It is a spring festival of piano music like no other: Every year at the Ruhr Piano Festival, the best pianists and the most promising up-and-coming artists showcase their skills on the grand piano. Since it was founded at the end of the 1980s, the event in the Ruhr metropolis has developed into the most important piano festival in the world.
Those who have thrilled the audience here are sure to return. International regulars at the Ruhr Piano Festival include stars such as the Argentinian Martha Argerich and Hélène Grimaud from France. Daniel Barenboim and Pierre-Laurent Aimard also like to sit down at the piano here.
Varied venues with great acoustics
There is a good chance that you will find your favorite pianist among the illustrious crowd of guests at the Ruhr Piano Festival. Up to 80 concerts are on the program every year.
But even if the piano is the main instrument at the music festival, it is not the only one: trumpeters such as Till Brönner, flautists such as Emmanuel Pahud, violinists such as Anne-Sophie Mutter and entire orchestras also perform as part of the event, which lasts several weeks.
The venues are as diverse as the region: former industrial sites such as the Zollverein World Heritage Site in Essen, small halls in the moated castle of Schloss Herten or Schloss Hohenlimburg in Hagen as well as large venues such as the Konzerthaus Dortmund with its masterful acoustics invite you to a concert.
The festival does not adhere strictly to the geographical boundaries of the Ruhr region, but also makes guest appearances in Wuppertal, Düsseldorf or Rheda-Wiedenbrück.
