Prizewinners at the German Music Competition 2025
Moë Dierstein, Benjamin Günst and Robert Neumann
Three Eisler students have won the German Music Competition prize: Moë Dierstein, Benjamin Günst and Robert Neumann. The prize was awarded to a total of 4 soloists.
The pianist Robert Neumann is a student of Prof Eldar Nebolsin, Benjamin Günst and Moë Dierstein study in the violin class of Prof Antje Weithaas. The prizewinners not only receive prize money, but are also included in the concert funding programme of the German Music Competition and can record their own CD on the Genuin label.
Robert Neumann was also honoured with the Bonn Rotary Music Prize endowed with 5,000 euros and the special prize of the New Leipzig Chopin Society, Moë Dierstein received the special prize of the Fondation Hindemith for an outstanding interpretation of a work by Paul Hindemith (3,000 euros) and Benjamin Günst the special prize of the German Foundation for Musical Life (1,000 euros).
Eisler students and alumni are also well represented among the 17 scholarship holders in this edition of the competition: Yakov Pavlenko from Prof Antje Weithaas' violin class, Julia Smirnova from Prof Stephan Picard's class, Sonja Kowollik from Prof Eldar Nebolsin's piano class and violist Sophie Kiening, who completed her Bachelor's degree with Prof Tabea Zimmermann and German Tcakulov at Eisler in 2023, were selected as scholarship holders.
This year's competition was open to the categories violin, viola, piano, organ, harpsichord, recorder, percussion instruments, piano duo, new music ensembles and composition, and 83 young musicians were heard by the jury.
The German Music Competition has been organised by the German Music Council for changing categories since 1975. The prizewinners and scholarship holders are supported by long-term funding programmes of the German Music Council.