Two piano recitals with Saeyon Chon, who is already well known to us in Hafenpreppach from two visits in previous years (to the biography)
- Saturday, 23 August 2025, 19:30, Schloss Hafenpreppach, piano works by the composers Maurice Ravel, Robert Schumann and Sergei Rachmaninov, which combine under the theme of dance.
- Tuesday, 26 August 2025, 7:30 pm, Hafenpreppach Castle, piano sonatas by Ludwig van Beethoven
Two piano recitals and a duo evening with the winner of second place in the Dublin Music Competition 2025, Young Ho Shin(to the biography), and cellist Paolo Tedesco (to the biography).
- Tuesday, 30 September 2025, 19:30, Schloss Hafenpreppach, piano recital with Young Ho Shin, works by Johann Sebastian Bach (I) and other composers
- Thursday, 2 October 2025, 19:30, Hafenpreppach Castle, piano recital with Young Ho Shin, works by Johann Sebastian Bach (II) and other composers
- Saturday, 4 October 2025, 19:30, Hafenpreppach Castle, duo concert Young Ho Shin and Paolo Tedesco with works for piano and violoncello
Saeyoon Chon, piano
The multiple international award-winning South Korean pianist Saeyoon Chon, winner of the Dublin International Piano Competition 2018 among others, has performed worldwide in renowned concert halls such as the Elbphilharmonie, the Gewandhaus Leipzig and Carnegie Hall. As a sought-after chamber musician, he has performed at festivals such as Verbier, Ravinia and Rockport. He studied at the Juilliard School as well as with Leon Fleisher and other important teachers. Chon has performed with orchestras such as the Cleveland Orchestra and the Seoul Philharmonic. He has been artist-in-residence at Hafenpreppach since 2022 and teaches at NYU in New York.
Young Ho Shin, piano
The 18-year-old pianist Young Ho Shin is one of South Korea’s most promising talents. As the youngest prizewinner in the history of the competition, he won 2nd prize at the Dublin International Piano Competition in 2025. Concert appearances have taken him to Japan, Bulgaria and Ireland, among other places, where he has performed with renowned orchestras and at international festivals. Numerous first prizes and scholarships testify to his extraordinary talent. He will take part in the Aspen Music Festival on a full scholarship in 2025 and will make his debut in Hafenpreppach.
Paolo Tedesco, violoncello
The Italian cellist Paolo Tedesco (born 2001) has won numerous competitions such as the Premio Crescendo and was a finalist at the Leipzig Bach Competition. He has given concerts throughout Europe and in Japan in 2025 and has performed at the Stresa Festival, the Accademia Chigiana and alongside Beatrice Rana and Giovanni Sollima, among others. He studied with Enrico Bronzi, Enrico Dindo and currently with Peter Bruns and Frans Helmerson. His repertoire ranges from Haydn to Gulda. Paolo plays a cello by Nicola Utili (1913) and will make his debut in Hafenpreppach in 2025.
The previous concerts
Julius Asal and Philipp Schupelius performed in Hafenpreppach
We were able to experience a special musical highlight in triplicate in Hafenpreppach from 19 to 22 October 2024. Pianist Julius Asal and cellist Philipp Schupelius gave an impressive performance.
Julius Asal was born in 1997 to a family of musicians in the Taunus region near Frankfurt am Main. He initially learnt his instrument by ear and was already able to improvise when he received his first piano lessons at the age of eight. He developed this talent for free playing during his studies, which he completed in Frankfurt am Main at Dr Hoch’s Conservatory and at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst as well as in Berlin at the Hochschule für Musik “Hanns Eisler”.
In 2021, Asal was selected for the “Sir András Schiff Performance Programme for Young Pianists” at Kronberg Academy. In recent years, he has received decisive impulses from musicians such as Christoph Eschenbach, Kirill Gerstein, Gidon Kremer, Steven Isserlis, Eldar Nebolsin, Menahem Pressler, Antje Weithaas and Tabea Zimmermann. As a finalist in the 2017 International Busoni Piano Competition and winner of the Young Concert Artists European Auditions, he has performed in many major concert halls around the world, including Wigmore Hall in London, Merkin Concert Hall in New York, the Vienna Musikverein and the Laeiszhalle Hamburg.
Deutsche Grammophon has signed Julius Asal under exclusive contract, a “discovery”, according to Klassik HEUTE. He has the ability to release “elemental energies” in his playing and a “phenomenal gift for subtle changes of mood”. Critics and audiences alike are enchanted by the 26-year-old pianist, who is characterised by musical poetry and sensitivity as well as a talent for improvising in a wide variety of styles. Asal also surprises audiences with his original programme design.
www.julius-asal.com
© Copyright: Michael Reinicke
In March 2024, Classic FM voted Philipp Schupelius one of the 30 most exciting young musicians in the world. The award-winning young cellist has already thrilled audiences as a soloist and chamber musician on numerous European stages. He is passionate about special concert formats, themed concerts and combining different art forms into one concert experience. He is currently studying at Kronberg Academy in the class of Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt. His studies are made possible by the Sodalitas patronage.
In August 2023, Philipp Schupelius won the German Music Competition in Bonn. The prize includes a CD recording on the Leipzig label GENUIN. His debut CD recorded at the Beethoven Haus in Bonn: “Pau! A Tribute to Casals” was released in September 2023, in which Philipp Schupelius musically explores the world of ideas of the cellist of the century and peace activist Pablo Casals, the 50th anniversary of whose death will be celebrated in 2023.
Philipp Schupelius was honoured with the “Discovery Award” of the International Classical Music Awards (ICMA) at the age of 17. In October 2022 he received the Boris Pergamenschikow Grant and in the same month the Fanny Mendelssohn Prize. He was also honoured with the First Great Award of the Manhattan Music Competition at the end of 2021 and the Silver Medal of the Eurovision Young Musicians Contest in 2022. He is a multiple first prize winner of Jugend musiziert. In the current season, Philipp Schupelius is a debut artist at the Nikolaisaal, Potsdam.
We were able to experience both artists in a solo concert before they performed works for piano and cello together in an atmospheric setting in the hall of Hafenpreppach Castle in the third concert.
We are delighted to have secured these two exceptional musical talents for their debut in Hafenpreppach in what is still the early stages of what is sure to be a remarkable and great career. A sequel is being planned.
© Copyright Rüdiger Schestag
Great success for the first festival week of music and art in Hafenpreppach
The HIMS Academy offered a total of eight events from 7 to 16 July 2023 as part of a festival week together with the association Musik und Kunst in Hafenpreppach.
The festive week kicked off on 7 July 2023 with a festive four-course meal accompanied by matching wines.
Numerous guests gathered at a long table in the Hafenpreppach castle garden and enjoyed food, drinks and the perfect weather.
The successful evening ended with a campfire and will certainly be repeated soon.
The atmospheric start with the culinary feast in the Hafenpreppach castle garden was followed by five chamber music concerts in the Tambach castle church.
The guests were three young musicians from New York, London and Berlin who have won several international awards and are at the beginning of very successful careers.
As part of the very well-attended first solo concert by our pianist Sae Yoon Chon on 8 July 2023, we were able to welcome a large group of pupils from the Arnold Gymnasium in Neustadt bei Coburg. Immediately after the great concert, there was a cheerful exchange with Sae Yoon Chon, who was happy to fulfil all the children’s and young people’s autograph requests and answer their questions about his career to date.
A beautiful and atmospheric concert event that many will remember.
One of the highlights of the chamber concerts at the end on 15 July 2023 was the interpretation of the piano trios by Maurice Ravel and Johannes Brahms by Mathilde Milwidsky, Irena Josifoska and Sae Yoon Chon. The three joined forces in a moving performance, to which the numerous audience members gave a standing ovation.
from left to right: Irena Josifoska, Mathilde Milwidsky, Sae Yoon Chon
We wish these great young musicians and people all the best for their future careers and look forward to hopefully seeing them again soon in Hafenpreppach or on other major stages in the concert world.
Tilia Quartet returned to Tambach as Quintet
On September 7, the Tilia Quartet performed again, but this time as a quintet, at the invitation of the HIMS Academy in the castle church of Tambach. The program included touching string quintets by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Anton Bruckner. The audience gratefully enjoyed the magnificent performance in this beautiful setting.
At the invitation of the Music and Art Association in Hafenpreppach, several youth players from the HSC 2000 Coburg were also guests at the concert that day. The young people and their seniors were also impressed by the ensemble playing of the musicians, which led to an outstanding musical community experience. In the future, the association will continue to give young people from the region the opportunity to become acquainted with classical music at similar events.
© Copyright: B.Glücksmann
The Tilia Quartet of the Staatskapelle Berlin was invited by the HIMS Academy to perform at the TAO Art Gallery on 14 January 2023 on the occasion of Mumbai Gallery Week. Works by Schubert, Mendelssohn and Mozart were performed in front of an enthusiastic audience and a full house.
The Tilia Quartet on 14 January 2023 in Mumbai
With an attractive program of well-known and popular string quartets by the classics Franz Schubert, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, the Tilia Quartet from Berlin will give its first guest performance in Mumbai on January 14, 2023.
Tilia Quartet Berlin
The Tilia Quartet takes its name from its “ancestral home”, the Staatsoper Unter den Linden (tilia-Linde). Here, four musicians from the Staatskapelle Berlin joined together to form the string quartet:
Eva Römisch, born near Stuttgart, came to Berlin to study violin with Uwe-Martin Haiberg and Ulf Wallin. Even before her concert exam, she became a member of the Staatskapelle in 2002. After attending the Special School of Music in Berlin and the State Conservatory of Music in Bolzano/Italy, violinist Andreas Jentzsch studied in his native city of Berlin with Joachim Scholz and Michael Mücke and was a prize-winner in the “Musica senza frontiere” competition (1995). He has been a member of the Staatskapelle since 2002. Wolfgang Hinzpeter, a native of Hamburg, studied viola in Hanover with Hatto Beyerle and joined the Staatskapelle in 1999 after his first engagement at the Rhine Opera (Duisburg Symphony Orchestra). He has also been a member of the Bayreuth Festival Orchestra since 1998. The Berlin cellist Rebekka Markowski is a student of Heinrich Schiff and studied in Vienna and Zagreb. She won numerous international competitions, was a scholarship holder of the Karajan Academy, among others, and has been deputy principal cellist of the orchestra of the Komische Oper Berlin since 2015.
In addition to regular appearances in the concert series of the Berlin Staatskapelle and the Berlin Philharmonie, the Tilia Quartet has given numerous highly acclaimed concerts in Germany and abroad and has been invited to international festivals. The Deutschlandfunk, for example, stated, “The Tilia Quartet astounds with Verdi’s string quartet…so much fullness and such great subtlety,” the Husumer Nachrichten praised “the excellent playing of the Tilia Quartet,” and the Neue Merker from Vienna stated “it is hardly possible to play in an even purer, fresher, more balanced way!”
Pentecost Sunday, June 5, 2022, 5:00 pm, Schlosskirche Tambach
The internationally acclaimed string quartet of the Staatskapelle Berlin performed works by Joseph Haydn, Leos Janacek and Franz Schubert in a festive concert. We are delighted that the musicians were herewith making up for the concert that was cancelled in March 2020 due to Corona.
String Quartet of the Staatskapelle Berlin – The four string section leaders of the Berlin Staatskapelle achieve a remarkable fusion of the great orchestral tradition and the intimate world of chamber music. Violinists Jiyoon Lee and Krzysztof Specjal, violist Yulia Deyneka, and cellist Claudius Popp first performed together as a quartet in 2017, presenting a series of concerts with the complete Schubert quartets in Berlin’s new Pierre Boulez Saal. The idea to form a permanent string quartet came the Staatskapelle’s musical director Daniel Barenboim.
Tilia Quartet of the Staatskapelle Berlin, September 25, 2021
Schlosskirche Tambach
“The Staatskapelle ensemble gave its second concert at this special venue. The programme included string quartets by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (KV 464 in A major) and Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (D major, op. 44.1). The invitation was issued on Saturday, 25 September 2021, at 6:00 pm, in the Tambach Castle Church. After the wonderful concert, visitors had the opportunity to experience the exhibition “Missing Landscapes” in the west wing of the castle, with the artists present.”
Wind quintet gives concerts in castle church, March 1, 2020
W.A.Mozart, Darius Milhaud, Alexander von Zemlinsky, Astor Piazzolla, Hanns Eisler
Excerpt from the article “Musikalischer Frühlingshauch” (Musical Breeze of Spring)
The wind ensemble of the Staatskapelle Berlin enchanted the audience in Tambach with exquisite works from Mozart to Piazolla.
Tambach – The concerts at the HIMS Academy Hafenpreppach build wonderfully on each other: Last summer there was Mozart and his time, in winter Beethoven’s and Schubert’s epoch, now in the beginning of spring we arrive at the 20s and 30s of the last century. And these selections were not chosen at random, as a connection to the Staatskapelle Berlin can always be established, even if – as in the case of Astor Piazolla, which closed the afternoon – only by the fact that the current chief conductor Daniel Barenboim has a lot to do with Brazil. Yes – and a bit of Mozart was also allowed, which is quite appropriate with the instrumentation of flute (Thomas Beyer), oboe (Gregor Witt), clarinet (Heiner Schindler), horn (Axel Grüner) and bassoon (Mathias Baier).
Tilia Quartet makes music at Tambach Castle, November 30, 2019
The HIMS Academy invites to the pre-Christmas concert on November 30 in the chapel of the castle. The musicians will play works by Felix-Mendelssohn Bartholdy and Ludwig von Beethoven.
Excerpt from the article “Denkgesang und Liebeskummer (Thinking song and heartbreak)
Tambach – The second concert of the HIMS Academy founded in summer 2019 at Hafenpreppach Castle could not take place open air in the cool late autumn. Since the conversion of the Orangery into a concert hall is just entering the final building permit phase, an adequate “replacement” was sought and found in the Tambach Castle Church, which Count zu Ortenburg had made possible. Under the motto “From the salon to the concert hall”, one returned to the castle, so to speak – in contrast to the 18th and 19th centuries, however, with an event for the general public that was not reserved for the nobility alone.
Kick-off with a top orchestra
With a concert by the wind octet of the Staatskapelle Berlin, the HIMS Academy in Hafenpreppach Castle makes its first public appearance as an organizer. The orangery of the baroque castle is to become a chamber music hall. The orangery of the baroque castle is to become a chamber music hall.
Excerpt from the article “Gassenmusik im Schlosshof” (Alley music in the castle courtyard)
“Classic makes happy” promises a new concert series that will make classical music lovers click their tongues. What is happening in this historic setting is unheard of: Hafenpreppach Castle, built around 300 years ago under Prince-Bishop Johann Philipp von Greiffenclau, is experiencing an unexpected renaissance. Last used for decades as a children’s home and then for private purposes, the castle is currently being given back its princely splendour under the two new owners (since 2016), in terms of building fabric, use and courtly culture.
