Laurence Kilsby and Tae Hwan Yun win Heidelberger Frühling Wettbewerb "Das Lied"
1st prize was awarded twice

13,000 viewers watched the livestream

The 24-year-old tenor Laurence Kilsby from England and the 33-year-old tenor Tae Hwan Yun from South Korea are the winners of this year's Heidelberger Frühling Wettbewerb "Das Lied". The 1st prize was awarded twice. The piano partners were Ella O'Neill from England and Dokyung Han from South Korea. Founded by jury chairman Thomas Quasthoff, the song competition for lied is one of the most important in the world and, after a four-year break due to the pandemic, was held this year for the third time in Heidelberg, hosted by Heidelberger Frühling. In addition to prize money of 12,500 euros each, the first prize is associated with several concert appearances at renowned concert organizers and music festivals such as Wigmore Hall, Oxford Lieder or the International Hugo Wolf Academy Stuttgart as well as a professional production in a radio studio, made possible by SWR2.

The 2nd prize was not awarded. The 3rd prize of 7,500 euros went to 33-year-old soprano Alexandra Flood from Australia. Yuhao Guo from Germany was awarded as the best pianist of the competition and with 5 000 Euro prize money (donated by Christa Tonnecker). The Audience Award (donated by the Freundeskreis Heidelberger Frühling e.V.) in the amount of 2,500 euros was awarded to baritone Lars Conrad from Germany. For the first time, voting was not only possible on site, but also via online voting from all over the world. The winners also received various prizes for sheet music, donated by the publisher Schott Music.

131 young singers and pianists from all over the world had applied for participation. After a pre-selection 27 singers and 24 piano partners were admitted. In addition to chairman Thomas Quasthoff, the jury included John Gilhooly (director of London's Wigmore Hall), Richard Stokes (professor of Lieder at the Royal Academy of Music in London), James Taylor (professor of vocal practice at Yale University, USA), soprano Juliane Banse, mezzo-soprano Bernarda Fink, lied pianists James Baillieu and Justus Zeyen, and artist agent Helga Machreich. The competition repertoire included selected songs by Aribert Reimann, Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann and Viktor Ullmann. The competition pianist was Alexander Fleischer.

In addition to the audience in the Old Hall of the Theater Heidelberg, around 13,000 viewers from all over the world have watched the competition livestream so far. All competition entries are still available on the Heidelberger Frühling Liedzentrum YouTube channel.

The biennial Wettbewerb "Das Lied" is a project of the Heidelberger Frühling Liedzentrum, which was founded in 2016 to bundle activities around the Lied and to create a center for inventiveness, excellence and competence in Lied. Former winners include Nikola Hillebrand, Samuel Hasselhorn, Hagar Sharvit and Manuel Walser.