Nominees

IGPA 2021

Dmitry Ablogin

“Dmitry is one of the very few pianists I have heard in the last years to have a real, authentic individual voice in music making. He is a musician of integrity and unusually high sensitivity and his control of the instrument allows this sensitivity to come across to audiences.”
Piotr Anderszewski Dmitry Ablogin is one of today’s most brilliant and innovative keyboard artists. He studied with Vladimir Tropp at the Gnessin Academy in Moscow, from which he graduated with honours in 2012. He continued his education in Germany, studying fortepiano with Jesper B. Christensen at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Frankfurt. Laureate of the 1st International Chopin Competition on Period Instruments in Warsaw (2018), Dmitry has won prizes in numerous piano competitions, including the Nikolai Rubinstein in Paris, Vera Lotar-Shevchenko in Novosibirsk, German Piano Open in Hanover and Musica Antiqua in Bruges. Dmitry has performed around the world, including in Switzerland, Italy, Germany, Denmark, Poland, France, the US at the Miami International Piano Festival and in Warsaw at the renowned festival “Chopin and his Europe”.

Jean-Selim Abdelmoula

Jean-Selim is a versatile musician from Switzerland, both pianist and composer. He plays in halls such as the Royal Festival Hall, the Wigmore Hall, the Barbican Hall (London), the Palau de la Musica (Barcelona), the Koerner Hall (Toronto), the Sendesaal (Bremen), the Carnegie Hall, 92Y Buttenwieser Hall (New York), the Palais des Beaux-Arts (Brussels), and festivals such as Lucern Festival, Lavaux Classics, Ittinger Pfingstkonzerte, Prussia Cove Open Chamber Music, Düsseldorf Schumannfest and Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorprommen.
He is the recipient of many awards in both piano and composing including the first prizes at the 2012 Edvard Grieg International Composer Competition in Oslo, 2013 Lausanne Concours d’Interprétation Musicale and 2016 Premi de Musica de Cambra Montserrat Alavedra, the third prize at the 2015 Ciurlionis International Piano Competition in Vilnius, the 2015 Guildhall Wigmore Recital Prize in London and the 2018 Lili Boulanger Memorial Fund Award in Boston. Since 2017, he is represented by the YCAT agency. He holds the 2014-15 Rebanks Family Piano Fellowship at the Glenn Gould School in Toronto, and is invited by András Schiff to give solo recitals across Europe as part of his 2016 Building Bridges concert series.

Hyelim Kim

Born 31 December 1996. She is a student of Georg Friedrich Schenck at the Robert Schumann Hochschule in Düsseldorf. Since making her orchestral debut with the Bacău Philharmonic Orchestra, she has performed at the Tonhalle in Düsseldorf and the Stadthalle in Wuppertal.
In addition to concerts in the ‘Bechstein Young Professionals’ and ‘WDR 3 Campus Concert’ series, she has also won the Steinway&Sons Förderpreis in NRW, Rometsch Competition in Düsseldorf and International Piano Competition in Seattle, as well as the competitions held at the Kookmin Ilbo & Hansei University in Seoul and the Robert Schumann Hochschule. In 2019, as a finalist at the Clara Haskil Competition, she performed with the Zermatt Festival Orchestra under Christian Zacharias. In 2020 she won the Annarosa Taddei Competition for Young Musicians.

Jung Eun Séverine Kim

Praised for her “magical and inspirational […] sound” (Rye News), Jung Eun Séverine Kim is a highly valued guest all over the world as an outstanding passionate musician.

Born in Seoul, South Korea in 1994, she began her studies in the Pre-College at the Korean National Institute for the Gifted in Arts with Professor Daejin Kim. In 2011, she moved to the Hannover Music Conservatory, where she is currently enrolled in the class of Professor Bernd Goetzke in the prestigious program „Konzertexamen“. In addition, she also deepens her knowledge of chamber music with Professor Markus Becker.

Ziyu Liu

Born on 11 May 1998. He is a student of Arie Vardi at the Hochschule fur Musik, Theater und Medien in Hanover, having previously been taught by Ewa Kupiec.

He has appeared at such venues as the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, Weimarhalle and National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing. He has performed in the International Mozart Festival in Salzburg and the Weimar Music Festival. He has worked with such ensembles as the Orchestra of the Carlo Felice Theatre in Genoa and the Jena Philharmonic Orchestra. He has won the G. B. Viotti International Music Competition in Vercelli, the Cantu Piano and Orchestra Competition and the Singapore Piano Competition.

Yeontaek Oh

Yeontaek Oh was born on December 23, 1992 in Wonju, Korea. He started playing the piano at the age 5. He has studied at the Seoul Arts Center Academy for Gifted, Seoul Arts High School, Seoul National University, and then at the New England Conservatory of Music where he graduated with honors. Recently, he finished his Concertiste degree at Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris.
He made his concerto debut with the Wonju Philharmonic Orchestra at the age of 13. Following his debut, he performed as a soloist with other orchestras such as the Daegu Philharmonic Orchestra, Daejeon Pop Orchestra, Euro-Asian Orchestra, Gwangju Philharmonic Orchestra, Jeonju Clamu Orchestra, the Symphony Orchestra of the University of Alicante, CRR-Cergy Orchestra, Freiburg Musuikhochschule Orchestra, the Morocco Philharmonic Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León and Rome Tre University Orchestra. In addition to winning over ten national competitions in Korea including Joong-ang Music Competition, Oh has won international awards such as the Valsesia Musica International Piano Competition (2nd Prize), PalmaD’oro International Piano Competition (2nd Prize), Concours International de Piano de Lyon (3rd Prize), Concorso Internazionale Pianistica “Piana del Cavaliere” (2nd Prize), Piano Campus International Competition (1st Prize), Animato International Piano Competition (3rd Prize) and the Morocco Philharmonic Orchestra Competition (2nd Prize). Also, he recently won the prizes at the Arthur Lepthien Wettbewerb (1st Prize) and Frechilla-Zuloaga International Piano Competition (1st Prize) and the Rome Chopin International Competition (2nd Prize). Currently, he is finishing his Konzertexamen degree with Prof. Mishory at Hochschule für Musik Freiburg as a DAAD recipient and pursuing his DMA degree at Manhattan School of Music with a teaching assistantship.

Ilia Papoian

“Ilia was born in 2001 in Saint-Petersburg. At the age of eight he entered the Children’s art school named after S. V. Rachmaninoff (class of Gemma Sedletskaya), at the age of nine he became the winner of the International youth competition dedicated to the Work of ‘Fryderyk Chopin’ (Saint-Petersburg).

In 2011 he entered the Secondary Special Music School of the St. Petersburg State Conservatory named after N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov (class of honored artist of Russia, Professor Alexander Sandler). Since 2019 he is a student of the St. Petersburg State Conservatory named after N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov (class of honored artist of Russia, Professor Alexander Sandler). At the age of 13 he gave his first solo concert on the stage of the State Academic Capella of St. Petersburg. Ilia participated in master classes of Grigory Gruzman, Pavel Nersesian, Andrei Diev and Alexander Mdoianz. Ilia is a winner of many international competitions, including the 10th International Tchaikovsky youth competition (also winner of the special prize for the best performance of works by I. S. Bach) (Astana, 2017), the 11th International Chopin competition of young pianists (Estonia, 2016), “Astana Piano Passion” (Astana, 2017). He is the winner of the IIId All-Russian music competition (Moscow, 2018), “Young Talents of Russia” (Moscow, 2019) and the Ist all-Russian Interconservatory Competition “Piano Today” (Saint-Petersburg, 2020). He is an active member of the Youth section of the Association of laureates of the International competition named after P. I. Tchaikovsky. Soloist of the St. Petersburg Music House since 2016. He collaborated with such conductors as Alexander Titov, Yuri Tkachenko, Alexander Kantorov, Timur Zangiyev, Alexander Sladkovsky, Fabio Mastrangelo, Denis Vlasenko. Ilia has performed with such orchestras as state academic Symphony orchestra named after E. F. Svetlanov, The Mariinsky orchestra, the RNO, The academic Symphony orchestra of the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, the Russian Symphony orchestra, the State Symphony orchestra of the Republic of Tatarstan, the St. Petersburg State Symphony orchestra, the State Symphony orchestra “Classics”, the Symphony orchestra “Northern Symphony”, the State Symphony orchestra “New Russia”. Ilia performs in the best halls of Moscow, St. Petersburg, other cities of Russia and abroad. Participates in music festivals, including the Valery Gergiev festival “Faces of modern pianism” (2016, 2017), the international Tchaikovsky youth festival (2018, 2019), the International Sergei Rachmaninoff festival “White lilac” (2018), the International festival ” Musical Spring “(2020), the XX International festival” International Week of Conservatories “(2020), the XI International Festival” Silver Lyre ” (2020) and other festivals in Russia and abroad.

Youngho Park

Pianist Youngho Park was born in Incheon, South Korea in 1993. Most recently, he was first prize winner at the 22nd Ile de France International Piano Competition, garnering six recitals throughout France in the 21/22 season.

In the same month he won 1st prize at the Oeiras piano competition in Portugal and 3rd prize at the Ricard Viñes international piano competition in Spain, and was invited to several piano festivals and piano recitals in Portugal and Spain. And He also won at Online Competitions due to Covid Pandamic. He won 1st Prize with several Concert engagements and Schorlarships at the NOMEA Competition, 1st Prize and Concert engagement in Spain at the ‘Citta di San Dona di Piave’ International Piano Competition. His further accolades include Second Prize and Special Prize from organizer “TangoBrücke” at the M. Ciurlionis International Piano Competition in Vilnius, Lithuania, Second Prize at the Berliner Festwoche International Piano Competition, Beethoven Special Prize at the MozARTe International Piano Competition, Second Prize at the ‘Young Piano Stars’ International Piano Competition in Berlin, Grand-Prix at the Samick Seller Piano Competition, and First Prize at the Korean Liszt Piano Competition. In addition, as an avid vocal accompanist, Park was recipient of the “Best Accompanist Award” from the Korean Schubert Association and Yeonji-Lied Competition in his homeland, South Korea
Youngho earned his Bachelor of Music Degree at Seoul National University as a beneficiary of the Hyundai Motors ‘Chung-mong-koo Foundation, studying with Prof. Jonghwa Park. Furthering his studies, He is a student of Prof. Roland Krüger at the Hannover Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien, as well as recipient of the Deutschland Stipendium. He obtained his Masters Degree with highest distinction and is currently studying in the Solo-Klasse program.

Philipp Scheucher

Philipp Scheucher was born in Graz, Austria, and began music studies at age 5. He earned his bachelor’s degree at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz and is now in the master’s program there under the tutelage of Markus Schirmer.

Mr. Scheucher has performed in some of Europe’s most important concert halls, including the Golden Hall at the Vienna Musikverein, Gewandhaus in Leipzig, Hercules Hall in Munich, and Konzerthaus Berlin. He also has performed in France, Italy, Spain, Denmark, Poland, Croatia, Hungary, and the Czech Republic. He won first prizes at the 2015 Aarhus International Piano Competition in Denmark and at the 2014 Cologne International Piano Competition, and second prizes at the 2015 Ferenc Liszt Competition in Italy and the 2016 UNISA International Piano Competition in South Africa. Mr. Scheucher has performed with the Graz Philharmonic, the K&K Philharmonic, and Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestras. His other passions include books, skateboarding, movies and TV, and driving.