The winner of the 2nd Pianoduo Festival Composition Competition is the 28-year-old Mattias Spee. The jury was impressed by his concept, the jazzy and Stravinsky-like elements, and the excellent pianistic writing. An honorary mention was awarded to the 22-year-old Apollon Kalamenios.
Attention young piano talents! The Pianoduo Festival Amsterdam (PFA) is opening its doors to young talent. Through this Open Call, you can register for the Pianoduo Festival Academy program in 2026.
On Sunday evening, October 19, the 13th edition of the Pianoduo Festival Amsterdam concluded with an impressive performance of Olivier Messiaen's Visions de l'Amen by Ralph van Raat and Håkon Austbø. For four days, the festival presented a varied program based on the theme ‘Groundbreaking!’, with concerts at locations throughout Amsterdam – from De Duif to the Planetarium in Artis, and from nursing homes to the Vondelkerk. In addition to Austbø and van Raat, top musicians such as the Italian twin sisters Dallagnese, jazz pianists Harmen Fraanje & Kitano Hernandez Solano, and Piano Duo Scholtes & Janssens also performed at the festival. The organization looks back on a successful edition with high audience turnout, broad interest, and a growing reach.
The Pianoduo Festival Amsterdam will return in October 2026 with a new edition. The exact dates and theme will be announced in the course of next year.
On Saturday, October 18, the finals of the 4th Piano Duo Festival Competition for amateur duos took place at De Duif. The jury, consisting of pianists Maarten den Hengst, Lestari Scholtes, and Camiel Boomsma, awarded first prize to Joost Jan van Houten and Alim Zulfiqar. “The duo really gave it their all, with a daring program that was also played from memory,” said the jury.
The program for the 13th edition of the Pianoduo Festival Amsterdam has been announced! From October 16 to 19, you can enjoy top-level piano duos at special locations throughout the city—from De Duif to the Artis Planetarium. Enjoy a diverse program featuring classical music, jazz, a family concert, film, a high tea concert, and more. Inspired by the theme ‘Groundbreaking!’, we explore the extremes of music – from Schumann to Messiaen and from new classical Turkish compositions to South American jazz – we travel into space during our DomeConcert in the Planetarium and present a groundbreaking version of Bizet's Carmen.
On Friday 24 May, the preliminary round of the Pianoduo Festival Competition took place at the Amstelkerk. Fifteen amateur piano duos from across the country performed for a live audience and a professional jury, each presenting their own programme on one or two grand pianos. The atmosphere was engaged and attentive, with inspiring performances by musicians of all ages.
At the end of the day, the jury announced the three duos selected for the final round on Friday 18 October:
- Joost-Jan van Houten & Alim Zulfiqar
- Tiwaz Kraan & Tom ten Broecke
- Murat Duman & Bektash van Bruinessen
An encouragement award was also given to:
Olivier & Thymen Hillebrand
The jury consisted of pianist and chamber musician Vera Kooper, pianist and festival organiser Gwylim Janssens, and concert pianist and teacher Camiel Boomsma. They assessed the duos based on ensemble playing, sound balance, and musical interpretation.
The final will take place on Friday 18 October during the Pianoduo Festival Autumn Edition. The selected duos will perform again for the jury and audience. More information about the autumn programme will be available soon.
Are you an amateur pianist and want to shine on stage together with your best piano buddy? Are you looking for a fun, exciting, enjoyable musical challenge? Then the Piano Duo Festival Competition is for you! The 4th edition will take place in 2025. Amateur duos of all ages and levels can then once again show their most musical side on the beautiful stage of the Pianoduo Festival Amsterdam.
Last Sunday, the twelfth edition of the Pianoduo Festival Amsterdam concluded with two unique Lying Listening concerts in De Vondelkerk. During our four festival days, we enjoyed a diverse programme in beautiful locations throughout Amsterdam. The central theme was rhythm within (piano duo) music: with our festival theme ‘We've got rhythm’, we wanted to highlight this oh-so-important aspect. So we listened to a special version of Ravel's Bolero for piano four hands and percussion, gamelan-inspired Balinese songs, Argentinean tangos and new music by composer Thomas Van Dun, who was inspired by classical, minimal music and trance rhythms.
The young up-and-coming duo Morgan & Van Nee will give no fewer than four concerts at the upcoming Piano Duo Festival. You won't see all of these in our calendar, as three of the concerts will be held in nursing homes (Leo Polak Nursing Home in New West and the Elizabeth Otter Knoll House in South) and at the hospital OLVG Oost. In this way, the festival brings music to people who are unable to come to the festival.
After an unforgettable summer full of musical adventures, we are enormously looking forward to the 12th edition of the Pianoduo Festival Amsterdam! From October 17 to 20 you can once again enjoy the most beautiful and varied piano duo music. Ticket sales have started now!
It's a wrap! The eleventh edition of the Pianoduo Festival Amsterdam concluded yesterday with a impressive closing concert in festival center De Duif. Over four days we listened to the extremes in piano duo music as part of the festival theme 'Where opposites meet'.
From now on the full program of the 11th Pianoduo Festival Amsterdam is online! Enjoy four days of the most beautiful, fun and surprising piano duo music in beautiful locations throughout Amsterdam. With our festival theme 'Where opposites meet' we bring our musicians, our audience and different musical styles together in unique concerts. From grand to intimate, from old to brand new. Special attention will be paid to two anniversary years: 150 years of Sergei Rachmaninoff and 100 years of Simeon ten Holt, two composers who have been of great importance for (the repertoire of) piano duo playing, but who are almost diametrically opposed in terms of musical style.
The second Pianoduo Festival Amsterdam Spring Weekend ended in style with the Scholtes & Janssens Piano Duo playing the enchanting Canto Ostinato.
We thank all the wonderful musicians, the venues, our partners, sponsors, Ambassadors, Friends and volunteers for an unforgettable Spring Weekend!
December 7 is the start of the 11th edition of our festival, keep an eye on our socials for a very special program this winter!
Saturday, May 27 at 4 p.m. - CEC Amsterdam
Father and son Rob & Sebastiaan van Bavel, both Edison Award winners, join forces for a four-handed jazz concert. After their enthusiastically received concert at the 2016 festival, they return with a concert, improvising on classical music. Ravel becomes improvisation and Fauré swings off the piano!
Saturday, May 27 at 8:30 p.m. - Oosterparkkerk
Classical highlights on fortepiano! Guy Maori and Maurits Koelmans graduated with glory from the Conservatory of Amsterdam last year. Their specialization: historical instruments. On this evening, the duo will play Johann Christian Bach, Mozart and Beethoven. DO you want to know what Beethoven's first symphony sounds like on a historical fortepiano? Then come hear this virtuoso duo on this evening!
Sunday, May 28 at 16:00 - DOOR Open Space
In honor of his 100th birthday, the Scholtes & Janssens Piano Duo will play Simeon ten Holt's enchanting and meditative Canto Ostinato. Dream away to this beautiful music at DOOR Open Space in Amsterdam Noord and enjoy a drink before and after on one of the first summer evenings of the year. Tickets are available here.
Composer Niels van der Weiden (1990, photo) was unanimously declared winner of the 1st Pianoduo Festival Composition Competition last month.
The competition took place in the first half of 2022. Young composers up to the age of 35 could submit a composition sketch for a new work for piano four hands or two pianos. In early August, the jury, consisting of composer Peter-Jan Wagemans, pianist and contemporary music specialist Geoffrey Madge, Gaudeamus programmer Jonás Bisquert and Piano Duo Scholtes & Janssens, met. The jury was surprised by the many entries and the high level.
From 13 to 15 May, the first Pianoduo Festival Spring Weekend took place. At no less than four special locations throughout Amsterdam, our audience could enjoy concerts and workshops.
On Saturday 14 May, three special amateur duos will take part in the piano duo workshop. Read more about the programme below!
It is no secret that playing piano duo can be a great challenge. Breathing together, phrasing together, becoming one and yet remaining yourself - how do you do that? During this workshop Lestari Scholtes and Gwylim Janssens, also known as Pianoduo Scholtes & Janssens, will give you tips and tricks on how you and your duo partner can take your duo playing to the next level. This workshop gives your duo playing a boost!
On Sunday 12 December at 16:15 hrs, the last notes of the Pianoduo Festival Amsterdam 2021 sounded, played by Duo Amal in the Concertgebouw. Immediately afterwards, we hurried to De Hallen Studio's for the live broadcast of the television show Podium Witteman. We did not only bring Duo Amal, but also the two 11-year-olds Sofia Tsinman and Ziyu Shao, who could be heard during one of the 'Piano Duos of Tomorrow' concerts in De Duif.
The festival will continue in modified form. The concerts will take place during the day. Some concerts will also be broadcast online in the evening. The full program can be found here. Ticket buyers will be informed as soon as possible about the changes and possibilities for refunds. The festival adheres to the rules set by the government around covid, so that it remains as safe as possible for everyone. The 1.5 meter rule will be implemented at all venues.
The 9th Pianoduo Festival Amsterdam is about to start! From 8 to 12 December we will spread our wings through Amsterdam: you can enjoy many concerts with (inter)national top duos. Ticket sales are online now! Visit our program page and get your tickets!
Now that (cultural) life is opening up again, we can also confirm the dates of the 9th Pianoduo Festival Amsterdam: put December 8-12 already in your agenda, as you'll be enjoying the best, most special and inspiring piano duos from all over the world. We can already reveal that there will be many young talents as well as internationally established duos performing, that we will also be present in other parts of the city than only the city center of Amsterdam, and that we will be offering an exciting fringe program in addition to a wide variety of concerts. Enough reasons to look forward to December!
Turn on your television on Sunday evening, February 7, because Alexander and Christopher Hartsink, the winners of the 2nd Pianoduo Festival Competition, will be guests of Podium Witteman! The young duo (11 and 13 years old) will play a movement from Debussy's Petite Suite in Witteman's 'Young Heroes' section. Enjoy from 6:15 PM on NPO 2!
Join us on Sunday 13 December at the Kazerne Reigersbos, the new cultural hotspot of Amsterdam Zuidoost. During this Pianoduo Festival Pop-up concert, the Scholtes & Janssens Piano Duo will play their favourite duo works and illustrate them with personal stories. Order your tickets quickly on our program page, because there are only 30 available!
After the thrilling finals of the Pianoduo Festival Competition, the jury has declared the piano duo Alexander en Christopher Hartsink as winner. They have won a performance during Pianoduo Festival Amsterdam 2021 and a masterclass from the famous Scholtes & Janssens Pianoduo. The jury praised the duo’s excellence and called them “a promising duo”. The duos Charlotte & Josephine de Loe, Eduardo Paredes Crespo & Murat Duman, en Joost Jan van Houten & Jurriaan Bos won the second, second and third prize respectively.
The Pianoduo Festival Amsterdam thanks all piano duos for their participation in the competition and congratulates the winners! The next edition of the Pianoduo Festival Competition will be held in 2022. Keep an eye out on our channels for more information.
This morning, seven amateur piano duos performed in the preliminary round of the Pianoduo Festival Competition. The jury, consisting of Thomas Beijer, Mariana Izman and Gwylim Janssens, just announced the finalists.
This afternoon at 15:15 the following duos will compete in the finals: Joost Jan van Houten & Jurriaan Bos, Charlotte & Josephine de Loe, Alexander Hartsink & Christopher Hartsink en Eduardo Paredes Crespo & Murat Duman. We wish the duos good luck!
Enjoy the Pianoduo Festival Amsterdam from home! Watch the live streams on our website and YouTube from 2 to 4 December at 8:30 PM. With Peter Beets & Cor Bakker, Pianoduo Scholtes & Janssens, the Intercontinental Ensemble and winners of the Princess Christina Jazz Competition. More information about our streams can be found here.
The Pianoduo Festival Amsterdam is supported by the Amsterdam Fund for the Arts, Sena, the Amarte Fund and the Gravin van Bylandt Foundation. We thank these funds for their support and trust!
Additional tickets are now available for the Beth & Flo family concert on December 6th! The concert at 2:30 pm is sold out, but Sinterklaas will come along once more at 12:00 pm. Do not miss this opportunity and buy your tickets quickly.
Dear piano duo enthusiast,
Organizing a festival in times of corona seems impossible. Protocols, one-and-a-half meter distance, constantly changing government measures, the health of our musicians, crew and the audience; all factors that we have been assessing in recent months. Besides the regular organizational and artistic challenges that come with the festival, of course. Whether or not Pianoduo Festival Amsterdam in 2020?
Yes, it is a festival!
In these difficult times of COVID-19 and the lockdown, and the 8th Pianoduo Festival Amsterdam still far away, we would like to look back at the last festival. Read the summary of the 7th PFA, which took place from 9 to 13 October 2019 here (in Dutch).
On Saturday morning and afternoon December 5, the 2nd Piano Duo Festival Competition for non-professional piano duos will take place. After a successful edition in 2018, in which the sisters Charlotte and Josefine de Loe were the celebrated winners, piano duos of all ages and levels can once again show their most musical side on the beautiful stage of De Duif on the Prinsengracht in Amsterdam.
Pianoduo Festival Amsterdam presents the 1st Pianoduo Festival Composition Competition! During the festive kick-off, artistic leaders Lestari Scholtes and Gwylim Janssens presented the rules, jury members and prizes. The competition
is a co-production with Gaudeamus.
On Thursday the 10th of October, the Wiener Kammersymphonie will open the Pianoduo Festival Amsterdam together with the Scholtes & Janssens Piano Duo. Together with Sergio Mastro, cellist and artistic director of the string quintet, we look ahead on the seventh edition of the Festival in which all roads lead to Bach.
Geoffrey Madge and Daan Vandewalle will pay a tribute to Bach during the concert “Old & New: Modern Masters” on the 12th of October. We spoke with the pianists about Bach and his influence on the music of subsequent composers.
The Pianoduo Festival Amsterdam will take place for the 7th time from 9 to 13 October. Five days full of concerts, lectures, workshops, Q&As, club nights and more. Imagine yourself in the world of twenty fingers on one and two pianos with the best piano duos from The Netherlands and abroad! View the full program here.
Dream away on the meditative sounds of Simeon ten Holt. On Saturday 12 October you will hear the Rondane Quartet playing the beautiful Canto Ostinato on not one, not two, but no fewer than four concert grand pianos. During this lounge concert of the Pianoduo Festival Amsterdam, De Duif will be transformed into a dreamy world, full of beautiful, atmospheric lighting and the most beautiful music by Ten Holt. Order your tickets here.
Balance, clarity in ensemble playing, phrasing, playing together, posture and pedal use: all aspects of the piano duo play will be addressed during this workshop. Four selected piano duos receive a lesson from the Scholtes & Janssens Piano Duo. Do you dare to attend a public workshop to get to know the intricacies of playing piano duo? Then sign up now!
After a nice preliminary round and an exciting final, the winners of the 1st Pianoduo Festival Competition were announced on Wednesday evening 10 October.
The Czech piano duo Kamil El-Ahmadieh (24) and John (Pham) Hoang Anh (21) will enter the stage of the Pianoduo Festival Amsterdam on the 13th of October, during a concert with the promising title ‘European super talent’. “This festival is something big”, according to the two friends. “We feel honored that we can be a part of it.”
Karin Lechner and Sergio Tiempo will play during the closing concert of the Pianoduo Festival Amsterdam 2018 on Sunday the 14th of October. “Playing as a piano duo is so much fun that we didn’t want to miss this opportunity”, the two agree. Looking ahead to the closing concert, the pianists tell about their Argentinian roots, the tango, and about the universal language of music.
Argentinian tango
Brother and sister Sergio and Karin were raised in a real pianist family, tells Karin. “Our grandparents played as a piano duo and our mother was a piano teacher. It was her idea that we could play as a piano duo. Ever since the first moment we played together, this has felt very natural for us.”
Nowadays, the Argentinian tango plays an important role in the repertoire of Lechner and Tiempo. “When we started playing tangos, we had mixed feelings about it. As Argentinians, we felt a natural attraction towards the genre, but at the same time we felt some distance. We were raised among a lot of musical genres and tango was one of them, but it was not our ‘mother tongue’ of the musical genres. At home we mainly heard classical music”, says Sergio.
Karin continues: “That was the main reason for us to study with Pablo Ziegler in Buenos Aires, the pianist of Ástor Piazolla. That was very insightful; his ideas about the tango rhythm and the overall tango feeling have changed our view and way of playing a lot.”
“Initially, for us tango was unthinkable without a bandoneon and percussion”, says Sergio. “When we started to discover the genre, we didn’t want to set this original instrumentation apart. We just did it because we eagerly wanted to play the genre ourselves. To our surprise, it worked out very well on two pianos.”
Music as universal language
The two pianists are convinced that their Argentinian roots play an important role in their feeling towards the tango. Nevertheless, you don’t have to be Argentinian to master the genre, thinks Sergio. “In Finland, for example, there is a very rich tango culture. There are Finish musicians that can play the genre a lot better than many Argentinians. Music is a universal language that allows many accents and dialects. Eventually, human emotions are leading in music, regardless the genre. These emotions are universal. I think that’s what makes music so powerful.”
“The secret is not to be distracted by the title or background of a piece of music”, he continues. “Music is abstract, it contains images and moods that gives the audience the opportunity to create its own reality. Our personal story is probably also intertwined with our music: it’s the story of our rehearsals, our conversations and the fun we have together. During a performance, all these emotions come together in the music on a subconscious level. This creates some sort of magic that is noticeable for everyone.” Karin summarizes: “We can transform all music into a fairytale”.
The registration is closed, and the tension slowly starts to rise: no less than 9 passionate piano duos enter the stage of the 1st Piano Duo Festival Competition. In the first round, at 5 PM, they try to convince the expert jury of their piano duo play. A maximum of four duos will be pass to the final, which takes place in the evening at 8 PM. Read below who all participants are.
Between concert preparations and a busy teaching schedule, the Polish piano-accordion duo Julia Wolanska-Gajda (29) and Michal Gajda (31) tell us about music, ambitions and how they formed a duo.
Michal tells: “We met when we were both playing in an music ensemble at a theater play. It was in our fifth year of our studies at the Poznan Academy of Music and we had to spent a lot of time together backstage in the theater between the performances. We started talking and found out that we were actually studying together, in the same year, in the same academy, and never spoke to each other before. From there…” “it was really magical,” adds Julia.
The Pianoduo Festival Concours proudly presents its expert jury: Bart van de Roer (pianist, professor of piano at Codarts Conservatory, Storioni Festival), Gwylim Janssens (pianist, Scholtes & Janssens Piano Duo, Pianoduo Festival Amsterdam), Lestari Scholtes (pianist, Grachtenfestival, Vrienden van de Kamermuziek) and Marcel Baudet (pianist, Young Pianist Foundation, Menuhin School of Music)
On Wednesday 10 October the Pianoduo Festival Competition for amateur duos and conservatory students will be held for the first time in De Duif in Amsterdam. Apply now!
Fall will be cheerful for the piano duo Zilan & Zhao, comprising Zilan Liang and Zhao Lei: not only because they are a part of the first lustrum of the Pianoduo Festival Amsterdam, but mainly because they are the first piano duo that graduates the master’s program piano duo at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Graz. “That feels very special,” says Zilan proudly.
Friday 13 October 2017 is a lucky day for the connoisseur of American classical music: the Maltese-Belgian piano duo Gabi Sultana and Mirek Coutigny plays a fully American program in which they program well-known masters such as Cage and Adams alongside unknown composers such as Rzewski and Bolcom. How did they discover their love for contemporary classical music, how do they experience performing it and what do they discover in the works of Cage and Feldman?
With events at no less than four locations, the Pianoduo Festival Amsterdam spreads across the city center of Amsterdam in October for the fifth time, like a festive, musical, purple spot. During the busy preparations ahead of the festival, we spoke to the artistic directors Lestari Scholtes and Gwylim Janssens about the success of the festival.
In 2015, Sivan Silver and Gil Garburg were the festival's guests for the first time at the Pianoduo Festival Amsterdam. The reactions from the audience and fellow musicians were overwhelming: Silver and Garburg recognized as one of the most special duos in the world. During the festival's fifth anniversary edition in October, the Israeli duo will again be performing at the festival.