Application
Application deadline: November 17, 2024.
Age Limit: Pianists of all nations who were born after March 22, 1991 are entitled to apply for the competition.
Only online applications will be accepted. The online application portal will open in summer 2024.
Dates & Places
March 22, 2025 – Arrival & Registration
March 23 & 24, 2025 – 1st Round | Orchesterzentrum NRW
March, 25 & 26, 2025 – 2nd Round | Orchesterzentrum NRW
March 27, 2025 – 3rd Round | Orchesterzentrum NRW
March 28, 2025 – Rehearsal Day Orchestra Final
March 29, 2025 – Orchestera Final with the Dortmunder Philharmoniker in the Konzerthaus Dortmund
March 30, 2025 – Matinée of the Laureates | Kokerei Hansa, Dortmund
Prizes
1st Prize – Prize of the Werner Richard – Dr. Carl Dörken Stiftung: 10,000 EUR + CD Production
2nd Prize – Prize of the Kulturstiftung Dortmund: 8,000 EUR
3rd Prize – Prize of the Kulturbüro der Stadt Dortmund: 5,000 EUR
Audience Award: 2,000 EUR
Concert engagements may be offered to the prizewinners, among others, by International Schubert-Fest Dortmund, Werner Richard – Dr. Carl Dörken Stiftung, GWK – Gesellschaft zur Förderung der westfälischen Kulturarbeit, Konzertgesellschaft Schwerte and others.
Repertoire
Video Preselection Round
- Frédéric Chopin: One virtuoso Etude
- One etude by either Claude Debussy, Alexander Scriabin, Igor Stravinsky or György Ligeti
- Franz Schubert: One Sonata movement or Impromptu of free choice
The works of the pre-selection may but do not have to be part of the competition program.
The pieces can be recorded individually and then combined into one video. Cuts during the pieces and editing of the video are not permitted.
1st Round
- Franz Schubert: Klavierstück Es-Dur, D946 nr.2 (repeats at the discretion of the pianist)
- Johann Sebastian Bach: One Prelude and Fugue of free choice
- Frédéric Chopin: One Etude of free choice except op. 10 No. 6, op. 10 No. 12, op. 25 No. 2, op. 25 No. 7 and op. 25 No. 12
2nd Round
- Franz Schubert: One of the following:
a) 12 deutsche Tänze D790 or
b) Valses Nobles D969 - One Schubert/Liszt Song Transcription of free choice.
- Franz Schubert: One of the following:
a) Sonata A minor D537,
b) Sonata E-flat major D568,
c) Sonata B major D575,
d) Sonata A major D664,
e) Sonata A minor D784
f) Wanderer-Fantasie D760
3rd Round
- Franz Schubert: One of the following Sonatas:
a) Sonata A minor D845,
b) Sonata D major D850,
c) Sonata G major D894,
d) Sonata C minor D958,
e) Sonata A major D959
f) Sonata B-flat major D960
Orchestra Final
- One of the following Piano Concertos:
a) Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 22 in E-flat major K482
b) Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 24 in C minor K491
c) Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 25 in C major K503
d) Ludwig van Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 1 in C major op. 15
e) Ludwig van Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat major, op. 19
f) Ludwig van Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor, op. 37
g) Ludwig van Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major, op. 58
h) Ludwig van Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat major, op. 73
Jury
The members of the jury will be announced in summer 2024.
Host families
The International Schubert-Competition Dortmund offers a limited amount of private accommodations in host families for free. This offer is only available for participants of the competition and not for persons who visit the competition. Please indicate in the Online-Application-Form, if you want to use this service. In case that there are less private rooms than participants, who expressed the wish for a private accommodation, those participants are eligible for a private accommodation, who applied first. Travel expenses can not be refunded.
Conditions of Participation
Age limit
Pianists of all nations, who were born after 22 March 1991, are entitled to apply for the competition.
Application and Application Deadline
The application is only possible via the Online Portal, which will open in summer 2024. We do not any longer accept applications via mail and will only consider complete applications. You will need to attach the following documents to your application:
– your competition programm
– a portrait photo in high resulation, which should not be older than two years and can be used in all publications of the Schubert Competition.
– the link to your preselection video
The competition program can be changed after the application until the application deadline expires. Changes to the competition program after the application deadline expired are not possible.
It is neither necessary nor possible to provide a CV with the application. Participants’ CVs will not be disclosed to the jury either in the pre-selection or in the competition rounds. Accordingly, the CV is not part of the evaluation process in the pre-selection or the rest of the competition. Invitations to the competition will be issued solely on the basis of the artistic performance in the video.
The application deadline is November 17, 2024.
Application Fee
The Application Fee is 100,00 €. The payment of the application fee is made during the Online-Application-Process via PayPal, CreditCard or Bank Transfer. Please note, if you choose Bank Transfer, that your application is only complete when we received your payment before the application deadline expired. The application fee will not be refunded.
Invitation to the competition
The competition pre-jury will decide after the application deadlinde and after watching all pre-selection videos who will be invited to the competition. All applicants will be informed about the results, expected at the end of December 2024. The decision can not be contested and no reason need to be given. A legal claim to participate in the competition does not exist. The registered participants have to inform the competition office immediately, if they want to renounce participation. In this case the application fee will not be refunded.
Competitions rounds
The competition rounds in the Orchesterzentrum NRW, the Orchstra Final in the Konzerthaus Dortmund and the prizewinner concert in the compressorhall of the Hansa Coking Plant are open to the public. The personal registration for the competition and the draw for the competition order will take place in the Orchesterzentrum NRW. Participants, who don’t appear to the registration, arrive too late to the registration or the competition rounds or can’t show their confirmation of participation, may not require to be heard in the competition.
All works have to be recited from memory.
The orchestra finale will be accompanied by the Dortmunder Philharmonker. The competition repertoire is binding for the participants competition program. Changes to the competition program after the application deadline are not possible.
Laureate’s Concert and Award Cermony
The concert will take place in the “Kompressorenhalle der Kokerei Hansa”. The free attendance of the laureates at the prizewinner concert is obligatory. It’s expected that the prizewinners receive their prices personally. The program of the prizewinner concert will be made by the jury after the orchestra final.
Instruments & Practicing
Practicing rooms during the competition are available in the Orchesterzentrum NRW. The rooms are equipped with either a grand piano or an upright piano. In some cases there are also practicing rooms with pianos in the host families. All participants will have enough time to prepare in a rehearsal room with a grand piano before their respective performance in the rounds. A Steinway D grand piano will be provided for the competition rounds and the orchestra final in Dortmund.
Miscellaneous
Prize-Winners are obligated in their future careers not to indicate any awards other than those actually given to them. The three rounds of the XV. Piano Competition 2025 will be broadcasted on the competitions YouTube page and the competitions website via livestream. The competition have the right, without giving any fee to the competitors or their assign. a) to make a radio-recording, tv-, video- or film-shot and/or take photographs from all competitions and from the Prize Winners Concert to offer it the press b) to make and sell records, cds, tapes, videos etc. from all competitions completely or in cuttings without print-limit or to assign the production.