Berenberg Culture Prize goes to the pianist Nuron Mukumi

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The Berenberg Bank Foundation has been supporting young artists for 35 years. Well over one million euros went to 175 young artists. The German-Uzbek pianist Nuron Mukumi (Culture Prize) and the Indian artist Prateek Vijan (Art Prize) took center stage at yesterday's award ceremony in the Elbphilharmonie.

"Hamburg companies and private individuals are involved with their foundations in areas where the public sector is unable to help. With the Berenberg Bank Foundation, we have been supporting up-and-coming artists who have a connection to Hamburg for 35 years," explained Dr. Hans-Walter Peters, Chairman of the Foundation's Management Board and Chairman of the Bank's Administrative Board. The list of scholarship holders shows that the artists do not necessarily have to be born in Hamburg. The award winners come from all over the world - but live, work or study in Hamburg.

Peters had a special surprise in store for the guests at the award ceremony: Sebastian Knauer was one of the first scholarship holders of the Berenberg Bank Foundation in 1991. He came on stage as a surprise guest to celebrate the foundation's 35th anniversary and emphasized in a subsequent speech how important it is to support young artists.

The Berenberg Culture Prize was awarded to the German-Uzbek pianist Nuron Mukumi. Mukumi was born in 1996 in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. He began piano lessons at the age of six, followed by training as a conductor a year later. His "departure" from Uzbekistan to Europe was made possible by the video of a concert in which, as an 8-year-old boy, he conducted the National Symphony Orchestra of Uzbekistan in W.A. Mozart's Piano Concerto in D minor and played the piano part at the same time. As a result, he was offered a scholarship to the Purcell School of Music in London, which he accepted at the age of eleven. Three years later, he began his studies as a junior student at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Frankfurt am Main, in 2021 he received his Diplôme Supérieur de Concertiste at the École Normale de Musique de Paris, and since 2022 Mukumi has been studying at the Hochschule für Music and Drama (HfMT) in Hamburg to take his concert exam.

Prateek Vijan received the Berenberg Art Prize. Born in 1991, Vijan studied in New Delhi and at the HFBK Hamburg. He has received several prestigious scholarships, including the working scholarship for fine arts from the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg. His works have mainly been exhibited in Germany, most recently in 2024 at Neue Kunst in Hamburg and in the scholarship holder exhibition at the Falckenberg Collection. It was recently announced that he will be awarded the prestigious Ars Viva Prize of the Kulturkreis der deutschen Wirtschaft in 2026.

The Korean baritone Seungwoo Sun and violinist Eva Wetzel received scholarships. Seungwoo Sun began his training at the Korea National University of Art and is now studying for his concert exam at the HfMT Hamburg. He has already won prizes in several competitions and also performs internationally. Eva Wetzel is now studying for her concert exam at the HfMT Hamburg after completing her master's degree at the elite US university Yale. Her social commitment is reflected in the founding of the Vivaldi Project, an initiative for the musical education of socially disadvantaged children. The Berenberg Bank Foundation supports the Hamburg Ballet's ballet school with a further scholarship in the field of performing arts.

Dr. Hans-Walter Peters thanked the members of the Board of Trustees Katharina Trebitsch (film producer), Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Hermann Rauhe (Honorary President of the HfMT), Prof. Martin Köttering (President of the HFBK) and Prof. Dr. Jan Philipp Sprick (President of the HfMT), who have supported the Foundation's Board of Trustees for many years.