German cellist Constantin Heise receives €5,000, concert engagements, and a CD recording opportunity
The live round of the 50th edition of the German Music Competition (Deutscher Musikwettbewerb – DMW) took place from 19–28 March in Bonn and Cologne, Germany. It was open to soloists and chamber ensembles residing in Germany.
The top prize in the solo division, the German Music Competition Award, was won by German cellist Constantin Heise and German clarinettist Joscha Kremsler. They each receive €5,000 as well as concert engagements and a CD recording with the GENUIN label as part of the Edition Primavera series. Heise additionally won the €1,000 special prize of the Mayor of the City of Bonn.
Born in 2001, Heise is currently studying at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich with Julian Steckel, having previously studied with Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt. Among his accolades, he as won competitions including the German National Youth Music Competition and the Augustin Aponte International Competition and was a semi-finalist in the 2022 Queen Elisabeth Competition. He has been a scholarship recipient of the Berlin Philharmonic’s Karajan Academy since 2024 and currently plays an 1874 cello by Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume on loan.
The competition also awarded scholarships to participate in its concert promotion programme, offering up to 40 concerts in a season.
The string player recipients of the 2026 DMW scholarships were German cellists Felix Brunnenkant, Johann Eilrich, Cosima Regina Federle, Michael Wehrmeyer, and Alexander Wollheim; German double bassist Felix Leissner; and the Bremen-based Nerida Quartet, comprising German violinist Saskia Niehl, South African violinist Jeffrey Armstrong, New Zealand violist Grace Leehan and German cellist Raphael Zinner.
Numerous special prizes were also awarded. The €2,500 Deutschlandfunk Composition prize went to Spanish composer Pedro Rosenthal Campuzano for his sonata for solo violin, while the €3,000 Hindemith Foundation special prize went to cellist Manuel Lipstein for an outstanding interpretation of a work by Paul Hindemith. The Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben awarded a €3,000 scholarship to the Nerida Quartet, and a €1,000 special prize to double bassist Felix Leissner.
No comments yet