GERMANY AND CHINA - Around the world in three weeks

January got me started with a whirlwind of activities. The 2025 edition of our Chamber Music Festival Kaufbeuren topped all of my expectations. We are now in our 18th year with 40 participants and growing.

There were so many wonderful and inspiring moments, from brilliant performances, to fun faculty concerts, to the many lovely teaching moments. I can’t wait for next year, when our performers return to Kaufbeuren.

The festival is best suited for teenagers with a strong focus on piano and an interest in pursuing a music career, but simply watching the sessions is also fun and quite popular. Let me know if you’d like to join us.

Above a few impressions from a faculty trio performance (top left), fun photos with our participants (top right and bottom left), and our new music concert with faculty and participants (bottom right).

Travels to the 2025 Macao Piano Competition allowed only for a brief window stateside to regroup, pack and head out to Hong Kong International Airport. From there, I took a bus to Macao over the world’s longest bridge over a waterway. It is quite a beautiful journey, sometimes the bus even going underground.

The Macao Piano Competition is such a well-run organization with competitions, lectures, solo recitals, and music activities. 800+ participants mostly from mainland China worked with 16 faculty from all over the world. What an amazing time of inspiration and of new impressions.

This is my solo concert (above) and the group photo of faculty and staff (below top left), a performance review session with the participants (top right), the CD signing (bottom left), and a group photo with the audience after the concert (bottom right).

Tallying up the miles of my January travels, I flew as much as once around the world in 3 weeks!