In three rounds, the Jury of the International Classical Music Awards (ICMA) has chosen the releases competing in the finals for the awards 2025. The initial list with a total of 374 nominations has been reduced to three releases per category, the finalists for 2025. The winner is chosen from this list of three finalists. The names of the winners who will receive their trophy at the Tonhalle in Düsseldorf on 19 March 2025, will be published on 14 January 2025. To see the finalists list, click here: FINALISTS ICMA 2025

After 15 years of successful management, Drazen Domjanic, initiator, Artistic Director and Managing Director of the Music Academy in Liechtenstein, has decided to retire from the operational business as of September 1, 2025. However, Domjanic will remain with the Music Academy as an advisor to his successor and will also take on a new role as a member of the Foundation Board. Read More →

The International Classical Music Awards ICMA today announced the nominations for their Awards 2025, celebrating the best musicians and recordings. The nominations include many renowned soloists, ensembles, conductors and orchestras as well as a lot of young musicians, many of them being first-nominees. Read More →

In Nendeln/Liechtenstein, the new home of the Music Academy in Liechtenstein was inaugurated this weekend. In the Hagenhaus on Feldkircherstrasse in Nendeln, built in 1837, the former K&K post office has been converted into a modern academy with a concert hall, recording studio, student and teacher rooms, as well as offices and social rooms by CN Architects – the same team that planned the now-stalled construction of the Munich Konzerthaus. Read More →

The Bechstein grand piano by Franz Liszt, which is located in the Liszt House in Weimar, is playable again. The Klassik Stiftung Weimar, together with the C. Bechstein company and the Franz Liszt University of Music Weimar, celebrated the renovation of the grand piano from 1881 with a festive matinée in the Liszt House yesterday. Read More →

German pianist Robert Neumann, 23, has won Gold Award at the 7th NTD International Piano Competition at Kaufman Music Center in New York City. The International Piano Competition is part of a series of international cultural and arts events sponsored by NTD Television Network. Read More →

The Walther von der Vogelweide Preis Foundation honors the musician and violinist Julian Kainrath with the 2024 Youth Prize. Born in Merano in 2005, the violinist received the Discovery Award of the International Classical Music Awards (ICMA) in 2022.

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Finnish conductor and composer Leif Segerstam has died aged 80, Finnish media reported today. After studies in violin, piano, composition and conducting at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki 1952-63 he continued with post-graduate studies at the Juilliard School of Music in New York. His initial career as a conductor started with positions in the opera houses of Helsinki, Stockholm, and West Berlin, and guest appearances included the Met, La Scala, Covent Garden, Teatro Colon and the opera houses of Cologne, Hamburg and Munich, Geneva and the Salzburg Festival. Read More →