The Klavier-Festival Ruhr (also ''Klavierfestival Ruhr'') is an annual

festival A festival is an event ordinarily celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect or aspects of that community and its religion or cultures. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, mela, or eid. A festival ...

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keybo ...

music, which takes place in the area of the Ruhr in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. The festival runs from around the beginning of May for three months. The organizer of the festival is the Stiftung Klavier-Festival Ruhr, and the art leader is Franz Xaver Ohnesorg. The festival was founded in July 1988.

Festival details

For three months, starting in May, daily classical music or jazz pieces are performed at different locations by internationally known

pianist A pianist ( , ) is an individual musician who plays the piano. Since most forms of Western music can make use of the piano, pianists have a wide repertoire and a wide variety of styles to choose from, among them traditional classical music, ja ...

s as well as newcomers. The performance locations include classical music halls (such as Konzerthaus Dortmund,

Musiktheater im Revier Musiktheater im Revier (MiR) (Music Theatre in the Ruhr) is the venue for performing opera, operetta, musical theatre and ballet in Gelsenkirchen, Germany. It opened on 15 December 1959; it is listed since 1997 as a protected cultural monument. Th ...

, Gelsenkirchen,

Tonhalle Düsseldorf Tonhalle Düsseldorf is a concert hall in Düsseldorf. It was built by the architect Wilhelm Kreis. The resident orchestra, the ''Düsseldorfer Symphoniker'', play symphonic repertoire at the Tonhalle as well as opera at the Deutsche Oper am Rhei ...

); the castle

Schloss Herten Herten Castle (german: Schloss Herten) is a moated castle situated in the town of Herten in the administrative district of Recklinghausen in the state of North Rhine Westphalia, Germany. It is located within an old English landscape garden and i ...

; several museums (one being the

Westphalian State Museum of Art and Cultural History The Westphalian State Museum of Art and Cultural History (''LWL-Landesmuseum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte'') is an arts and cultural museum in Münster, Germany Besides an extensive collection ranging from '' spätgotik'' painting and sculptur ...

) and parks like the

Landschaftspark Duisburg-Nord Landschaftspark is a public park located in Duisburg- Meiderich, Germany. It was designed in 1991 by Latz + Partner ( Peter Latz), with the intention that it work to heal and understand the industrial past, rather than trying to reject it. The p ...

. Locations include some unconventional venues as well, including the

Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex The Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex (German Zeche Zollverein) is a large former industrial site in the city of Essen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The first coal mine on the premises was founded in 1847, and mining activities took pla ...

World Heritage Site A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...

). Pianists at this festival are newcomers, but also well known artists like Alice Sara Ott,

Elisabeth Leonskaja Elisabeth Leonskaja (born 23 November 1945) (In Russian: Елизавета Ильинична Леонская) is a Soviet and Austrian pianist. She was born to a family of Jewish and Polish extraction living in Tbilisi, then the capital of t ...

Fazıl Say Fazıl Say (; born 14 January 1970 in Ankara) is a Turkish pianist and composer. Life and career Fazıl Say was born in 1970. His father, Ahmet Say was an author and musicologist. His mother, Gürgün Say was a pharmacist. His grandfather Fa ...

Hélène Grimaud Hélène Rose Paule Grimaud (born 7 November 1969) is a French classical pianist and the founder of the Wolf Conservation Center in South Salem, New York. Early life and education Grimaud was born in Aix-en-Provence, France. She described fami ...

Pierre-Laurent Aimard Pierre-Laurent Aimard (born 9 September 1957) is a French pianist. Biography Aimard was born in Lyon, where he entered the conservatory. Later he studied with Yvonne Loriod and with Maria Curcio. In 1973, he was awarded the chamber music pri ...

Plamena Mangova Plamena Mangova (born in Pleven, Bulgaria, 1980) is a classical pianist. Mangova studied with Marina Kapatsinskaya at the State Music Academy in Sofia. She went on to study with Dmitri Bashkirov at the Reina Sofía School of Music in Madrid, and ...

Lang Lang Lang Lang (; born 14 June 1982) is a Chinese pianist who has performed with leading orchestras in China, North America, Europe, and elsewhere. Active since the 1990s, he was the first Chinese pianist to be engaged by the Berlin Philharmonic, ...

. The festival is sponsored by several locally based Industrial companies. Klavierfestival Ruhr organizes around 80 concerts, and has an yearly budget of roughly one million Euro. The festival hosts about 60,000 visitors yearly. The focus of the festival 2018 was French music.

References

External links

german: Homepage of the Klavier-Festivals Ruhr
* David Schraven
''Eine erstaunliche Rechnung beim Klavierfestival Ruhr''
In: ''

Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung The ''Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung'' (''WAZ'') is a commercial newspaper from Essen, Germany, published by Funke Mediengruppe. History and profile ''Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung'' was founded by Erich Brost and first published 3 April ...

'', 23. Juli 2012. * Daniel Drepper
''Das teure Klavierfestival Ruhr''
In: '' WAZ Rechercheblog'', 7. Dezember 2011. {{Music venues in Germany, collapsed Piano competitions Music competitions in Germany Classical music festivals in Germany Music festivals established in 1988