Vincent Ong and Robert Neumann win the Ravel Piano Advancement Award
Two piano students from Prof Eldar Nebolsin's class were successful in the competition for the newly founded Maurice Ravel Piano Prize in Duisburg: Vincent Ong (22) was awarded 1st prize, which comes with prize money of 3,000 euros, and Robert Neumann (22) was awarded 2nd prize, which comes with prize money of 1,500 euros.
Malaysian pianist Vincent Ong has been studying for a Bachelor's degree at the Eisler since April 2023. He won the competition at the International Taipei Maestro Piano Festival in Taiwan in 2018, which enabled him to perform as a soloist with the Taipei Philharmonic Youth Orchestra at the Taipei National Concert Hall in 2019. He also received a prize at the Singapore International Piano Competition in the "Concert Artist" category in 2020.
Robert Neumann, a master's student at the Eisler since 2021 and also a multiple prizewinner of national and international competitions, recently won 1st prize at the NYCA Worldwide Debut Audition, an international music competition for piano and string instruments in New York. In 2017, he won the International Classical Music Discovery Award and the Swiss Charity Award for young musical talent. In 2018, he was selected by Südwestrundfunk as an "SWR2 New Talent" and included in the support programme of the same name for young classical musicians. In 2021, he was awarded the OPUS KLASSIK in the "Young Artist of the Year" category for his debut album on the "SWR music" label.
The Ravel Piano Prize was awarded for the first time in 2023 by the Susanne Scholten Foundation, a Duisburg-based foundation that promotes music, art and culture.