Jeonghwan Kim and Gorka Plada win the Bartók World Competition 2025
South Korean-German pianist Jeonghwan Kim, a student in Prof. Konrad Maria Engel's piano class, has won first prize at the prestigious Bartók World Competition 2025 at the Liszt Academy in Budapest. The prize is endowed with €22,000. Jeonghwan Kim also received prizes for the best Bartók interpretation and for the best performance of a contemporary work.
Spanish pianist Gorka Plada, who studies with Prof. Eldar Nebolsin at the Eisler Berlin, also received an award at the competition: together with Hungarian pianist Ildikó Rozsonits, he won second prize, worth €8,000 each.
Jeonghwan Kim was born in Seoul in 2000 and came to Berlin in 2011. He began his piano training at the age of six, which led to early national successes. Until 2016, he was a junior student with Thomas Just, and since 2017 he has been studying with Prof. Konrad Maria Engel at the Hanns Eisler School of Music Berlin. He has won numerous awards at internationally renowned competitions, including the Sydney International Piano Competition, the Sendai International Music Competition, the Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy University Competition, the Franz Liszt Piano Competition in Weimar and the Aarhus International Piano Competition. A versatile musician, Jeonghwan Kim performs regularly as a soloist and in chamber music ensembles.
His musical training took Spanish musician Gorka Plada (23) from the Yehudi Menuhin School to Berlin, where he completed his bachelor's degree. He is also a multiple prize winner at international competitions such as the Maria Canals and Enschede Piano Competitions.
The jury for the Bartók World Competition 2025 consisted of internationally renowned musicians, chaired by Yoheved Kaplinsky from the Juilliard School.