Impressive Bach Competition winner
Bärenreiter donates special prize in Leipzig

At the grand finale of the Bach Competition 2025 which was held at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig on 21 March, the result was conclusive. By a large majority, the jury awarded 21-year-old Czech Jan Čmejla first prize followed by his compatriot Marek Kozák in second place and Mariamna Sherling (Israel) in third. All three performed the “Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue ” in D minor BWV 903. Subsequently they each played a piano concerto (Schumann, Mendelssohn, Grieg) together with the MDR Symphony Orchestra conducted by Enrico Delamboye.

Jan Čmejla also won the audience prize and received a Bärenreiter Urtext Prize in the form of a generous voucher for sheet music from the publisher. This was for the best interpretations of works by Johann Sebastian Bach, on whose 340th birthday the finale took place.