74th ARD International Music Competition
This year’s prizewinners have been announced
Munich/Berlin, 15 September 2025 – The qualifying rounds for this year’s ARD International Music Competition, described by Sir Simon Rattle as “Music’s Olympic Games”, concluded on Sunday. More than 600 contestants applied from which around 150 musicians from 32 countries were selected to take part in the heats which took place in Munich over the past two weeks, displaying their musical prowess to the top-flight juries. We can now announce that all the prizewinners in the categories Clarinet, Trumpet and Piano have been chosen.
In the Clarinet category Elad Navon (Israel) took first prize. Second prize went to Hongyi Jiang (China) and third prize to Lev Zhuravskii (Russia).
In the Trumpet final round Robin Paillet (France) was the winner. Second prize goes to Sandro Hirsch (Germany) and third prize to Raphaël Horrach (France).
Finally, in the last round in the Piano category, the first prize went to Liya Wang (China). Second prize went to Elias Ackerley (United Kingdom) and third prize to Jiwon Yang (Korea).
This year’s prize money, including numerous special prizes donated by our partners and sponsors, amounted to over € 130.000.
Prizewinners: Elad Navon (1. Prize clarinet), Liya Wang (1. Prize piano), Robin Paillet (1. Prize trumpet), © Daniel Delang
“What we had the privilege of witnessing this year was much more than just a competition for highly talented musicians – it was a festival of encounters. Talented young people from all over the world thrilled music lovers with their performances and proved yet again that music can facilitate understanding that transcends linguistic and cultural frontiers. In addition, the ARD Music Competition radiates an impressive aura on the digital level too: a constantly expanding community of fans from around the world follows the qualifying heats on ARD Klassik’s new YouTube channel and on various social media platforms – from South Korea to Mexico and even further afield.”
– Meret Forster, Artistic Director of the ARD International Music Competition
Prizewinners’ Concerts live and online from September 17 in the Prinzregententheater and the Herkulessaal
All the prizewinners will show off their skills in front of a large audience at the three final prize winner concerts:
- On Wednesday September 17, with the Munich Radio Orchestra conducted by Chloé Dufresne.
- On Thursday September 18, with the Munich Chamber Orchestra directed by orchestra leader Yuki Kasai.
- On Friday September 19, with the Symphony Orchestra of Bavarian Radio. Sir Simon Rattle has had to cancel his appearance for health reasons and we are grateful to his deputy Sasha Scolnik-Brower who will conduct at this concert in his place.
All three prizewinners’ concerts will be transmitted as part of the ARD Radio Festival on all of ARD’s arts programmes as well as in a video livestream on ARD Klassik’s YouTube channel and in the ARD’s Mediathek, each starting at 20.03 hrs.
All of the prizewinners
Clarinet
1. Prize: Elad Navon (Israel)
2. Prize: Hongyi Jiang (China)
3. Prize: Lev Zhuravskii (Russia)
Prizewinners clarinet: Lev Zhuravskii, Elad Navon, Hongyi Jiang, © Daniel Delang
Trumpet
1. Prize: Robin Paillet (France)
2. Prize: Sandro Hirsch (Germany)
3. Prize: Raphaël Horrach (France)
Prizewinners trumpet.: Raphaël Horrach, Robin Paillet, Sandro Hirsch, © Daniel Delang
Piano
1. Prize: Liya Wang (China)
2. Prize: Elias Ackerley (United Kingdom)
3. Prize: Jiwon Yang (Korea)
Prizewinners piano: Elias Ackerley, Liya Wang, Jiwon Yang, © Daniel Delang
The competition in the media
Radio
September 15/16, 18.03 hrs: “Klassik Stars” BR-Klassik, the magazine for young people, will present this year’s prizewinners
September 17/18/19, 20.03 hrs: Live transmission of the three prizewinners concerts as part of the ARD Radio Festival on all of the ARD arts channels
September 26, from 20:00 to 22:30 hrs: Deutschlandfunk Kultur will transmit a concert programme featuring excerpts from all three prizewinners concerts.
Video livestreams
The prizewinners concerts will be transmitted live on ARD Klassik’s YouTube channel, on ard-musikwettbewerb.de and in the ARD’s Mediathek.
September 19, Arte Concert (time-delayed): Final concert with the BR Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sasha Scolnik-Brower
TV
October 4, 21.45 hrs (3sat) and October 12, 9.35 hrs (BR TV): recording of the final concert with Sasha Scolnik-Brower conducting the Symphony Orchestra of Bavarian Radio (available afterwards in the ARD Mediathek)
September 21, 23.35 hrs (Germany’s 1st Programme): Report on “Battle of Brass” about this year’s ARD Music Competition.
Social Media
The competition will be widely documented on Instagram (ard_competition) and Facebook (ard.competition) – with exclusive revelations, backstage moments, highlights, stories and contributions from participants alongside evocative impressions.
Constantly updated information on the competition can be found on the ARD Music Competition’s website here
Further press material is available to download in the digital press section here
Press Contact
PS Music Berlin
Peggy Schmidt, Tel. +49 171 6890112
Simone Dollmann, Tel. +49 179 4878960
mail: ard-wettbewerb@psmusicberlin.com