benjamin Moser garnered international attention for the first time in 2007 when he was among the prizewinners at the Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition in Moscow. In his sold-out Ruhr Piano Festival début in Moers, he tackled Beethoven’s formidable “Tempest” sonata, among other pieces, with an entirely individual performance highlighting special timbre effects.

Alexander Mogilevsky came to the Festival as a scholarship holder in 2010. Born in Odessa, he was supported, among others, by Martha Argerich after finishing his studies. To celebrate the Liszt Year at the Ruhr Piano Festival in 2011, Mogilevsky gave impressive performances of works by that great Hungarian composer.

Boris Giltburg came to the Festival in 2011 as winner of the 2nd Prize at the Arthur Rubinstein Competition in Tel Aviv. In his début Festival performance, he thrilled our audience with a technically challenging programme of the highest calibre.

Denis Kozhukhin was already present among Festival performers in 2006 as one of Dmitri Bashkirov’s students in our series “Great Piano Schools of Our Time”, and portions of his performance are included in Vol. 15 of the Edition Klavier- Festival Ruhr CD series. In 2011, Kozhukhin returned to the Festival as the absolute winner of the Brussels Reine Elisabeth Competition – thus confirming, in a sense, the longterm efficiency and impact of our programmes in favour of young artists.

Sophie-Mayuko Vetter is astounding in her relentless musical curiosity and remarkable for her sensitive, intelligent programming. Her recital included Peter Ruzicka’s FÜNF SZENEN as a world premiere.