Benjamin Günst wins Max Rostal competition for violin
The 22-year-old violinist Benjamin Günst has won first prize in the International Max Rostal Competition for Violin. The prize is endowed with 7,000 euros and five sets of Pirastro strings. He was also honoured with the audience prize and the special prize for the best performance of the commissioned work. Benjamin Günst studies in the violin class of Prof. Antje Weithaas. The third prize and the special prize of the Freunde Junger Musiker Berlin e.V. went to his Chinese fellow student YiWei Gu, who studies in Prof Kolja Blacher's violin class at the Eisler.
Benjamin Günst comes from Kiel and made his solo debut at the age of 11. He has performed with the Kiel Philharmonic Orchestra, the Karlsruhe Symphony Orchestra and the Kammerakademie Potsdam. He is a scholarship holder of the Marie-Luise-Imbusch Foundation, the Stiftung der Musikfreunde Kiel, the Stählersche Stiftung in Stade and the Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben. As an enthusiastic chamber musician, he has performed several times at the Heidelberger Frühling, the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, the Brahms Festival in Lübeck, etc. In June 2024, Benjamin Günst was awarded the City of Kiel's Culture Prize.
Founded in 1991, the International Max Rostal Competition for Violin and Viola has been organised at the Berlin University of the Arts for musicians under the age of 30 since 2009. Three candidates played in the 2024 final round with the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin under the direction of Pavel Baleff. The 2024 jury, chaired by David Geringas, included Marianne Piketty, Kyung Sun Lee, Christoph Poppen, Lars Anders Tomter, Nils Mönkemeyer and Carol Rodland.