Transparent Civil Society Initiative

To comprehensively and sustainably promote young talents between the ages of 6 and 19, to set impulses, to make a difference, to stand up for art, culture and international understanding, to give young pianists a special, enriching and motivating experience with our competition - we dedicate ourselves passionately and with great commitment to these goals as the non-profit organization "International Piano Competition Taunus e. V.".

The three-day "International Piano Competition for Young Pianists Kronberg", which is held every two years, is therefore ganz important to us. The second very successful edition took place in 2025, establishing us as an important international competition for this age group. From 02.04. to 04.04.2027, the competition will be held for the third time at the Casals Forum of the Kronberg Academy once again under the patronage of Minister President Boris Rhein and Mayor Dr. Blasch.

Our competition has an innovative concept. It is characterized by prizes in seven age groups - promotion of young talents under the age of 12 - numerous and valuable special prizes with a focus on promotion - participation in master classes, concert performances, professional audio and video recordings, etc. - a top-class jury(Prof. Matthias Kirschnereit, Prof. Claudia Schellenberger, Prof. Christian A. Pohl, Ulrike Danne-Feldmann), optimal conditions, a high level in all respects and a very personal and warm atmosphere. With a free supporting program, it offers the young talents plenty of opportunity for exchange and fellowship. The auditions are open to the public and admission is free. We want to make the competition a celebration for everyone involved, a holistic, impressive and ganz special event that stands out from other competitions due to its quality, content concept and family atmosphere and focuses on the development of young talent. Our values, which are based on a humanistic view of mankind, are summarized in our code of ethics.

We are convinced that more culture leads to more inner education and education of the heart. Our ideal of a competition as a place of encounter between the young talents themselves, their families, the audience, the jury and all those involved provides impetus for understanding and learning from one another. It provides impulses for the musical, pianistic and personal development of the young talents and, with the internationality of the competition, for tolerance and understanding between cultures.

On our homepage we have therefore also quoted the great pianist Rudolf Buchbinder:

“The power of music enables a mission to unite people in a way that no other language is capable of achieving on this scale. My small contribution to this is my ten fingers, my mind, my heart, and the black and white keys.”

With our innovative concept, our ambitious goals of fostering the highest level of talent among gifted pianists, promoting cultural participation regardless of social background, and encouraging intercultural dialogue, we have established ourselves as one of the most significant international competitions for this age group. The fact that we place such a high value on collaboration, learning from one another, and individual support is reflected in the feedback from all participants as well as in the press.

So wrote PianoNews 2023:

“But the Kronberg International Piano Competition for Young Pianists proved to be so professional in every respect that even visitors well-versed in competitions were amazed. (…) All in all, this edition of the first Kronberg International Piano Competition for Young Pianists was a complete success, because the performances on stage, the wonderful organization, and the overall atmosphere were so pleasant that it was uplifting to see that a competition could achieve this as well.”

It is our deepest wish to realize this in all future events.