Germans call off September competition

The ARD competition, the classical event with the most television hours, has been called off this year under Covid rules.

It was meant to run from August 31 to September 18.

2019 winner Haruma Sato

“It is now clear that the worldwide Covid-19 pandemic makes it impossible to carry out a sensible, and above all fair competition in the usual manner. Despite extending the application deadline twice already, we have accepted that we cannot stage the competition this year. At this stage in time, it is impossible to gauge whether, at the end of August, the candidates and jury members would be able to travel – and in view of the very nature of this international competition, with competitors from many countries on four continents, this is an absolute prerequisite. When it comes to the organization of this event, the world’s largest classical music competition in 21 alternating categories, there are just too many imponderables,” the competition’s artistic management explained.