Yeji Jung, Shuri Soga and Maria José Palla perform at the Centre for Persecuted Arts in cooperation with the Solingen Art Museum pieces from the prize-winner competition of the University of Music and Dance Cologne.

The three pianists won the special prize of the Karlrobert Kreiten Competition 2026 for their interpretations of works by persecuted composers.

Karlrobert Kreiten achieved great success as early as the 1920s. By the end of the 1930s, he was considered one of the most promising young talents among German pianists. One of his patrons was Wilhelm Furtwängler. In March 1943, while on a concert tour in Berlin and under the impression of the defeat at Stalingrad, Karlrobert Kreiten remarked to a friend of his mother that the war was lost and called Hitler "a madman". The friend denounced Karlrobert Kreiten. He was arrested in early May 1943, sentenced to death, and, despite several pleas for clemency, was murdered just four days later in Berlin-Plötzensee.

To honour Kreiten's courage and his art, the University of Music and Dance Cologne awards prizes to three winners each year as part of an internal piano competition. In addition to the prize money, they also receive follow-up engagements. The HfMT Cologne is committed to addressing important, particularly historical, socio-political and societal aspects in teaching and art. As such, it is mandatory for all participants to perform a piece in one of the two rounds Work by a female composer to perform, as well as a work by a proscribed, politically or socially persecuted individual to be included in the first round programme, with a brief introduction.

Artistic Directors: Prof. Sheila Arnold and Prof. Severin von Eckardstein

Admission is free.

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