The Berlin International Piano Masterclass is as an internationally renowned music festival in Berlin, focusing on the holistic, long-term support of young, aspiring classical pianists. These artists have the opportunity to perform in Masterclasses led by the most prominent pianists and educators of our generation, receive private lessons from these classical music icons, and, most notably, perform during the festival in a concert at the famous Berlin Philharmonie. Additionally, they receive coaching from a concert management agency and participate in workshops on specific topics related to careers in the classical music industry.
The Berlin Piano Masterclass is both an educational project as well as a professional project which puts an aim to discover and to educate, through teaching in public and private lessons, the most advanced interpretation, technical and professional skills for young artists. The masterclass week takes place at the UdK (Universität Der Künste Berlin), one of Europes most important music schools.
Therefore the main focus of the course is to offer the most talented skilled students the option to get an educational and a professional training, which their regular education cannot suffice.
It enables young pianist who have reached a very high level in their playing skills the opportunity to:
1) Work with the most important pedagogues, especially those whom we believe they can get deeper overviews thus not only with their own teacher at a school. Therefore we are inviting the most important world wide pedagogues and pianists to instruct our students.
The format of a Masterclass is a combination of a performance and a lesson. During these sessions the process is very different than a regular lesson as it starts with a full concert performance of the piece and then discovered to the enthusiastic public through a detailed public lesson.
2) The participants get exposed to different method regarding interpretation and performance skills. By watching the other participants and the big number of different approaches the participants build their interpretation to the piano repertoire master works.
3) Our participants develop their networking skills for becoming advanced in their profession.
4) We aim to prepare the participants to win big competitions, play to large audiences, and gain experience in giving many performances during the week of the Masterclasses, preparing them for the Final Gala Concert at the end of the class-week.
5) We are excited to offer the participants the professional option to get a professional recording and video in one of the world’s leading venues, Philharmonie Berlin. This concert is the summary of months of preparations to the class which culminate in this week of Masterclasses and a presentation of the final work to the enthusiastic Berlin public, to be broadcast on our live stream and later to be produced on a professional CD and DVD.
Events such as the masterclasses and concerts are open to the public, live-streamed, recorded, and publicly shared. In recent years, dozens of highly talented young pianists from all over the world have come to Berlin, participated in masterclasses, lessons, and workshops, and performed successfully at various venues in Europe’s classical music capital, Berlin.
The Masterclass Network:
The festival aims to build, nurture, and support a network of the next generation of classical pianists (up to 32 years of age) as they progress in their careers. The focus is on young pianists who have already participated in international piano competitions or plan to, have gained performance experience, and received recognition such as prizes, awards, or advanced studies at a conservatory or university.
Since the festival sees itself as an educational and career network project, it emphasizes providing these highly talented and promising young professionals the opportunity to develop their pianistic and artistic skills, enhance their concert performances, and open valuable career options by becoming part of the international Berlin Masterclass Network. They study with the world’s most renowned pianists and pedagogues as part of the festival and perform at major venues in Germany, Europe, and globally, such as the Berlin Philharmonie. Through professional recordings of their performances, networking opportunities, public exposure, and the skills acquired from workshops, concerts, lessons, and masterclasses, we equip these young artists with valuable experiences for their future career steps in classical music.
We believe that through such a project, we can discover and support pianists who, in the view of our artistic board, have a real chance to become the next generation of significant pianists in the coming years.
