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Heida Hermanns International Music Competition

The Heida at MoCA\CT

The Annual Heida Hermanns Piano Competition

The Legacy of Heida Hermanns

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Heida Hermanns, founder of the Connecticut Alliance for Music, Inc. (CAM), was a pianist, teacher, and philanthropist. Born in Wiesbaden, Germany, in 1906, she received her first piano lessons from her mother. At the age of 15, she enrolled at the Berlin Hochschule für Musik. Her teachers included Egon Petri, Artur Schnabel, Carl Friedberg, and Isabella Vengerova. She made her debut with the Berlin Philharmonic at age 18 and toured Europe as a recitalist and concerto soloist throughout the 1920s and early 1930s. Hermanns established the Heida Hermanns Young Performers Competition (now the Heida Hermanns International Music Competition) in 1972.

Previous Heida Winners

2025 Winner

Ye-Eun Hyun is an emerging artist poised for wider recognition. In a rare outcome at the 2025 competition, she and Zhu Wang shared the $20,000 grand prize, only the second shared first prize in 54 years. Originally from South Korea, she began piano at age five and won the TBC Broadcasting Piano Competition.

2024 Winner

Carter Johnson is in the midst of a significant international breakthrough. He was a finalist in the 2025 Van Cliburn Competition—the first Canadian to do so—won first prize at the 2025 Dublin Competition, and took silver at the 2024 Gina Bachauer Competition. Signed to Concert Artists Guild, he is known for his stage presence.

2023 Winner

Artem Kuznetsov continues to build a distinguished and active international career. His achievements include top prizes at the Santa Cecilia Competition in Porto, the Blanca Uribe Competition in Colombia, and the Roma International Piano Competition. He performs globally and released an album in 2024 on KNS Classical.

Our Sponsors

We sincerely thank The Joyce Thompson Art Fundfor its generous support of our music program.

Our generous Sponsors include

The Artur and Heida Hermanns Holde Foundation + Suzanne and Norman Sorensen + The Beechwood Arts and Innovation / The Hive +
The Lundberg Family Foundation + Kristin Foster + Dogan and Laura Perese + Conlon Amendola, Attorneys at Law + Leifer Properties + Anneruth Serman + The Walton Family + Ed Webb Design + Gold Sound Media

Our performing arts PARTNERS include:

Gold Sound Media + Ed Webb Design

MoCA\CT appreciates the generous support of the competition’s sponsors: Beechwood Arts & Innovation/The HIVE, Conlon Amendola PLLC, Design Within Reach, Kristin Foster, Honda of Westport, Lance Lundberg and Terry McGuiness, Laura Nuter, Dogan and Laura Perese, Gary Rozal, The Russell Agency, Anneruth Serman, Norman and Suzanne Sorensen, The Arthur and Heida Hermanns Holde Foundation, The Joyce Thompson Art Fund, and The Walton Family.