Accolade in Bonn
Piano student Lovre Marušić wins 2nd prize at the Beethoven Competition
A student from Prof Grigory Gruzman's piano class in Weimar celebrated a huge success in December 2023: Lovre Marušić won the €25,000 2nd prize at the 10th International Beethoven Competition in Bonn. He also won the Robert Schumann Prize, endowed with 1,000 euros.
This success is linked to his debut at the Beethovenfest Bonn in 2025 as well as solo recitals at "Junge Stars der Klassik" in Kirchheimbolanden, at the European Academy of Music in Montepulciano (Italy) and in the chamber music hall of the Beethoven-Haus Bonn.
The high-calibre jury for the Beethoven Competition included Konstantin Scherbakov and Arie Vardi, two jurors who have already taught in Weimar several times at the Weimar Master Classes.
A total of 24 participants were invited to take part in the competition, which consisted of three preliminary rounds and a two-part final. In the orchestral final, various piano concertos by Ludwig van Beethoven were performed by the Beethoven Orchestra Bonn under the direction of Dirk Kaftan.
Lovre Marušić would like to complete his concert exam in Prof. Grigory Gruzman's class at the University of Music FRANZ LISZT Weimar on 20 June 2024 with a solo performance with the university orchestra in the Weimarhalle. In keeping with his great success in Bonn, he will perform the Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major op. 58. The young pianist has already performed this concerto with orchestras in Cleveland, Bratislava, Zagreb, St. Petersburg and Belgrade.
Lovre Marušić last attracted attention in 2021 with a 2nd prize at the renowned Cleveland International Piano Competition in the USA. He previously won 1st prize at the 20th Santa Cecilia International Piano Competition in Porto and 1st prize at the IMF International Piano Competition in Paris (both in 2018) as well as 1st prize and the Audience Award at the Isidor Bajić International Piano Competition in Novi Sad (2016).
The Croatian received his first piano lessons from Rozarija Samodol in his home town of Omiš. At the invitation of Russian pianist Natalia Trull, he moved to Moscow in 2006 to attend the Central Music School of the Tchaikovsky Conservatory. He then completed his studies at the Academy of Music in Zagreb in the classes of Ruben Dalibaltayan and Ljubomir Gašparović. He then began his postgraduate studies for the concert exam at the Weimar University of Music.
Lovre Marušić has performed with the Cleveland Orchestra, the Zagreb Philharmonic, the Croatian Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Belgrade Symphony Orchestra, among others. He has performed as a soloist and chamber musician at various festivals and concert series in Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo, Austria, Germany, Portugal, Liechtenstein, Russia, France and the USA.
He has been teaching as an assistant in the piano department at the Academy of Music in Zagreb for five years and is also the artistic director of the international chamber music festival Ostinato in Omiš (Croatia). Lovre Marušić is represented by the artist agency CristoforumArt.
[9 January 2024]