Ingolf Wunder
Ingolf Wunder (born 8 September 1985 in Klagenfurt) is an Austrian classical pianist. Wunder was the second prize winner at the International Chopin Competition 2010 in Warsaw, Poland. He also won special prizes for Best Concerto and Best Polonaise-Fantasie performance at the competition.
Wunder had his first music lesson at the age of four, initially learning the violin. His talent for the piano was discovered years later, and he studied in conservatories in Klagenfurt and Linz before joining the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. A participant in the earlier 2005 International Chopin Piano Competition, Wunder failed to make the last stage. From 2008 to 2010 he studied under Adam Harasiewicz, who was himself the winner of the Chopin Competition in 1955, in preparation for the 2010 International Chopin Piano Competition.
After the Chopin Competition, he has performed around the world, both in solo recital and with symphonies.
In January 2011 he signed as an artist with Deutsche Grammophon. He has released three albums to date.
2010 International Chopin Piano Competition Scandal
Throughout the competition, Wunder was widely believed to be the best competitor as the audience favorite and leader in points. However, in the last stage of the competition, the judges scrapped the points system being used and evaluated the winner solely based on the final round. Although Wunder won the prize for Best Concerto (the final stage), he was not given the gold medal (awarded to Yulianna Avdeeva.) This created outrage among the Warsaw public, proclaiming the events a scandal similar to the Ivo Pogorelich case of the 1980 competition.
Awards
- September 1999 - VI Concorso Internazionale di Musica - Premio Vittoria Caffa Righetti (Cortemilia, Italy) - 1st Prize
- October 1999 - XIV European Music Competition in (Torino, Italy) - the winner of his age group
- November 1999 - 63. Steinway Piano Competition (Hamburg, Germany) - 1st Prize
- March 2000 - Concours Musical de France in (Asti) - 1st Prize
- May 2000 - Prima la musica 2000 Music Competition (Feldkirch, Austria) - 1st Prize
- June 2000 - VI Trofeo Internazionale (Casarza Ligure, Italy) - 1st Prize
- September 2001 - 36. Großer Ferenc Liszt Wettbewerb in (Budapest, Hungary) - Liszt Prize City of Budapest
- October 2010 - International Chopin Competition 2010 in (Warsaw, Poland) - 2nd Prize, The Prize for The Best Performance of The Polonaise-Fantasy op. 61 and The Prize for The Best Performance of a Concerto.
