Sonja Kowollik wins 4th prize at the Shanghai International Musician Competition
Pianist Sonja Kowollik from Prof. Jonathan Aner's chamber music class has won fourth prize, worth €8,000, at the Shanghai International Musician Competition.
This comprehensive competition is the first of its kind for pianists and is jointly organised by the Shanghai Conservatory of Music and the Savonlinna Music Academy in Finland. Out of around 300 applicants in the preliminary video round, 22 participants were invited to the semi-finals in China. In the competition, they demonstrate their versatility, performing not only as soloists but also as chamber musicians and song pianists. In addition, participants must rehearse and perform a Mozart concerto and conduct from the piano.
Sonja Kowollik, who completed her master's degree in piano with Prof. Eldar Nebolsin in the summer semester, was also supported by Prof. Wolfram Rieger in her preparation in the category of song interpretation. Born in Bottrop in 2001, she was a junior student at the Münster Youth Academy with Thomas Reckmann and Michael Keller, then studied with Claudio Martínez Mehner and Nina Tichman at the Cologne University of Music and Dance, as well as two semesters with Matti Raekallio at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. The multi-award-winning pianist has received the GWK Music Prize 2021, the International Bacewicz Prize 2022 and special prizes from Yamaha Music Europe GmbH, the German Musicians' Association and the German Music Foundation, among others. At the Oxford Piano Festival 2023, she was awarded the first Menahem Pressler Scholarship.
An enthusiastic chamber musician, she has received the Beethoven Bonnensis Prize, among others, and has been invited to perform at the Beethovenfest Bonn, the Encuentro de Santander, the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, the Euregio Music Festival, as well as at the Cologne Philharmonic Hall, the Laeiszhalle Hamburg, the Tonhalle Düsseldorf and Bellevue Palace.