Bernese piano students on the road to success
Nikita Tonkonogov, Valentin Cotton and Igor Andreev, students of Thomasz Herbut, have won numerous international competitions. Cotton, for example, is a winner of the Schenk Foundation competition and will play Ravel's Piano Concerto in G major with the Argovia Philharmonic on November 23, 2018.
Master's student Nikita Tonkonogov was awarded the special prize for the best interpretation of contemporary music at the 3rd International Piano Competition in Vigo, Spain (March 2018). He also emerged as the winner of the 8th Siegfried Weishaupt International Piano Competition in Germany (August 2018).
Igor Andreev, HKB alumnus and 2017 Tschumi Prize winner, was awarded 3rd prize at the 2nd Brescia Classica International Piano Competition in Brescia (August 2018). At the International Piano Competition Città di Acquaviva delle Fonti (September 2018) he won 2nd prize and the Audience Award (1st prize was not awarded). At the International Piano Competition Città di Verona (September 2018), he was awarded 3rd prize and the prize for the best interpretation of a classical sonata (1st prize was not awarded). And at the final of the 25th edition of the traditional Italian piano competition Rina Sala Gallo in Monza, the jury under the direction of Vladimir Ashkenazy awarded him 1st prize, as well as the audience prize.
