Schedule/News

07/30/2024 – 08/05/2024. Applications via https://www.euroartsacademy.org/summerapplication. Only few vacancies left!

It took me a while – although I chose the radically trimmed version of 1931. I did so because I wanted to highlight aspects of this Sonata and it’s composer which differ from those widely spread “late-romantic” clichés. The formal bulkiness and inner conflicts (are there 3 movements, is it only one or something fractured in between?), Rachmaninoff’s radical psychological insight but most of all his “unreliable narration”, which seems almost postmodern to me, although he uses a pretty conservative tonal language (which occasionally conveys the sensuality of a crematorium in this piece)  – that’s what I tried to focus on rather than giving in to all beauty and roundness in detail. If I succeeded or not, you can hear here.

Later this year I will continue on my channel, maybe with some Bach?

Since December you can already listen to a very special work of  Mozart played by myself on YouTube, the Fantasy and Fugue K. 394 in C-major. Recently I added Hindemith’s first major piano work: In einer Nacht, Op. 15.

Basic exercises and warm-ups in the morning (please see my YouTube-channel KME Methodik), time for discussions – lessons in the afternoon with a focus on practising methodologically.

Masterclass in St. Goar, gorgeous town at the Rhine river. I’m very much looking forward! 08/17 – 08/21. Please find further information and application here.

Masterclass during euroarts-summer-academy from 07/31 to 08/10 (sessions 5&6). Applications under: emfapply@gmail.com

It was some breathtaking Finals at the Sydney International Piano Competition – in the end, Jeonghwan Kim could crown his gigantic competition programme with an extremely virtuoso yet emotionally deep rendering of the 2nd piano concerto by Bartok. We celebrate together his 1st prize and two special awards at this highly prestigious competition.

The first part of Hindemith’s “Ludus tonalis” is finally online! – Preparing for a department concert 2022 at “Hanns Eisler” University I fell in love with that music and decided immediately to learn the whole cycle and bring it to new life. Part 2 following in 2024.

Finally – one becomes three! My former channel “piano basics” has been rebranded KME Methodik. Consequently, there have been added KME Classix, a channel with old recordings, kind of like a musical short biography, and most passionately for me these days: KME Concert, a channel broadcasting current recordings, starting with Beethoven’s Op. 101, recently recorded at Tessmar Studios. To be continued!

Exchange masterclass by invitation of Stavanger University and colleague Prof. Daniel Röhm. Great honour and pleasure! 04/26-29

Odric Aurelian Gaspers has won the 3rd prize at the international Schumann competition in Düsseldorf/Germany. We are very happy, especially about the immediate invitation to “Schumannfest”, where he will perform the complete “Davidsbündlertänze” Op. 6  at Tonhalle Düsseldorf in June. Florestan and Eusebius will therefore be our companions for a while longer… sometimes outrageous, sometimes with blissfully glowing eyes.

The class presenting works by Mozart, Beethoven, Schumann, Skrjabin, Rachmaninow

Finally! New content on my little channel at the tube. These are exercises to prepare for scales and arpeggios, ideal for people who are pianists themselves, piano teachers or just enthusiasts in piano methodology and didactics. (…)

Masterclass piano solo (and duo upon request) with additional small lectures, discussions and excursions. –

CANCELLED – WILL PROSPECTIVELY TAKE PLACE IN 2023

Finally, we can have a class concert again.

Live music is good to heart and soul, helps thinking and meditating, reflecting and connecting. So: Cometh in droves!

The entrance is free.

Jeonghwan Kim has won two prizes at the international Sendai Music Competition in Japan (4th prize by the jury and audience award for his interpretation of Mozart’s piano concerto KV. 459). Here you can find a “little” taster of his final round.

At the so called “Kleiner Schumann-Wettbewerb” in Robert Schumann’s native town Zwickau, Odric Gaspers was able to impress the jury with a Programm including John Corigliano’s Fantasy on an Ostinato, Schumann’s “Fantasiestücke” Op. 111 und Brahms’ Op. 1 and won a 2nd prize. Congratulations!

Works by Beethoven, Janáček, Franck and Gorokhov.

Anticipating a live concert after such a long time feels just great…

Jeonghwan Kim has won the 2022 “Mendelssohn Competition” and was also awarded the prize of “Freunde junger Musiker Deutschland”. A media-production and numerous concerts are going to follow. You can hear him already today with several outstanding interpretations on You-Tube.

Finally, my brand-new channel on You-Tube has been launched Piano Basics: Short clips on elementary aspects of piano-technique (later on also some ear training), which hopefully will provide you with some new perspectives. Now, since the twelve so called “Grundübungen” (basic gymnastics) are complete, in Q1/22 some videos will follow on such nerdy stuff like ‘posture’, ‘pedal’ and ‘impulse transmission’. Of course totally lacking of clickbaiting, sensationalism or any claim for fame and importance… yet I’ll be grateful for every single visit, subscriber and lots of likes!;))

08/07-12/2021

https://www.euroartsacademy.org/summeracademy

Beethoven’s last piano sonata  – together with Arno Lücker and his brand-new  book “Op. 111 – Takt für Takt” *** CANCELLED ***

Exclusive masterclass for pianists under 18 years at “Musikgymnasium C.P.E. Bach” am 11. & 12.12.2020 and lecture on “How to practice more efficiently” (December 11th / 6 pm) at “Dussmann Hall” – more information here…  

Odric Aurelian Gaspers will be supported by the
“C. Bechstein Foundation” from 2020 on.

Rudolph Knorr gets an upright piano (with silent function) for free rental from
C. Bechstein Berlin. We are deeply grateful!!

Works by Debussy, Corigliano etc.

Ballads op. 10 and more in honor of my dear former teacher Prof. Bernhard Wetz at HFMDK Frankfurt

Rudolph Knorr (born 2006) is awarded 1. prize in his category at the International Competition of the “Märkische Musiktage” and performs with the “Brandenburg Symphonic Orchestra”

…with Kathrin ten Hagen (Brahms Op. 78) and Salt Chao-Yang Lin (Grieg Op. 45)

Euro Music Festival http://www.euromusicfestival.com

Oxford Piano Festival 2019

Odric Aurelian Gaspers is awarded the 3. prize at the International C.M. v. Weber Competition in Dresden.

Jeonghwan Kim is awarded 1. prize at the International piano competition Aarhus

As part of the “Erasmus exchange program”.

Students perform “contemporary” music from the last 3 centuries…

Rudolph Knorr is awarded a 3. prize at the International Piano Competition in Wiesbaden

Works by Debussy, Poulenc, Liszt etc.

www.euromusicfestival.de

Today my temporary professorship in Hanover is going to expire. With it an era of my live somehow is phasing out. I’m happy and thankful for those 31 years. But also quite melancholic… – It was 1987 when I first stood in front of that Hochschule in Hanover, ready to enter. Prof. Kämmerlings studio with it’s ladybugs on the cabinet became something like home for me over the years. Private lessons, studying, more studying, a teaching contract, concerts, fellow students who became colleagues, more concerts together with dear colleagues, friends and… girl-friends…;) – But one must be able to let go!

Farewell, and see you soon “Hohes Ufer an der Leine”, I’ll miss you – for ever!

Jeonghwan Kim wins 3. prize and 2 special awards (for his own work and the best interpretation of a sonata by L.v. Beethoven) at the International Liszt-Competition for young pianists

“Dream vs Reality” Works by Beethoven, Liszt & Debussy

“Liszt and beyond!” – works by Liszt, Ravel, Bartok, Messiaen, Kagel, Corigliano, Rihm etc.

Kuan-Wei Chen is awarded 1. prize in category B at the International competition in Troisdorf

With Markus Becker (piano) and Dominique Horwitz (recitation)

Works by Holst, Tarkmann (world premiere “Töchter der Sonne”)

Oh what joy!!! – First day of vacation in Santorin and I get a call from Prof. Ehrlich, president of HfM Hanns Eisler – asking if I would like to take the permanent professorship I was applying for some period earlier. After 5 years in a temporary contract in Hanover and no securities there… also the profile in Berlin is exactly my ideal one…  – No doubts, the answer is Yessss!!!:) 

Jan Aurel Dawidiuk wins the 1. prize and a special award by the Schumann Society at the 24. Schumann Competition for young pianists

“We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep.” (W. Shakespeare: The Tempest); Works by Beethoven, Liszt and Debussy…

Sonatas by Haydn, Beethoven and Schubert on historical instruments owned by the Clavier e.V. Hanover (A. Walter, C. Graf, Broadwood etc.)

Final Part: Op. 109, 110 & 111

Fauré Quartet c minor with “Trio Kandinsky” (Kathrin Rabus, Volker Jacobsen, Wen-Sinn Yang)

Transcription of 15th Symphony for piano trio and percussion

Op. 106 (“Hammerklavier”) & Introduction to the Sonata

Jan Aurel Dawidiuk wins 1. prize and a special award for the best interpretation of a work by  C. Debussy at the 10th Rotary Competition in Essen, Laura Schlappa is awarded a special prize for the best interpretation of a work after 1945

Fantastic Fairytales… – Works by Ravel, Debussy etc. – with Xuan Fang (accordion)

Together with Leonid Gorokhov, sonatas by Beethoven, Schubert und Prokofiev

Together with Ulrike Spengler (Soprano), Leonid Gorokhov (Cello) and Til Renner (Clarinet) – Works by Louis Spohr & Johannes Brahms

Op. 81a, Op. 90 & Op. 101