Tsukushi Sasaki won the violin category, while the Bernstein Trio scooped multiple prizes in the piano trio category
The finals of the Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy University Competition 2025 were held at the Konzerthaus Berlin on Sunday 20 January. This year’s competition was dedicated to the violin and piano trio disciplines.
The violinists performed with the Konzerthausorchester Berlin under the baton of Simon Gaudenz. First prize was awarded to 24-year-old Tsukushi Sasaki from Lübeck University of Music, who received the Mendelssohn Prize of €6,000.
23-year-old Alexandra Weissbecker from the Hanns Eisler School of Music Berlin received the Prize of the Federal President second prize worth €4,000, while the Prize of the Elsa-Wera-Arnold Foundation third prize went to 18-year-old Maya Wichert, from Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media.
24-year-old Daniil Gonobolin received the Special prize for interpretation of a commissioned work, worth €500, for his performance of Reflections sur Versailles for violin solo by Aziza Sadikova.
Prizes of the Walter Kaminsky Foundation, worth €500 each, went to Anton Carus, Hanna-Rosa Emilsson, Jiaqi Lu and Leyang Tang.
In the piano trio category, the first prize of €6,000 was awarded to the Bernstein Trio from Hanns Eisler School of Music Berlin. The Bernstein Trio also received the Special prize interpretation commissioned work Dream Concentrate for Piano Trio by Zara Ali, worth €1,000, as well as the Prize of the Friends of Young Musicians Germany, worth €6,000.
Trio Brontë, also from Hanns Eisler School of Music Berlin, received second prize of €4,000, while KaleidoTrio from Detmold University of Music took third prize of €2,000.
The competition was organised by the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, the Rectors’ Conference of German Music Universities and the Berlin University of the Arts.
The artistic director wass Ulf Werner, orchestra director of the Konzerthaus Berlin. Andris Nelsons served as patron of the competition, and the jury chairs were Franziska Hölscher (violin) and Wolf Harden (piano trio).
Read: Winners announced for the 2024 Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy University Competition
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