2025 marks the beginning of a special cooperative project: CCOM, the mdw, and the renowned Austrian music publisher Universal Edition (UE) have teamed up to plan a competition for young composers. This competition is set to take place every two years, alternating between chamber and orchestral music focuses.

From 4 to 7 February of this year, the 6th Mauricio Kagel Composition Competition took place in the Fanny Hensel-Saal and was also streamed live on the Internet. Its jury publicly discussed the 14 compositions nominated for the final round, which saw them performed by students of the Ludwig van Beethoven Department of Piano in Music Education.

Last year’s Beethoven Competition saw the 27-year-old German pianist Aris Alexander Blettenberg awarded the first prize. Blettenberg swayed the jury with his performance of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 1 in C Major op. 15, prevailing over Dasol Kim and Philipp Scheucher at the final round on 21 October 2021 in the Vienna Musikverein’s Golden Hall.

The mdw’s 16th International Beethoven Piano Competition – just in time for the composer’s 250th birthday.

26th Vienna Days of Contemporary Piano Music

The 22-year-old pianist Maximilian Kromer is the sixth CARSA winner.

The International Fritz Kreisler Society has been holding its competition every four years since 1979.

This is Vienna’s first and only singing competition devoted exclusively to Austrian composers’ Lied (art song) output.

25 musicians from 15 countries qualified to participate in this renowned competition.