Prof. Ingo Dannhorn

"It was as if my father, Wilhelm Kempff, had sat there and played" (M. Frfr. v. Künßberg).

Ingo Dannhorn has performed in the most famous music centres and concert halls, such as the Herkulessaal in Munich, the great Musikvereinssaal in Vienna, the Seoul Arts Center, the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, in Brasilia, Recife, Shanghai, Venice, Sydney, Berlin, Chongquin, Santiago de Chile. He worked with Kurt Eichhorn, Dennis Russel Davies conducted his debut in Vienna, Kurt Masur bowed to his musical laudation. Numerous recitals and chamber music concerts with Francisco Araiza, Kieth Engen, Jose Cura, Christian Altenburger and Maxim Vengerov add to Ingo Dannhorn's musical vita. The broad spectrum of his activities is documented in productions, concert recordings and recordings.

Gerhard Oppitz counts him among the "most remarkable pianists of his generation, with fabulous manual skills and an ideal combination of intelligence and distinct sensitivity for tonal valeurs."

Winner of the prestigious Beethoven Competition in Vienna, the Sydney International Piano Competition and the international piano competitions in Salzburg, Vienna, Senigallia and Ettlingen, Ingo Dannhorn began to perform worldwide at an early age.

"Magical moments of pianistic artistry, an artist and musician I have to cheer for" - said the international daily newspaper The Australian in a report on a recital in Sydney. "My friends, the pianists, form a curious bunch" says the music and cultural critic legend Klaus Geitel in Die Welt. It is virtually tantamount to a musical accolade when he takes notice of an artist. "Listening most sensitively to the sound, the inner content" he says of the pianist Ingo Dannhorn. He shines with the greatest sensitivity and perfect artistic craftsmanship. "Ingo Dannhorn beats his private way through the repertoire with the greatest sensitivity," says Geitel. "Worthy of the highest attention" is how he describes him and places him in a row with Markus Groh, Lars Vogt, Arthur Rubinstein, Vladimir Horowitz, Jorge Bolet and Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli.

In addition to his concert activities, Ingo Dannhorn gives masterclasses worldwide. From 2016 to 2020, he was a visiting professor at the elite Korean university Yonsei in Seoul. In addition to his own piano class, he led the weekly masterclasses for the entire bachelor's programme in piano there and was artistic supervisor for the DMA programme and doctoral studies. In 2019, he was honoured with the Yonsei University President's Award for Teaching Excellence.

Previously, he taught as a professor of piano at Sungshin University in Seoul, as well as at the universities in Munich, Augsburg, Bremen and at the Wiesbaden Music Academy. His students have won prizes at national and international competitions.

Ingo Dannhorn received piano lessons at an early age before he was discovered by Anton Czjzek, the long-time pupil of the legendary pedagogue Bruno Seidlhofer, and immediately accepted into his highly gifted class at the Salzburg Mozarteum. He gave his first public solo piano recital at the age of twelve. He graduated unanimously "with distinction" from the Hochschule für Musik in Munich with Margarita Höhenrieder, followed by master classes and advanced studies with Gerhard Oppitz, Noël Flores and Gitti Pirner. He draws deeper inspiration from numerous master classes with Bruno Leonardo Gelber, Peter Lang, Tatjana Nikolajewa, Dieter Zechlin, Jacob Lateiner, Elza Kolodin, Karl-Heinz Kämmerling, Aquiles Delle-Vigne and Rudolf Kehrer, among others.

Ingo Dannhorn is the artistic director of the Wilhelm Kempff Festival, which focuses on the legendary Beethoven interpreter Kempff, his piano artistry and his sound aesthetics and aims to combine traditional interpretive art at the highest level with new forms of performance practice involving modern media.

In 2021, Ingo Dannhorn has accepted a professorship for piano at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik in Trossingen.