The Jury's Approach to Evaluating the Videos
The jury would very much like to address all of you with a few lines:
Statement from the jury of 2025
Dear pianists
We, the jury of the digital preliminary round, have had a wonderful few weeks! Listening to your playing in the videos, seeing and hearing your passion for music and piano playing, encountering your ganz personal musical statement and experiencing you with your music has deeply touched and impressed us. We were also impressed by the enormous musical and pianistic development of all the pianists who took part in the competition two years ago!
We’d like to thank you very much for your tremendous dedication and for all the hard work that went into developing your repertoire and recording the video! We know exactly what this means to you. Your preparation for the competition is never in vain—you’ve learned a lot and grown as performers. That, without a doubt, is your reward!
We would also like to thank your teachers and families for their fantastic support—without which our contest would not be possible!
We received 204 applications from 37 countries, and 66 young pianists from 17 countries were admitted to the competition.
We would have loved to invite all of you to the in-person round in Kronberg—you certainly deserved it! However, due to the limited time available for the “ auditions ,” we had to select approximately 60 pianists, and we wanted to make that decision as transparently and fairly as possible.
The approach of our evaluation We already made this clear before the competition.
The standard was particularly high in age groups IV - VII. The high level of performance meant that only a few of the participants in the intermediate round - 2 x Yes/1 x No and 1 x Yes/2 x Maybe - could be admitted due to the limited time available for the competition.
We therefore decided to admit a record number of 66 participants to the competition. In addition, we admitted more pianists from the groups with the highest number of participants—AG IV and AG V—which had a particularly high concentration of talented performers, than from the other groups. No one from AG I, which already had few participants, was admitted.
The decisions—many of which were very close calls—were made with great care. We are very aware of our great responsibility and understand how difficult it is not to see one’s name on the list of accepted participants.
Many of you will be disappointed. But we hope that, despite your disappointment, you know just how much we enjoyed your performance, how impressively you make music, and how beautifully you play the piano! Don’t let anything deter you from your path! Stay true to yourselves and—above all—continue to pursue your musical and pianistic development with enthusiasm, and keep delving deeper into the wonderful world of music with joy and curiosity! We wish you all the best for your future from the bottom of our hearts!
Finally, we would like to congratulate all the approved participants and look forward to a lively, exciting and motivating competition with them!
All the best to all of you!
Yours,
Prof. Claudia Schellenberger,
Prof. Christian A. Pohl,
Ulrike Danne-Feldmann
Dear Pianists,
Dear Parents, Dear Teachers,
The jury for the digital preliminary round—composed of Prof. Christian A. Pohl, Prof. Claudia Schellenberger, and Ulrike Danne-Feldmann—is taking plenty of time to ensure that participants are selected in a thorough and well-reasoned manner!
Each jury member receives a spreadsheet containing the name, date of birth, age group, repertoire, and video of each contestant, which they review on their own and annotate with comments and ratings (Yes, No, Maybe). The jury is not informed of the contestants’ nationality, place of residence, educational institution, or teachers, in order to prevent these factors from influencing their decision.
The number of participants admitted is clear from the outset: only about 60 young pianists can be heard during the 2.5 days of the competition.
After reviewing the videos, the results are compiled into an overall assessment: three “Yes” votes mean clear acceptance; two “Yes” votes and one “Maybe” also mean acceptance. Videos with two“Yes”votes and one“No” vote, as well as those with one “Yes” vote and two“Maybe” votes, move on to an intermediate round, where they are reviewed again and discussed in a meeting. This process ultimately determines the final selection of approximately 60 accepted participants.