Luise Bold, a PreCollege student in Prof. Sontraud Speidel’s piano class, won first prize – worth 200 euros (400 euros per duo) – in the Karel Kunc Music Competition in the ‘Piano and String Instrument Duo’ category, Age Group III (13 to 14 years).
Luise Bold, born in 2013, began playing the piano at the age of three. At the age of nine, she was accepted as a young student into Prof. Sontraud Speidel’s piano class at the Karlsruhe University of Music. Her numerous achievements – including, in 2026, first prize at the ‘Jugend Musiziert’ national competition in the solo piano category, at the Johann Sebastian Bach Competition in Köthen, at the Carl Bechstein Piano Competition and at the ‘Kleiner Schumann-Wettbewerb’, as well as at other international competitions in the USA, France, Italy, Romania, Estonia, Hungary, Austria and Germany – bear witness to her great love of music. As a soloist, Luise performed the first movement of Haydn’s Piano Concerto in D major with the Karlsruhe Chamber Orchestra (conducted by Susanne Reiner and featuring her own cadenza). In 2025, she performed Liszt’s Fantasia on Hungarian Folk Melodies (conductor: Matthias Böhringer). In addition, she takes part in projects with Dr Joachim Draheim, as well as in world premiere projects with the composers Uwe Kremp, Anno Schreier, Martin Seith-Böhm and Andreas Kunle. In recognition of her achievements, she was awarded the Gerold-Joachim Encouragement Prize, the Hugo-Neff Memorial Prize from the Hohenwettersbach Music Forum and the Hans-Hachmann Scholarship for 2025/26.