Confirmation for HfMT piano classes

The content on this page was translated automatically.

At the beginning of the year, a positive look back at 2025: Last year, the students and graduates of the HfMT piano classes were awarded the following positions as part of a selection process:
Michelle Candotti (class of Prof. H. Rutkowski), professorship at the Conservatorio di Musica Arrigo Boito in Parma (Italy), Daria Parkhomenko (class of Prof. S. Simonian), lecturer at the Akademie für Tonkunst Darmstadt and a position at the Staatliche Jugendmusikschule Hamburg, Joanna Sielicka (class of Prof. H. Rutkowski), position at the Hamburg State Youth Music School and Andrey Denisenko (class of Prof. A. Vinnitskaya), position at the State Youth Music School Hamburg.

Vitae

Michelle Candotti obtained her piano diploma at the age of 14 with top marks at the "Dell'Abaco" Conservatory in Verona. She also obtained the Master in Performance Artist Diploma with distinction at the Royal College of Music with Prof. D. Alexeev and the "Master" diploma at the Imola Academy with Prof. Pace. She is currently studying under Prof. C. Palese and attending the concert exam course at the Hamburg University of Music and Drama with Prof. Rutkowski. At the age of only 17 she was a solo finalist at the 59th International Piano Competition "Ferruccio Busoni". She was recently a semi-finalist at the prestigious 18th International Chopin Competition in Warsaw. Her awards include 2nd prize at the 11th German Piano Prize in Frankfurt, 2nd prize at the 34th "Ettore Pozzoli" competition and 3rd prize and the audience prize at the XVII "Grand Prix Animato" in Paris. She was also a prizewinner at the 5th Maj Lind Piano Competition in Helsinki and won 2nd prize at the 2024 International Piano Competition in Verona. She was awarded the "Premio Crescendo" and the "Premio fORTissimo" in Florence, among others, and has performed with renowned orchestras including the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra della Toscana (ORT), the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra, the Philharmonia Frankfurt, the Bacau Philharmonic Orchestra, the Grosseto Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestra of the Goldoni Foundation.

Daria Parkhomenko is considered one of the most promising talents of her generation. With her expressive playing, fascinating warmth of sound and magnetically attractive power, Daria enchants audiences all over the world. "Leading Lady" was the headline in the press after she won the George Enescu Piano Competition in Bucharest in 2018.
The young pianist is a multiple prizewinner at numerous international piano competitions, and her numerous successes have brought her to the world stage in Europe, Asia and the USA, both as a soloist and as a chamber musician. Since 2019, Daria has been performing in the ballet production "Glasmenagerie" by John Neumeier at the Hamburg State Opera.
2025 Daria Parkhomenko completed her concert exam at the HfMT Hamburg with Prof. Stepan Simonian with distinction. She has also taken part in masterclasses with Alfred Brendel, Philippe Entremont, Severin von Eckardstein, Elisso Wirsaladse, Anna Vinnitskaja, Michel Beroff and Elisabeth Leonskaja, among others.
In 2022, she released her debut album with piano works by George Enescu, which received excellent reviews and was nominated for the Opus Klassik and the German Record Critics' Award in 2023.

Joanna Sielicka was born in Krakow in 1999. She began her
piano studies at the age of ten with Hannes Sonntag at the Westphalian School of Music and continued
as a junior student at the Münster University of Music. In 2023 she completed her bachelor's degree in piano with Prof. Hubert Rutkowski with top marks
and is currently completing her
master's degree at the Hamburg University of Music and Drama.
Joanna is a multiple prizewinner of international competitions, both as a soloist and
in chamber music. For her artistic commitment and the versatility of
historical to modern instruments, she was awarded the prestigious Usedom
Music Prize 2024 by the Oscar Vera Ritter Foundation. As her curiosity extends beyond
the concert hall, she recently made her debut as the lead actress in the
short film "But I never asked", which celebrated its world premiere at the Tallinn
Black Nights Film Festival in November 2025.
In addition to her artistic activities, Joanna has also established herself as a sought-after
piano teacher. Since the winter semester 2025/2026, she has enjoyed a teaching position as part of the EUCREA ART-Plus program at the Hamburg University of Music and Drama.

Andrey Denisenko was born in 1992 in Rostov-on-Don, Russia. He grew up in a
musical family and began playing the piano at a young age. Anna Vinnitskaya and Sergei Osipenko are among
his most important teachers.
During his studies with Sergei Osipenko at the Rachmaninov Conservatory in
Rostov, Denisenko won numerous prizes at international competitions,
including the Pavel Serebryakov International Piano Competition (Volgograd,
Russia, 2010), "A Step Towards Mastery" (Saint Petersburg, Russia, 2011) and the
Stanislav Neuhaus International Piano Competition (Chelyabinsk, Russia, 2016).
In 2017, he continued his studies in the class of Prof. Anna Vinnitskaya at the Hamburg University of Music and Drama
. In 2018, he won third prize at the
European Piano Competition Bremen as well as first prize at the
Elise Meyer Foundation competition and the Steinway Prize for Classical Music.
Denisenko regularly performs in renowned concert halls, including the
Konzerthalle Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach in Frankfurt (Oder), the Laeiszhalle, the
Elbphilharmonie Hamburg and the Philharmonie Berlin. His debut CD "Per aspera ad astra" with works by Bach, Brahms and Schumann
was released by GENUIN Classics in 2024. In 2025, Andrey Denisenko completed his concert exam at the Hamburg University of Music and Drama with Anna Vinnitskaya with distinction.