Pianist Nikola Meeuwsen (2002) has won the sixth Concertgebouw Young Talent Award, the concert hall announced last Thursday afternoon. With the Young Talent Award, the Concertgebouw wishes to support Nikola Meeuwsen in his further artistic development. The prize consists of an award and a scholarship of € 5.000,-. Nikola is a student at our School for Young Talent.

Simon Reinink, the managing director of the Concertgebouw: “The aim of the Young Talent Award is to give talented young musicians a chance to break through on the international scene and to perform in major concert halls in Europe and the rest of the world. Nikola Meeuwsen is an exceptionally talented pianist and we are very happy to offer him this incentive and the opportunity to bring his skills to maturity. I am very happy to present the Concertgebouw Young Talent Award to Nikola, because he has the talent, the ambition and the motivation to become one of the best performers in his field.”

Nikola Meeuwsen is one of the outstanding young piano talents in the Netherlands. NRC Handelsblad described him as a talent to watch. He won the Steinway Competition in 2012 and the Royal Concertgebouw Competition in 2014. His favourite pianists are Horowitz, Schnabel, Sofronitsky, Cziffra, Rubinstein, Lipatti, Sokolov, Pogorelich, Volodos and Gould, and it was after hearing Vladimir Horowitz performing Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto that Nikola knew that he wanted to be a pianist.

Nikola’s performance on the television programme Podium Witteman on 13 January 2019.